Latin, Please
Latin for "to the person," it happens when you attack your opponent instead of their argument.
Ad Hominen
You should believe this claim because a famous celebrity or athlete says it's true.
Appeal to Authority
Every time I wear my lucky socks, my team wins; therefore, the socks cause the victory
Correlation does not equal causation
Also called an "Either/Or" fallacy, it wrongly claims there are only two possible choices in a situation.
False Dilemma
The claim that someone should do something because everyone else is doing it.
Bandwagon
Meaning "to the people," this fallacy claims a statement is true because the majority of people believe it.
Ad Populum
This "fishy" fallacy involves distracting the audience from the main issue by bringing up a completely different, unrelated topic
Red Herring
A gambler’s mistake of thinking that because a coin landed on heads five times in a row, tails is "due" to happen next.
Gamblers Fallacy
This fallacy assumes that what is true for one individual part of a group must also be true for the entire group as a whole.
Fallcay of composition
A commercial that says, "Million of Americans use this toothpaste, so you should too," is using this "popular" tactic.
Bandwagon fallacy
This Latin phrase, literally translated as "to ignorance," describes an argument that claims something must be true simply because it hasn't been proven false (or vice versa).
Ad Ignorantiam
Instead of attacking the real argument, you misrepresent it as a weaker, "hollow" version that is easier to defeat.
Straw man
Drawing a broad conclusion based on a tiny or non-representative sample size.
Hasty generalization
This "circular" argument uses the conclusion itself as one of the supporting premises.
Circular reasoning
We shouldn't change how this is done because thats how it always has been.
Appeal to tradition
Frequently seen in celebrity endorsements, this Latin phrase meaning "appeal to reverence" occurs when a claim is argued to be true simply because an authority figure—often one with no expertise in the relevant field—supports it.
Ad Verecundiam
Often called the "You Too" fallacy, it dismisses a person's viewpoint because they don't follow their own advice.
Tu Quoque
This Latin phrase, meaning "with this, therefore because of this," is the statistical error of assuming that because two variables are trending together at the same time, one must be causing the other.
Correlation-Causation fallacy
The opposite of composition; assuming that because a group has a certain property, every individual in it must have it too.
Fallacy of division
If we let students use calculators today, tomorrow they’ll forget how to add, and by next year the entire economy will collapse.
Slippery Slope
"Post hoc ergo propter hoc" describes the error of assuming that because Event B happened after Event A, A must have caused B.
False cause
This fallacy claims something must be true simply because it hasn't been proven false yet.
Appeal to ignorance
This error occurs when someone justifies continuing a failing project just because they’ve already spent a lot of money on it.
Sunk cost fallacy
This happens when someone protects a generalized claim by dismissing any counter-examples as "not authentic".
No true scotsman
The claim that one small first step will inevitably lead to a chain of extreme, catastrophic consequences.
Slippery slope