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How is the law of large numbers different from the gambler's fallacy?

The law of large numbers states that the average of many trials converges to the expected value, but it does not imply that future trials will compensate for past deviations. The gambler's fallacy is the mistaken belief that if early trials deviate from the mean, later trials must produce opposite outcomes to 'balance out' the average immediately.

Conditions

  • The speaker is contrasting a common intuition with the actual meaning of the theorem.
  • Trials are independent.

Reasoning, step by step

  1. Identify the LLN claim: X‾n→E(X)\overline{X}_n \to E(X) as n→∞n \to \infty.
  2. Identify the Gambler's Fallacy claim: Future outcomes must reverse past deviations.
  3. Recognize that LLN relies on the dilution of past errors by infinite future data, not on forced correction of individual outcomes.
  4. Conclude that probabilities remain constant regardless of history.

Example

The speaker says many people think that if after 100 trials they are above the average, the laws of probability will give more or fewer heads to make up the difference, and identifies this as the gambler's fallacy.

Common misconceptions

  • Believing that a streak of heads makes tails more likely to bring the average down.
  • Thinking that the LLN guarantees short-term balance.

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