Fallacy

Question 1

Fallacy

Answer 1

A commonly used, psychologically convincing but unreliable, pattern of reasoning.

Question 2

Fallacy of Appeal

Answer 2

An unreasonable appeal to an external factor, such as emotion or popularity.

Question 3

Appeal to Authority

Answer 3

Relying upon the view of apparent (as opposed to genuine) authorities to settle the truth of a statement or argument.

Question 4

Appeal to Popularity

Answer 4

Arguing that a claim must be true because lots of people believe it.

Question 5

Appeals to Tradition

Answer 5

Like appeals to popularity, except the appeal is to how long something has been believed, rather than to the number of people who have believed it.

Question 6

Appeal to Ignorance

Answer 6

The arguer asserts that a claim must be true because no one has proven it false, or that a claim must be false because no one has proven it to be true.

Question 7

Appeal to Emotion

Answer 7

An arguer attempts to evoke feelings of pity or compassion, when such feelings are not logically relevant to the arguer’s conclusion.

Question 8

Appeal to Consequences

Answer 8

An argument is considered good if good consequences will follow from the conclusion; similarly an argument is bad if undesirable consequences follow.

Question 9

Formal Fallacy

Answer 9

An argument which is bad through its form rather than content.

Question 10

Affirming the Consequent

Answer 10

If P then Q. But Q, therefore P.

Question 11

Denying the Antecedent

Answer 11

If P then Q. But not P, therefore not Q.

Question 12

Exclusive Fallacy

Answer 12

Either P or Q. But P, therefore not Q.

Question 13

Negative Fallacy

Answer 13

Deducing a negative conclusion from only positive premises; or, drawing a positive conclusion from only negative premises.

Question 14

Fallacy of Relevance

Answer 14

a premise or sub-argument that appears to offer support, but which is, in principle, irrelevant to the conclusion.

Question 15

The Hypocrisy Fallacy

Answer 15

Rejecting an argument because the person advancing it fails to practice what he or she preaches.

Question 16

The Red Herring Fallacy

Answer 16

An arguer tries to sidetrack their audience by raising an irrelevant issue and then claims that the original issue has effectively been settled by the irrelevant diversion.

Question 17

The Strawman Fallacy

Answer 17

Someone distorts or caricatures an opponent’s arguments or views, and then attacks the weakened version rather than the real argument.

Question 18

The Ad Hominem or ‘At the Person’ Fallacy

Answer 18

Rejecting someone’s argument by attacking the person rather than evaluating their argument on its merits.

Question 19

The Fallacy of Equivocation

Answer 19

A key word is used in two or more senses in the same argument and the apparent success of the argument depends on the shift in meaning.

Question 20

Fallacy of Unacceptable Premise

Answer 20

A premise, or sub-argument, which is weak but psychologically compelling - that is, it appears to provide support for the conclusion, but does not.

Question 21

Begging the Question

Answer 21

Stating or assuming as a premise the very thing you are trying to conclude.

Question 22

False Dilemma or False Dichotomy

Answer 22

Presenting two options and assuming that exactly one of them may be true, never both, and that there are no other possible options.

Question 23

Decision Point Fallacy or the Sorites Paradox

Answer 23

Claiming that because we cannot identify a precise cut-off or decision point, we cannot distinguish between correct and incorrect uses of a term.

Question 24

The Slippery Slope Fallacy

Answer 24

Arguers say that an innocent-looking first step should not be taken because once taken, it will impossible not to take the next, and the next, and so on, until you end up in a position you don’t want to be in.

Question 25

Hasty Generalisations

Answer 25

Arguer draws a general conclusion from a sample that is biased or too small.

Question 26

Faulty Analogies

Answer 26

An analogy depends upon a comparison between things that are not actually similar in relevant respects, or which also have important relevant differences.

Question 27

The Fallacy Fallacy

Answer 27

The fallacy of inferring that merely because an argument contains a fallacy, its conclusion must be false.

Question 28

Sunk Cost Fallacy

Answer 28

Taking into account the amount of time, effort, or money already spent on a task or goal when deciding whether to continue with it.

Question 29

Gambler’s Fallacy

Answer 29

Taking past results of random events into account when predicting future events. In particular, assuming that recent events are less likely to reoccur.

Question 30

Special Pleading

Answer 30

Claiming that the current case is an exception to a generally accepted rule, without providing relevant justification.

Question 31

No True Scotsman

Answer 31

Exceptions and counter-examples are excluded from a claim by continually shifting the relevant criteria until only the desired class can satisfy them.

Question 32

Hindsight Bias

Answer 32

An overestimation of the significance of key events that leads to an overconfidence that a past outcome was both certain and easy to predict.

Question 33

Causal Fallacy

Answer 33

A fallacy based on the gap between correlation and causation.

Question 34

The Correlation Fallacy

Answer 34

Two events seem to always occur together, one preceding the other. Therefore, the first event causes the second.

Question 35

Single Cause Fallacy

Answer 35

Assuming there is a single cause for an event when it is actually caused by several different factors, none of which were sufficient.

Question 36

Over-determination Fallacy

Answer 36

Assuming there is a single cause for an event when it is actually caused by several different factors, any of which would have been sufficient.

Question 37

The Conjunction Fallacy

Answer 37

We regard more specific descriptions as more likely, even though every added detail increases the chance of being wrong.

Question 38

The Whether Fallacy

Answer 38

Conflating the accuracy of correcting identifying a type of thing with the accuracy of correctly identifying whether an object is that type of thing.

Question 39

The Predictive Fallacy

Answer 39

Reasoning backwards from predictions to patterns.