5 More Logical Fallacies to Avoid When Arguing (with Examples!)
“You two are still arguing?!”
Arguments happen every day, every minute if you believe social media, but oftentimes you’ll notice that within a few minutes your argument has devolved or been misconstrued into something totally different. To prevent that you’ll want to avoid falling into logical fallacies, these are arguments with faulty reasoning.
In a previous article we wrote about 5 logical fallacies but it turns out communication is way more complex, so here are 5 more logical fallacies to avoid when arguing:
Appeal to Ignorance/Argument from Ignorance
Appeal to ignorance is when a person thinks their argument is correct just because there isn’t direct evidence to prove them wrong. This usually happens when a person making an argument tries to put the burden of proof on the other person.
Example:
Person A: “I’m telling you, there are definitely monsters on Venus, and in 5,000 years they’re going to come to Earth to enslave us all.”
Person B: “What? I don’t even know who you are.”
Person A: “See, no one can prove what I’m saying isn’t true that means it’s definitely true! The Venus Monsters are coming! We have to dig into the Earth to hide with Godzilla!”
“Look at those monsters… they’re planning shit.”
Here Person A makes a wild and outlandish claim and just because Person B, or literally anyone, can’t prove them wrong since we haven’t been to Venus nor will we be alive in 5,000 years, they assume it’s true. Obviously, this is an exaggerated example but be careful when others use an Appeal to Ignorance argument in everyday life.
Related Article: Godzilla and King Kong’s Hollow Earth
2. Genetic Fallacy
A genetic fallacy is when someone accepts or disregards information/argument simply because of where it originates from and ignores the actual information. We’ve all seen that meme “The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point”, this is essentially that but add in someone disregarding that great point simply because the worst person made it.
I hate seeing this…
Example:
Person A: “Hey did you know Hitler was against smoking and ran an anti-smoking campaign because of the detrimental effects it has on the body?”
Person B: “What? But Hitler is the worst person of all time, that must mean that he was wrong about smoking. Hold on, I have to go buy a pack of cigarettes now.”
In this example, Person B is now a life-long smoker simply because one of the worst people in history had a good point. They were unable to separate the information from where it originates and by doing so, ignores good information that has been proven accurate by other sources.
3. Appeal to Hypocrisy
Appeal to hypocrisy also known in Latin as “Tu quoque” happens when someone disregards an argument based on the directly conflicting past actions of the person making the argument. This usually happens when the person making an argument has done things in the past that can be seen as hypocritical to their current point.
Example:
Person A: “Dude you stole my radio, stealing is wrong.”
Person B: “Aren’t you currently in prison for stealing from several Radioshacks? Your argument is invalid!”
“I’m a collector…”
In this example, Person A is right, and stealing is wrong but Person B is pointing out the hypocrisy of Person A making that argument. Due to the hypocrisy, Person B disregards Person A’s correct point. In reality, it doesn’t matter what Person A did in the past, they’re making a correct assertion.
It’s important to note that Appeal to Hypocrisy is a sub-class of an Ad Hominem fallacy. Ad hominem fallacies occur when a person making an argument is attacked instead of their position. While Appeal to Hypocrisy falls into this definition, it’s more specific as it involves a hypocritical action that the person has done in the past.
4. Appeal to False Authority
This logical fallacy happens when someone believes information that comes from someone who isn’t an authority or hasn’t shown any expertise in that space. You’ll often see this with die-hard fans of celebrities who think anything that celebrity says must be true because they said it. You’ll also see it with children.
Example:
Person A: “My dad said he’s the strongest in the world and the best boxer ever. He could beat up anyone, he’s never lost, and if someone does beat him, it’s because they cheated.”
Person B: “Oh wow, is your dad a professional boxer?”
Person A: “He’s an accountant… but if he’s saying it, it must be true.”
“A rock? Of course, I can beat up a rock… oh… THE Rock?”
In this example, Person A believes their father so strongly that even though their dad isn’t a professional fighter, they truly believe they can’t lose a fight. The child believes their father simply because they are in the authoritative position of ‘father’.
Appeal to False Authority becomes dangerous when people start disregarding those with first-hand knowledge or expertise simply because a more famous person has said the opposite. Also, Person A is a 44-year-old man.
5. Appeal to the Bandwagon
Have your parents or someone else ever asked you “if everyone else was jumping off a bridge, would you jump too?” If so, they were demonstrating how you were falling for the appeal to the bandwagon fallacy. This fallacy happens when a person believes something simply because everyone else believes it.
Example
Person A: “Ma, I need these glasses because everyone says they’ll make me the coolest!”
Person B: “Oh, so if everyone told you to jump off a bridge you’d do it too?”
Person A: “...How high is the bridge?”
Those are some fucking cool glasses though…
In this example, Person A believes something just because everyone else believes it too but has done little to test the theory, and maybe doesn’t believe it themselves. You’ll hear “jumping on the bandwagon” a lot when it comes to sports teams and this is essentially the same thing. Just because everyone is currently into a new fad or believes some information, that doesn’t make it good, right, or true.
