Insensitivity to sample size

Biological Parallel

Small bird populations on isolated islands exhibit wild trait fluctuations—bright plumage or dull—due to genetic drift, not selection. Darwin's finches on tiny islets show extreme beak sizes that disappear in large populations where statistics stabilize. Animals evolved no intuitive grasp of sample size because most ancestral social groups (15-150 individuals) fell in the 'small N' zone where noise dominates. This produces dangerous insensitivity: companies extrapolate from pilot customers (N=10) to market potential, VCs fund after 3 successful deals create an illusory pattern, hospitals compare surgical outcomes across 50 vs 5,000 procedures without statistical adjustment.