When someone believes they will have good fortune because of a specific astrological reading just before they win a lottery, what fallacy are they employing?

The situation describes a classic example of the Post Hoc fallacy, which is short for "post hoc, ergo propter hoc," meaning "after this, therefore because of this." This reasoning errors occur when one assumes that because one event followed another, the first event must have caused the second. In this case, the individual believes that their good fortune in winning the lottery is directly attributed to a specific astrological reading that took place just before the win.

This line of thinking fails to recognize that the lottery outcome is random and not influenced by their astrological prediction. Instead of examining any legitimate causal relationship, the individual draws a conclusion based solely on the sequence of events, thus illustrating the essence of the Post Hoc fallacy. By associating their belief in astrology with the lottery win, they overlook other factors that could contribute to the winning outcome.