Logical Fallacies

1. Scare Tactic This is a strategy intended to manipulate public opinion about an issue to raise fear or alarm. Scare tactics exaggerate possible dangers well beyond their statistical likelihood. Scare tactics close off thinking because people who are scared often act irrationally. Example: Anti-drug TV commercial “This is your brain. These are drugs. This is your brain on drugs.”

Scare Tactic Example

2. Either-Or Choice This fallacy simplifies an overcomplicated argument by reducing the options for action to only two choices. The option is drawn in a very favorable light, whereas the other is cast as a dangerous alternative. Example: We can focus the energy policy on investing in new technologies, or we can drill offshore.

Either-Or Choice

3. Slippery Slope The argument that one small thing may lead to a disastrous consequence without any explanation of the process. Example: If ObamaCare continues, our country is headed for Communism.

Slippery Slope

4. Sentimental Appeal This appeal uses tender emotions excessively to distract readers from facts. Often these appeals are very personal and focus attention on heartwarming or heart-wrenching situations that make people feel guilty.

Example of a Sentimental Appeal

5. Bandwagon Appeal This appeal urges people to follow the same path everyone else is taking. Example: The vast majority of Americans support stricter gun control laws. Therefore, it must be a good idea.

Bandwagon Appeal

6. Appeal to False Authority This fallacy draws on the authority of widely respected people, institutions, and texts. This occurs when writers offer themselves or other authorities as sufficient warrant for believing a claim. Example: Making a speech in front of an eclectic crowd and saying women are supposed to be subservient to men because The Bible says so.

Appeal to False Authority

7. Dogmatism This fallacy occurs when a writer asserts or assumes that a particular position is the only one that is conceivably acceptable within a community. In using this fallacy, it is implied that no arguments are necessary. Example: No logical person believes that capital punishment is moral.

Dogmatism

8. Ad Hominem This is an attack on the character of a person rather than the person’s opinions or arguments. Example: Green Peace’s strategies aren’t effective because they are all dirty, lazy hippies.

9. Hasty Generalization This fallacy is an inference drawn from insufficient evidence. This fallacy forms the basis of most stereotypes about people or institutions. Example: Because my Honda broke down, then all Hondas must be junk. Example: My mom is a bad driver, so all women are bad drivers.

Hasty Generalization

10. Faulty Causality This is a fallacious assumption that because one event or action follows another, the first caused the second. Example: There was a lawsuit in which a writer sued Coors claiming that drinking copious amounts of the company’s beer kept him from writing a novel.

Faulty Causality

11. Begging the Question In this fallacy, a claim is made on grounds that cannot be accepted as true because those grounds are in doubt. Example: The student cannot be guilty of cheating because she is an honest person.

12. Equivocation This is an argument that gives a lie an honest appearance. It is a half-truth. Example: The teacher told her students not to use any notes on the take home exam. The student consulted her friend about the answers. When the teacher confronted her, the student said, “You said we can’t use notes. I didn’t use notes. I used my classmate.”

Equivocation

13. Non Sequitur This is an argument in which claims, reasons, or warrants fail to connect logically. In essence, one point doesn’t follow from another. Example: You must be lazy because you have very average grades.

Non Sequitur

14. The Straw Man This is when a person simply ignores a person's actual position and substitutes a distorted, exaggerated, or misrepresented version of that position. Example: A teacher wants to limit homework assignments school-wide to two per week per class. An angry colleague stands up and says, “So you want our kids to do nothing!”

The Straw Man

15. Faulty Analogy This analogy contains an inaccurate or inconsequential comparison between objects or concepts. Example: Making people register their own guns is like the Nazis making the Jews register with their government. This policy is crazy.