BASIC HUMAN LIMITATIONS
If one believes that more murders occur during a full moon, then one will tend to take notice of murders that occur during a full moon and tend not to take notice of murders that occur at other times.
Confirmation Bias & Selective Thinking
The process whereby one tends to notice and look for what confirms one’s beliefs, and to ignore, not look for, or undervalue the relevance of what contradicts one’s beliefs.
From the statement “Lying expert testified at trial”, is the expert a liar or is the person an expert on telling when someone is lying?
Ambiguity
A word or expression that can be understood in more than one way.
Irrationally believing that how one wears their hat while watching a football game can influence the score.
Apophenia & Superstition
Erroneous perception of the connections between unrelated events.
“You should not believe a word my opponent says because he is just bitter because I am ahead in the polls.”
Ad hominem Fallacy
Criticizing the person making an argument, not the argument itself.
“Anyone who supports removing troops from Iraq is a traitor!”
Poisoning the Well
Creating a prejudicial atmosphere against the opposition, making it difficult for the opponent to be received fairly.
Air traffic controllers often have difficulty making good judgments after long hours on duty.
Physical & Emotional Hindrances
Stress, fatigue, drugs, and related hindrances can severely affect our ability to think clearly and critically.
Expressions such as “As everyone knows…”, and “Common sense tells us that…”
Assuring Expressions
Using expressions that disarm you from questioning the validity of an argument.
Believing that there must be life on Mars because no one has proved that there is not life on Mars.
Argument from Ignorance
A logical fallacy claiming something is true because it has not been proven false.
Thousands of years ago the average person believed that the world was flat simply because most other people believed so.
Ad populum, Bandwagon Fallacy
An appeal to the popularity of the claim as a reason for accepting the claim
"Because regulators have controlled smoking in public places, their ultimate goal is to control everything else in our lives.”
Slippery Slope Fallacy
An argument that assumes an adverse chain of events will occur, but offers no proof
Police officers should not show a photo of a possible assailant to a witness prior to a police lineup, or the actual memory of the witness may be unconsciously replaced.
False Memories & Confabulation
Being unaware that our memories are often “manufactured” to fill in the gaps in our recollection, or that some memories of facts, over time, can be unconsciously replaced with fantasy.
An ad that claims a battery lasts “up to” 30% longer, but does not say it will last 30% longer, and if it did, longer than what.
Meaningless Comparisons
Language that implies that something is superior but retreats from that view
Arguing that two children sharing the same bedroom is wrong because double celling of criminals in a penitentiary can lead to bad behavior.
False Analogies
Making illogical analogies to support the validity of a particular claim.
Advertisements that appeal to one’s vanity, pity, guilt, fear, or desire for pleasure, while providing no logical reasons to support their product being better than a competitor.
Emotional Appeals
Making irrelevant emotional appeals to accept a claim, since emotion often influences people more effectively than logical reasoning.
The dairy industry cleverly expresses fat content as a percentage of weight, not of calories. Thus 2% “low” fat milk really has 31% fat when fat is measured as a percentage of calories.
False Implications
Language that is clear and accurate but misleading because it suggests something false.
Some people are biased against claims made by scientists because their worldview appears too cold and impersonal.
Personal Biases & Prejudices
We each have personal biases and prejudices, resulting from our own unique life experiences and worldview, which make it difficult to remain objective and think critically.
Referring to a family as “a bounded plurality of role-playing individuals” or a homeless person as a “non-goal oriented member of society.”
Doublespeak Jargon
The use of technical language to make the simple seem complex, the trivial seem profound, or the insignificant seem important, all done intentionally to impress others.
Making a claim that Printer A makes better copies than Printer B, while ignoring the important fact that only Printer B can also fax, copy, and scan.
Irrelevant Comparisons
Making a comparison that is irrelevant or inappropriate.
Making jokes about one’s own character in order to disarm critics & evade having to defend policy.
Evading the Issue, Red Herring
If one has been accused of wrongdoing, diverting attention to an issue irrelevant to the one at hand.
Dramatic stories of Bigfoot sightings do not prove the existence of Bigfoot.
Testimonial Evidence
Relying on the testimonies and vivid anecdotes of others to substantiate one’s own beliefs, even though testimonies are inherently subjective, inaccurate, unreliable, biased, and occasionally fraudulent.
Naming detergents “Joy” and “Cheer” (positive), not “Dreary” and “Tedious” (negative). The military using the phrase “neutralizing the opposition” (less negative) rather than “killing” (negative).
Emotive Content
Intentionally using words to arouse feelings about a subject to bias others positively or negatively, in order to gain influence or power.
After using a magnetic belt for a while, a woman notices her back pain is less, even though there may be a dozen other reasons for the reduced back pain.
Pragmatic Fallacy
Arguing something is true because “it works,” even though the causality between this something and the outcome are not demonstrated.
“You are either with us, or with the terrorists!”
Fallacy of False Dilemma, Either/or Fallacy
Intentionally restricting the number of alternatives, thereby omitting relevant alternatives from consideration.