Argumentum Ad Hominem Attacking the person’s character or personal traits rather than the argument at hand Rejecting a claim based on the person defending it

Anecdotal Using a personal example or isolated experience instead of concrete evidence May also occur when refuting statistics with personal stories and isolated incidents

Appeal to Authority Not meant to dismiss the claims of experts Stating claims as true simply because an authority on the subject is in agreement

Appeal to Emotion Manipulating emotion (fear, pity, pride, and more) to win an argument Argument lacks logic and factual evidence

Appeal to Nature Argument based on the concept that something is good because it is “natural” or bad because it is “unnatural” Nature decides what is right/good

Bandwagon Appealing to popularity of belief/choice or the fact that many people agree with claim x Also called “appeal to the masses” Offers the threat of rejection (relies on peer pressure)

Begging the Question Claim includes the assumption the conclusion is true Also called “circular reasoning”

Black or White Presenting only two alternatives where more exist Also called “either-or fallacy” or “false dilemma” Over-simplifies an argument and narrows options

Burden of Proof Saying the burden of proof lies on someone else to disprove the claim Essentially “guilty until proven innocent”

The Fallacy Fallacy Inferring that a conclusion cannot be true because the argument constructed contains one or more fallacies Also called argumentum ad logicam (argument to logic)

Invalid Conclusion In a syllogism a fallacy whereby the major premise and minor premise do not add up to the conclusion Or where fallacies exist within the premise(s)

Personal Incredulity The premise that because something is difficult to understand, or you are unaware of how it works, it is not true

Slippery Slope Presuming one event will inevitably follow another without rational proof as to why Post Hoc is a related fallacy where it is assumed that A causes B, simply because A happens before B.

Strawman Misrepresenting someone's argument to make it easier to attack Similar to the cliché metaphor of “putting words in someone’s mouth”

The Texas Sharpshooter Also called “clustering illusion” Ignoring differences in data and focusing solely on similarities Inserts meaning into randomness

Tu Quoque Also called the “appeal to hypocrisy” Tries to discredit an opponents argument by stating they have not consistently behaved in accordance with their conclusions