THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT LOGICAL FALLACIES

A logical fallacy is a aw in reasoning. Strong arguments are void of logical fallacies, whilst arguments that
are weak tend to use logical fallacies to appear stronger than they are. They're like tricks or illusions of
thought, and they're often very sneakily used by politicians, the media, and others to fool people.
Dont be fooled This logical fallacy has been designed to help you identify and call out dodgy logic
wherever it may raise its ugly, incoherent head. !f you see someone committing a logical fallacy online, link
them to the relevant fallacy to school them in thinkiness e.g. yourlogicalfallacyis.com"strawman
This logical fallacy is published under a #reative #ommons $o Derivative %orks license &'(& by Jesse
Richardson. )ou are free to print, copy, and redistribute this artwork, with the binding proviso that you
reproduce it in full so that others may share alike. This logical fallacy can be downloaded for free at the
website.
Here are some pretty reat reasons to ha!e this "oica" #a""acy$
(. To hang up near your computer for when you are arguing with people on the internets.
&. To put up in your kids' bedroom so that they get all clever and whatnot, and are able to tell the
di*erence between real news and fau+ news ,cough,.
-. To gift, in a slightly passive.aggressive yet still socially acceptable way, to someone who is forever
making weak arguments peppered with fallacies.
/. To hang up in a classroom, common room or other public space to make the world a more rational
place.
0. 1otato.
#reated by 2esse 3ichardson, Andy Smith and Som 4eaden.
%ebsite content published under a creative commons attribution and noncommercial license &'(&.
%ebsite5 http5""yourlogicalfallacyis.com
%& STRA'MAN
4isrepresenting someones argument to make it
easier to attack.
6y e+aggerating, misrepresenting, or 7ust
completely fabricating someone's argument, it's
much easier to present your own position as being
reasonable, but this kind of dishonesty serves to
undermine rational debate.
A straw man argument is one which sets up a
position the opponent does not hold to discredit
them by demolishing it.
8+ample5
(9 After %ill said that we should put more money
into health and education, %arren responded by
saying that he was surprised that %ill hates our
country so much that he wants to leave it
defenceless by cutting military spending.
&9 :4y opponent wants to retire the Trident
submarine. ;e wishes to leave us without any form
of defense.< Since few people are for total
disarmament the opponent is made to look weak.
1eople like to watch straw men being torn down.
!ts far easier than attacking real positions and 7ust
as fun.
(& SLI))ER* SLO)E
Asserting that if we allow A to happen, then = will
conse>uently happen too, therefore A should not
happen.
The problem with this reasoning is that it avoids
engaging with the issue at hand, and instead shifts
attention to baseless e+treme hypotheticals. The
merits of the original argument are then tainted by
unsubstantiated con7ecture.
The slippery slope is a common argument. The
error in the slippery slope is that there are often
common sense steps between what the person is
arguing against and the hypothetical fear they are
introducing.
8+ample5
:!f we let homose+uals marry then soon people will
be marrying their parents, their cars, toasters,
horses and even monkeys<
+& S)ECIAL )LEA,ING
4oving the goalposts or making up e+ceptions
when a claim is shown to be false.
;umans are funny creatures and have a foolish
aversion to being wrong. 3ather than appreciate
the bene?ts of being able to change ones mind
through better understanding, many will invent
ways to cling to old beliefs.
8+ample5
8dward 2ohns claimed to be psychic, but when his
@abilities were tested under proper scienti?c
conditions, they magically disappeared. 8dward
e+plained this saying that one had to have faith in
(
his abilities for them to work.
-& THE GAM.LER/S FALLAC*
6elieving that @runs occur to statistically
independent phenomena such as roulette wheel
spins.
This commonly believed fallacy can be said to have
helped create a city in the desert of $evada ASA.
Though the overall odds of a @ big run happening
may be low, each spin of the wheel is itself entirely
independent from the last.
8+ample5
3ed had come up si+ times in a row on the roulette
wheel, so Breg knew that was close to certain that
black would be ne+t up. Su ering an economic form
of natural selection with this thinking, he soon lost
all of his savings.
0& .LAC12OR2'HITE
%here two alternative states are presented as the
only possibilities, when in fact more possibilities
e+ist.
Also known as the false dilemma, this insidious
tactic has the appearance of forming a logical
argument, but under closer scrutiny it becomes
evident that there are more possibilities than the
either"or choice that is presented.
8+ample5
%hilst rallying support for his plan to
fundamentally undermine citiCens rights, the
Supreme Deader told the people they were either
on his side, or on the side of the enemy.
3& FALSE CAUSE
1ost hoc ergo procter hoc E @After it, therefore
because of it. This fallacy is hard.wired into our
brains. All humans, and many animals, have a
strict sense of causation. That is how superstitions
form.
1resuming that a real or perceived relationship
between things means that one is the cause of the
other.
4any people confuse correlation Fthings happening
together or in se>uence9 for causation Fthat one
thing actually causes the other to happen9.
Sometimes correlation is coincidental, or it may be
attributable to a common cause.
2ust because things fall into a se>uence, however
neat or comforting it might be, does not prove a
direct relationship.
8+ample5
(9 :! was wearing these pants when ! took the test.
! got an A. Therefore these pants will help me get
an A on this test.<
&9 1ointing to a fancy chart, 3oger shows how
temperatures have been rising over the past few
centuries, whilst at the same time the numbers of
pirates have been decreasingG thus pirates cool the
world and global warming is a hoa+.
4& A, HOMINEM
@To the man arguments are ones which attack the
opponent to discredit him without addressing the
dispute. Attacking your opponents character or
personal traits in an attempt to undermine their
argument.
Ad hominem attacks can take the form of overtly
attacking somebody, or casting doubt on their
character. The result of an ad hom attack can be to
undermine someone without actually engaging
with the substance of their argument.
Hccasionally a persons character is meaningful to
a discussion but only when directly related to the
matter at hand. Ad hominem attacks are always
amusing to spot because they make the arguer
appear like a petulant child.
8+ample5
:Dr 4adeup is an adulterer, therefore you should
ignore his medical advice.<
:After Sally presents an elo>uent and compelling
case for a more e>uitable ta+ation system, Sam
asks the audience whether we should believe
anything from a woman who isnt married, was
once arrested, and smells a bit weird.<
5& LOA,E, 6UESTION
Asking a >uestion that has an assumption built into
it so that it cant be answered without appearing
guilty.
Doaded >uestion fallacies are particularly e ective
at derailing rational debates because of their in
ammatory nature . the recipient of the loaded
>uestion is compelled to defend themselves and
may appear ustered or on the back foot.
8+ample5
Brace and ;elen were both romantically interested
in 6rad. Hne day, with 6rad sitting within earshot,
Brace asked in an in>uisitive tone whether ;elen
was having any problems with a fungal infection.
7& A))EAL TO )O)ULARIT*
@Ad populum."bandwagon. Appealing to popularity
or the fact that many people do something as an
attempted form of validation.
This argument, that if a ma7ority believes
something it must be true, is a very tempting one.
There is safety in numbers. Anfortunately, or
perhaps fortunately, reality is not a democracy.
The aw in this argument is that the popularity of an
&
idea has absolutely no bearing on its validity. !f it
did, then the 8arth would have made itself at for
most of history to accommodate this popular belief.
8+ample5
(9 Shamus pointed a drunken ?nger at Sean and
asked him to e+plain how so many people could
believe in leprechauns if theyre only a silly old
superstition. Sean, however, had had a few too
many Buinness himself and fell of his chair.
&9 8ven if everyone believes in unicorns it is still
necessary to produce one if your argument
depends on having a horny horse.
%8& .EGGING THE 6UESTION
A circular argument in which the conclusion is
included in the premise.
This logically incoherent argument often arises in
situations where people have an assumption that is
very ingrained, and therefore taken in their minds
as a given. #ircular reasoning is bad mostly
because its not very good.
8+ample5
The word of =orbo the Breat is awless and perfect.
%e know this because it says so in The Breat and
!nfallible 6ook of =orbos 6est and 4ost Truest
Things that are De?nitely True and Should $ot 8ver
6e Iuestioned.
%%& A))EAL TO AUTHORIT*
Saying that because an authority thinks something,
it must therefore be true. @!pse di+it E ;e said it.
The appeal to authority can be useful only when
the authority a person holds is directly related to
the argument.
!ts important to note that this fallacy should not be
used to dismiss the claims of e+perts, or scienti?c
consensus. Appeals to authority are not valid
arguments, but nor is it reasonable to disregard the
claims of e+perts who have a demonstrated depth
of knowledge unless one has a similar level of
understanding.
8+ample5
(9 $ot able to defend his position that evolution
@isnt true 6ob says that he knows a scientist who
also >uestions evolution Fand presumably isnt
herself a primate9.
&9 :;e has a medical degree, take the medicine he
prescribed< is still reasonable. 6ut :;e is a
doctor"president"architect and he says that Bod is
real, therefore there is a chap in the sky< is simply
an attempt to add a veneer of respectability to an
otherwise unsupported statement.
%(& A))EAL TO NATURE
4aking the argument that because something is
@natural it is therefore valid, 7usti?ed, inevitable,
good, or ideal.
4any @natural things are also considered @good,
and this can bias our thinkingG but naturalness
itself doesnt make something good or bad. Jor
instance murder could be seen as very natural, but
that doesnt mean its 7usti?able.
8+ample5
The medicine man rolled into town on his
bandwagon o*ering various natural remedies, such
as very special plain water. ;e said that it was only
natural that people should be wary of @arti?cial
medicines like antibiotics.

%+& COM)OSITION9,I:ISION
Assuming that whats true about one part of
something has to be applied to all, or other, parts
of it.
Hften when something is true for the part it does
also apply to the whole, but because this isnt
always the case it cant be presumed to be true.
%e must show evidence for why a consistency will
e+ist.
The argument of composition is one which
attributes the characteristics of a part to the
whole. This argument is often a form of
generaliCation where guilt of one person is used to
paint a whole group as guilty.
8+ample5
Daniel was a precocious child and had a liking for
logic. ;e reasoned that atoms are invisible, and
that he was made of atoms and therefore invisible
too. Anfortunately, despite his thinky skills, he lost
the game of hide and go seek.
%-& ANEC,OTAL
Asing personal e+perience or an isolated e+ample
instead of a valid argument, especially to dismiss
statistics.
!ts often much easier for people to believe
someones testimony as opposed to understanding
variation across a continuum. Scienti?c and
statistical measures are almost always more
accurate than individual perceptions and
e+periences.
8+ample5
2ason said that that was all cool and everything,
but his grandfather smoked, like, -' cigarettes a
day and lived until KL . so dont believe everything
you read about meta analyses of sound studies
showing proven causal relationships.
%0& A))EAL TO EMOTION
4anipulating an emotional response in place of a
valid or compelling argument.
Appeals to emotion include appeals to fear, envy,
hatred, pity, guilt, and more. Though a valid, and
-
reasoned, argument may sometimes have an
emotional aspect, one must be careful that
emotion doesnt obscure or replace reason.
8+ample5
Duke didnt want to eat his sheeps brains with
chopped liver and brussels sprouts, but his father
told him to think about the poor, starving children
in a third world country who werent fortunate
enough to have any food at all.
%3& TU 6UO6UE
Avoiding having to engage with criticism by turning
it back on the accuser . answering criticism with
criticism.
Diterally translating as @you too this fallacy is
commonly employed as an e*ective red herring
because it takes the heat of the accused having to
defend themselves and shifts the focus back onto
the accuser themselves.
This is a special case of the ad hominem attack
and works on the principle of the moral high
ground. !t appeals to our sense of character. !f the
accuser is Mawed, why should we believe himN
Again the defense, as with most of these fallacies,
is to stick to the matter at hand.
8+ample5
:! may be a thief, but you are gambler.<
:$icole identi?ed that ;annah had committed a
logical fallacy, but instead of addressing the
substance of her claim, ;annah accused $icole of
committing a fallacy earlier on in the
conversation.<
%4& .UR,EN OF )ROOF
Saying that the burden of proof lies not with the
person making the claim, but with someone else to
disprove.
The burden of proof lies with someone who is
making a claim, and is not upon anyone else to
disprove. The inability, or disinclination, to disprove
a claim does not make it valid Fhowever we must
always go by the best available evidence9.
%hen somebody makes a claim it is up to them to
produce evidence in favor of it. This logical fallacy
is often used in the form of :1rove it doesnt e+ist<
;ere the arguer is attempting to move the burden
of proof from himself to his opponent. Since it is
almost impossible to prove that something does
not e+ist the opponent becomes stuck. !t is always
for the person making the positive statement to
produce positive evidence.
8+ample5
6ertrand declares that a teapot is, at this very
moment, in orbit around the Sun between the 8arth
and 4ars, and that because no one can prove him
wrong his claim is therefore a valid one.
%5& NO TRUE SCOTSMAN
4aking what could be called an appeal to purity as
a way to dismiss relevant criticisms or aws of an
argument.
This fallacy is often employed as a measure of last
resort when a point has been lost. Seeing that a
criticism is valid, yet not wanting to admit it, new
criteria are invoked to dissociate oneself or ones
argument.
8+ample5
Angus declares that Scotsmen do not put sugar on
their porridge, to which Dachlan points out that he
is a Scotsman and puts sugar on his porridge.
Jurious, like a true Scot, Angus yells that no true
Scotsman sugars his porridge.
%7& THE TE;AS SHAR)SOOTER
#herry.picking data clusters to suit an argument, or
?nding a pattern to ?t a presumption.
This @false cause fallacy is coined after a
marksman shooting at barns and then painting a
bullseye target around the spot where the most
bullet holes appear. #lusters naturally appear by
chance, and dont necessarily indicate causation.
8+ample5
The makers of Sugarette #andy Drinks point to
research showing that of the ?ve countries where
Sugarette drinks sell the most units, three of them
are in the top ten healthiest countries on 8arth,
therefore Sugarette drinks are healthy.
(8& THE FALLAC* FALLAC*
1resuming a claim to be necessarily wrong because
a fallacy has been committed.
!t is entirely possibly to make a claim that is false
yet argue with logical coherency for that claim, 7ust
as is possible to make a claim that is true and
7ustify it with various fallacies and poor arguments.
This fallacy can occur when you catch an opponent
on using a fallacy.
:)ou used a fallacy, therefore all that you said is
wrong.< To avoid it you have to use your 7udgment
on each assertion you opponent makes and not
generaliCe their argument. !n fact 7udging each
thing we encounter on its individual merits would
probably help us all avoid most fallacies.
8+ample5
3ecognising that Amanda had committed a fallacy
in arguing that we should eat healthy food because
a nutritionist said it was popular, Alyse said we
should therefore eat bacon double cheeseburgers
every day.
/
(%& )ERSONAL INCRE,ULIT*
Saying that because one ?nds something di*cult to
understand, its therefore not true.
Sub7ects such as biological evolution via the
process of natural selection re>uire a good amount
of understanding before one is able to properly
grasp themG this fallacy is usually used in place of
that understanding.
8+ample5
Oirk drew a picture of a ?sh and a human and with
e usive disdain asked 3ichard if he really thought
we were stupid enough to believe that a ?sh
somehow turned into a human through 7ust, like,
random things happening over time.
((& AM.IGUIT*
Asing double meanings or ambiguities of language
to mislead or misrepresent the truth.
1oliticians are often guilty of using ambiguity to
mislead and will later point to how they were
technically not outright lying if they come under
scrutiny. !ts a particularly tricky and premeditated
fallacy to commit.
8+ample5
%hen the 7udge asked the defendant why he hadn't
paid his parking ?nes, he said that he shouldn't
have to pay them because the sign said 'Jine for
parking here' and so he naturally presumed that it
would be ?ne to park there.
(+& GENERALI<ATION9GENETIC
2udging something good or bad on the basis of
where it comes from, or from whom it comes.
To appeal to pre7udices surrounding somethings
origin is another red herring fallacy. This fallacy has
the same function as an ad hominem, but applies
instead to perceptions surrounding somethings
source or conte+t.
This is an assertion of group guilt where it is
necessary to prove each individual case. !t hardly
needs to be pointed out why this is a bad idea but
the continued e+istence of racism suggests that
arguments from generaliCation are e*ective.
8+ample5
(9 :The politician cheated on his e+penses,
therefore all politicians are cheats.<
&9 Accused on the P oclock news of corruption and
taking bribes, the senator said that we should all
be very wary of the things we hear in the media,
because we all know how very unreliable the media
can be.
(-& FALSE MI,,LE GROUN,
Saying that a compromise, or middle point,
between two e+tremes must be the truth. Hr if
presented with two arguments we might be
tempted to assume that the truth lies somewhere
between the two e+tremes.
4uch of the time the truth does indeed lie between
two e+treme points, but this can bias our thinking5
sometimes a thing is simply untrue and a
compromise of it is also untrue. ;alf way between
truth and a lie, is still a lie.
8+ample5
(9 :Stabbing someone in the heart is almost
always deadly.< :Stabbing someone in the heart is
perfectly safe.<
The fallacy here would be to assume that perhaps
a little stabbing is acceptable. A more reasonable
e+ample would be when a TQ debate introduces
someone with a very e+treme view in an attempt
to appear balanced. This introduces the notion that
either side of the debate is a valid view and so
perhaps the truth is a mi+ture of both.
&9 ;olly said that vaccinations caused autism in
children, but her scienti?cally well.read friend
#aleb said that this claim had been debunked and
proven false. Their friend Alice o*ered a
compromise that vaccinations cause some autism.
(0& A))EAL TO TRA,ITION
Simply because something is old does not
necessarily make it better.
8+ample5
(9 :Slavery has e+isted for most of human history,
therefore ! should have some slaves to do my
gardening.<
&9 The problem here is that dying of bacterial
diseases was also popular for most of human
history, but now we have antibiotics.
(3& FALSE ,ICHOTOM*
Also known as the false dilemma, this argument
attempts to pin the opponent into a position by
o*ering a biased choice that will undermine them.
8+ample5
(9 :8ither you are for a total ban on pornography
or you want children to watch it.<
&9 !t is because of this argument that politicians
can so often be heard to tell interviewers :! re7ect
the premise of your >uestion.<
(4& NON SE6UITUR = >,oes not #o""o?@/
The non se>uitur is an argument which does not
follow logically from its premise. !t is often used to
sneak a contentious point by hiding it ne+t to a
point of agreement.
8+ample5
:4urder is illegal and wrong. #annabis is wrong.<
%hile the second point may be true it is not
0
related to the ?rst, but would be used here to
associate both the arguments and attempt to win
support for the second.
P