Appeal to fiction

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An '''appeal to fiction''' (also '''generalizing from fictional evidence''') is a [[logical fallacy]] that occurs when someone makes claims about reality based on evidence drawn from works of fiction.

==Explanation==
Fiction is not [[reality]] &mdash; it is driven in large part by considerations of being interesting to the audience rather than reflecting reality with 100% accuracy. Furthermore, fiction shows systemic bias in its distortion of reality; common deviations for the audience's benefit are catalogued and studied as [[TV Tropes|tropes]]. Using fiction to argue about reality can therefore systematically skew your beliefs and expectations.

==Example==
*This tactic was deployed by [[Supreme Court]] justice [[Antonin Scalia]] when he justified the use of torture on terrorism suspects by citing the television show ''24''<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0285331/ 24] ''IMDb''.</ref> as evidence, stating "Is any jury going to convict Jack Bauer? I don't think so."<ref>[https://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2007/06/scalia-and-torture/227548/ Scalia and Torture] (Jun 19, 2007) by Andrew Sullivan ''The Atlantic''.</ref>
*Just about anything to do with [[1984]].
*[[Atheist professor myth|Atheist professor dropping a piece of chalk and it not breaking, after telling God to have it land intact, or variants.]]
*In [[Ayn Rand]]’s ''Atlas Shrugged'', an [[Objectivist]] society (Galt’s Gulch) is depicted as creating a utopia. Needless to say, just because an economic system works in a fictional book does not prove that it would work in real life.
*In the 2007 film ''I Am Legend'', based on the story by Richardson Matheson, an attempt to cure cancer backfires and causes people to mutate into ghoulish creatures. [[Anti-vaccination]] activists tried to cite the film to justify their wariness and skepticism about vaccinations, prompting the film’s screenwriter Akiva Goldsman to point out, “Oh. My. God. It’s a movie. I made it up. It’s. Not. Real.”<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-58164833 I Am Legend screenwriter dismisses anti-vax claims based on film's plot], BBC.com (10 August 2021)</ref><ref>[https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/10/entertainment/i-am-legend-vaccines-trnd/index.html 'I Am Legend' screenwriter reacts to vaccine conspiracy theories, pointing out the plot is fiction], CNN.com (10 August 2021)</ref><ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/08/11/i-am-legend-covid-vaccine/ Yes, ‘I Am Legend,’ the 2007 movie about zombie vampires, is now a part of the vaccine conversation], Washington Post (11 August 2021)</ref> (And what’s more, the film doesn’t even depict vaccines as the cause of the apocalypse but rather a genetically engineered measles virus.<ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-vaccine-i-am-legend-zombies/factchecka-vaccine-did-not-turncharactersinthe-movieiam-legendinto-zombies-idUSKBN28S23W Fact check: A vaccine did not turn characters in the movie ‘I Am Legend’ into zombies ], Reuters (18 December 2020)</ref><ref>[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/i-am-legend-zombie/  Was ‘I Am Legend’ Set in 2021? And was the "zombie outbreak" caused by a vaccine?], Snopes (12 January 2021)</ref>)

==See also==
*Things to keep in mind before [[Fun:Tips for starting a conspiracy|starting a conspiracy]], mostly informed by fictional examples

==External links==
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20070716145516/http://www.singinst.org/upload/cognitive-biases.pdf Cognitive biases potentially affecting judgment of global risks], p. 9, Nick Bostrom
*[http://lesswrong.com/lw/k9/the_logical_fallacy_of_generalization_from/ The Logical Fallacy of Generalization from Fictional Evidence], on [[LessWrong]]

==References==
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[[Category:Imprecision fallacies]]

Categories: Imprecision fallacies