Fallacy Flashcards
Appeal to Authority
using authority to back something up, celebrity
Lack of proportion
blowing things out of proportion and downplaying something
Strawman
Taking one for instance and hammering away at it.
Two wrongs make a right
doing wrong “because someone/else did wrong”
Popularity
Doing something because others do it too
Traditional Wisdom
doing wrong “because its always been done”
Hastey Conclusion
Jumping to conclusions despite lack of evidence
Ad Hominem
Irrelevent personal attack
Anachronism
judging actions of past with present day values; inaccuracy of dates and other discrepancies, often in media/movies
Begging the question
the question is never answered; goes in circles
Suppressed Evidence
information being withheld
Irrelevant Reasoning
Reasoning that’s…duh irrelevant; meant to trick or avoid giving real reasoning (or there’s a lack of reasoning)
False Dilema
given less choices than there really are
Slippery Slope
Claiming something will lead to something very bad
Equivocation
A subtle shift in the meaning of a word
Questionable Analogy
An analogy that doesn’t work
Appeal to Ignorance
Using an absence of proof to say they are correct; using a person’s ignorance against them
Conspiracy
the belief that an organization/the government is making bad things happen
Small Sample
Sample pulled from too small of a group
Unrepresentative Sample
Sample pulled that does not represent the thing in question
Unknowable Statistics
Impossible Statistic; unable to know
Questionable Statistics
Possible to find out but no one would
Gambling Fallacy
Betting on possibility over probability
Inconsistency
Self-contradiction
Questionable Premise
Blind faith; basing things off of unknown
Questionable Cause
Coming to a false conclusion
Composition/Division
The assumption that a thing is a certain way based on a different quality; Assuming that all parts of a thing is a certain way based on it as a whole
Faulty Comparison
Comparing a product to other products that are not the same
Appeal to Emotions
Using the emotions of the user to sell a product
Promise
The promise of the product that can’t be followed through
Deceptive Humor
Using humor to sell
Weasel Words
Terms to get off the hook if the product doesn’t work or isn’t as advertised
Puffery
Terms that mean nothing; added pizaz
