law of averages
Noun
Meaning
a law affirming that in the long run probabilities will determine performance
Source: WordNetSynonyms
Antonyms
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Examples
An onlooker might apply the law of averages to conclude that on its next spin it must (or at least is much more likely to) land on black.
Booth wrote it was more likely that the "hits" were the result of "coincidence, law of averages, subconscious expectancy, logical inference or a plain lucky guess."
Expectation values Another application of the law of averages is a belief that a sample's behaviour must line up with the expected value based on population statistics.
The law of averages is a layman's term for a belief that the statistical distribution of outcomes among members of a small sample must reflect the distribution of outcomes across the population as a whole.
While there is a real theorem that a random variable will reflect its underlying probability over a very large sample, the law of averages typically assumes that unnatural short-term "balance" must occur.