The Recency Effect

The Recency Effect is a fallacy that occurs when we think something is conclusive only because it's consistent with recent events. I suppose you could call it drawing the most obvious conclusion. However, there's usually more going on in the world than what recent events would suggest. North Korea was blamed for the cyber-attack on Sony last November because they'd just been the topic of a derogatory film and they had committed similar attacks in the  past. So, who else could it be, right? Cyber-security experts found it was more likely a former employee with a grudge.  Only by then, media reports had already blamed North Korea. This fallacy is so persistent that President Obama is still convinced that North Korea was behind the attack. He has pledged a full "proportional" response.