Examples of Fallacies Flashcards
Jack just arrived at work. His boss just passed him and said, “Hey” in a low grunted voice. Jack thought, “He must not like me!”
Mind Reading
A student assumes that the readers of his or her paper have already made up their minds concerning its topic, and therefore writing the paper is a pointless exercise.
Mind Reading
Diane is Black. When she arrived at the DMV office, the guy behind the counter said, “What?” she thought to herself, “’What?! Instead of ‘Hi?!’ This is how they treat black people! I am so sick of being treated this way!”
Mind Reading
A car swerves right in front of you. That bastard! What the hell is wrong with him!
The Myth of Should
I should not have spent so much money last night! (He went out with his friends to a bar.)
The Myth of Should
I should’ve worked on the book Growing Up much more!
The Myth of Should
I wake up at 8:30am instead of 7:30am. “I still cannot control myself!”
Black/White Thinking
John yell’s at his wife for not showing up on time, but the last time he’s done so was 2 month’s ago even though his wife has showed up late many times since then. The wife respond’s with, “You always yell at me when I’m late!”
Black/White Thinking
Will just got fired from his job. He think’s to himself, “I’m an utter failure in life!”
Black/White Thinking
Steve goes out on a date, and he never gets asked out on another one. He thinks to himself, “I will never find a romantic partner!”
Overgeneralizing
Frank gets interviewed for a job and makes it to the third interview. Then he never gets a call back. He thinks to himself, “I’ll never get a job!”
Overgeneralizing
Henry gave a couple of poor speeches. He then thinks to himself, “I always give poor speeches!”
Overgeneralizing
Carry thinks, “I ruined the recital because of that one mistake.”
Selective Abstraction
A student who receives a C on an exam becomes depressed and stops attending classes even though he has A’s and B’s in his other courses.
Selective Abstraction
Someone who has carefully prepared a presentation, and as they expected, it was successful. However, one of the attendees makes a minor criticism of their presentation. The presenter completely loses the feeling of triumph, and the only thing that gets stored in their memory is this criticism, which they’ll relive over and over again in the following days.
They leave thinking that the others also had criticisms, but only one expressed it out loud. They come to think that all their effort was in vain, because the presentation didn’t live up to their expectations, which were conditional on fulfilling other people’s expectations.
Selective Abstraction
Student worries they will fail an exam, and they would never be a success in their life.
Catastrophizing
An individual with panic disorder predicts that if they go to the mall on a weekend afternoon, they will have a panic attack. They predict that having a panic attack would be terrible, rather than it just being significantly unpleasant.
Catastrophizing
Imagining yourself spiraling into a deep depression.
Catastrophizing
When I go to the gym it’s like people are looking at me, and judging me in a negative way.
Personalization
Angie had a girl’s night out with her friends. One of her friends didn’t like the night. Later that day Angie thought that she was the real reason why her friend didn’t enjoy the night out.
Personalization
.“We were late to the dinner party and caused everyone to have a terrible time. If I had only pushed my husband to leave on time, this wouldn’t have happened.”
Personalization
A mother whose child is struggling in school blames herself for being a bad mother, because she believes that her deficient parenting is responsible for her child’s issues. In fact, the real cause may be something else entirely.
Personalization
I feel guilty, therefore I must’ve done something bad.
Emotional Reasoning
I feel overwhelmed and hopeless, therefore my problems must be impossible to solve.
Emotional Reasoning
I feel inadequate therefore I must be a worthless person.
Emotional Reasoning
I’m furious with you, this proves that you’ve been acting badly.
Emotional Reasoning
The wife says the reason why my marriage won’t work is because my husband is totally unreasonable.
Blaming
A dog poops in the house and the owner thinks, “What a bad dog!”
Blaming
A tenant consistently fails to pay the rent on time and says he was born with a bad lot in life.
Blaming
My dad hitting the pole in Tehran when driving and cursing out the authorities for putting the pole there.
Blaming
A girlfriend tries to improve her boyfriends appearance and manners. She thinks he’s perfect in every way except for those two things.
Fallacy of change
A daughter tries to get her alcoholic dad to stop drinking.
Fallacy of change
A son keeps trying to get his mother to start reading more. But she doesn’t want to.
Fallacy of change
Your coworker has just gotten a promotion, but you’ve been with the company longer than her. This makes you resentful of the company and makes you work less hard.
Fallacy of Fairness
