Fallacies

A Fallacy is logically incorrect reasoning, undermines the logical validity of an argument, or is recognized as unsound. All forms of human communication can contain fallacies.

Because of their variety, fallacies are challenging to classify. Their structure or content can organize them into two categories Formal and Informal.

**LOGICAL FALLACIES**

**Hasty Generalization:**  If you have ever been accused of jumping to conclusions, then you have committed a hasty generalization. This type of informal abstraction makes an assumption based on a small sample and can lead to stereotypes.

-My brother eats cheeseburgers and pizza. He is thin. Cheeseburgers and pizza are not the cause of obesity.

-Four out of five doctors recommend “Heal” brand lotion for patients. It must be the best.

**Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc:**  These fallacies occur when it is assumed that, because one thing happened after another, it must have happened as a result of it.

-Right when I sneezed, the power went off. I must have caused the outage.

-Mary wore her favorite necklace today and aced her spelling test. That necklace must be lucky.

**Wishful Thinking:** Is taking the place of evidence and believing something to be true based on hope and one's desire to be true.

-I know being a LA native, all the LA sports team will win a championship this year.

-My neighbor said his son is going to be the first kid astronaut because he just feels it in his heart.

**Expectation Fallacy:** An expectation fallacy is when data about one person is used to portray or define a group of people.

-A old lady backed into my car while leaving the grocery store, old people should not be able to drive.

-Don't have babies, my nephew cries all day long.

**INFORMAL FALLACIES**

**Red Herring:**  A red herring fallacy occurs when someone uses irrelevant information to distract from the argument.

-How is talking about vaccinations going to help us find a cure for cancer?

-There are starving children in Africa. Eat your carrots.

**Slippery Slope:**  You might see a slippery slope fallacy when someone assumes a minimal action will lead to extreme outcomes.

-If we allow our 14-year-old to have her first date tonight, what is next? A wedding, kids?

-If we teach Tommy how to drive the car, he will want to learn how to fly helicopters next!

**Loaded Question:** Is also known as a "trick question". You may notice a loaded question fallacy when the question is also an assumption, normally a bad assumption in a question form.

-Why do you hate teachers?

-Have you always been addicted to smoking cigarettes?

**COMMON FALLACIES**

**Straw Man Fallacy:**  A straw man fallacy happens when someone appears to be refuting the original point made but argues an issue that was not initially made.

-President Trump does not have middle-class Americans in mind. He is part of the upper echelon of America.

"We should be doing more to make cars greener and more fuel-efficient." "Our cities are built for cars. Do you want to affect the economy?"

**Sweeping Generalizations:**  A sweeping generalization happens when a comprehensive application is applied to a single premise.

-Dogs are good pets. Coyotes are dogs. Therefore, coyotes are good pets.

-Divorce is rampant in America. We only stand a 50 percent chance of survival. Consequently, we cannot get married.