Fallacy

All formal fallacies are non sequiturs, which means that the conclusion is not supported by what preceded it.

• True

• False

“He’s not a great athlete; he’s a fraud, a cheat and a liar. That’s why not everybody is ‘happy for Lance.'”

• ad hominem

• strawman

• bandwagon

• appeal to false authority

An irrelevant topic introduced in an argument to divert the attention of listeners or readers from the original issue is called a/an

• sunk costs

• appeal to false authority

• red herring

• hasty generalization

When someone attacks a distorted version of the original argument that they have themselves created is called a/an

• Strawman fallacy

• slippery slope fallacy

• appeal to false authority

• none of the above

Person 1: I think pollution from humans contributes to climate change.

Person 2: So, you think humans are directly responsible for extreme weather, like hurricanes, and have caused the droughts in the southwestern U.S.? If that’s the case, maybe we just need to go to the southwest and perform a “rain dance.”

• Sunk Costs

• Appeal to False Authority

• Bandwagon Fallacy

• Strawman Fallacy

A seemingly unimportant event is suggested to lead to a more significant event, which leads to an even more significant event, and so on...

• strawman

• slippery slope

• false dilemma

• red herring

If we let our child out of his room, eventually he will want to leave the house, and will end up on the street. If he is walking around on the street then he will be snatched up by a stranger and sold into slavery in a remote region on the World.

• slippery slope

• appeal to ignorance

• ad hominem

• false dilemma

Bandwagon fallacy, which is especially common in the world of advertising, is based on the assumption that

• no one should be trusted.

• the opinion of the majority is always correct.

• the opinion of a few is always correct.

A fallacy based on the assumption that a statement must be true if it cannot be proven false — or false if it cannot be proven true.

• bandwagon

• Appeal to authority

• Appeal to ignorance

• red herring

Only two choices are presented as the only possibilities when, in fact, there are other alternatives.

• slippery slope

• hasty generalization

• appeal to ignorance

• false dilemma