Showing all 916 entries
| Bias or fallacy name | Also known as | Description | Reference | Added | Updated | ID |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| zero-sum bias | A phenomenon in which "a situation is incorrectly perceived to be like a zero-sum game (i.e., one person gains at the expense of another)". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 369_cb_lf | |
| zero-risk bias | broken windows policing, disproportionate response, even one is too many, judenrein, exemplary punishment, zero-risk bias, zero tolerance | As a cognitive bias, a "preference for reducing a small risk to zero over a greater reduction in a larger risk". A form of: extension neglect. As a logical fallacy, a fallacy of "declaring an 'emergency' and promising to disregard justice and due process and devote unlimited resources (and occasionally, unlimited cruelty) to stamp out a limited, insignificant or even nonexistent problem". A "corrupt and cynical argument from pathos". "Almost always politically driven." A "sinister" form of dog whistle politics. An example of: we have to do something (placebo effect, political theater, security theater, we have to send a message). | [3], [6] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 908_cb_lf |
| zero tolerance | broken windows policing, disproportionate response, even one is too many, judenrein, exemplary punishment, zero-risk bias, zero tolerance | A fallacy of "declaring an 'emergency' and promising to disregard justice and due process and devote unlimited resources (and occasionally, unlimited cruelty) to stamp out a limited, insignificant or even nonexistent problem". A "corrupt and cynical argument from pathos". "Almost always politically driven." A "sinister" form of dog whistle politics. An example of: we have to do something (placebo effect, political theater, security theater, we have to send a message). | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 679_lf |
| Zeigarnik effect | A phenomenon in which "uncompleted or interrupted tasks are remembered better than completed ones". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 367_cb | |
| you're not the boss of me | appeal to privacy, mind your own business, MYOB, none of yer beeswax, so what, you're not the boss of me | A fallacy of preventing discussion of one's point by "drawing a phony curtian of privacy around oneself and one's actions". A counterpart is: heart of darkness syndrome, I think we're alone now, nobody will ever know, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-26 | 907_lf |
| you speakee da english | othering, otherizing, prejudice, racism, speakee fallacy, stereotyping, they're not like us, xenophobia, you speakee da english | An argument in which facts are arbitrarily discarded due to a claim that another group of people are different from the in-group. A "bady corrupted...argument from ethos". A form of: ad hominem argument, argumentum ad hominem, argument toward the man, attacking the person, personal attack, poisoning the well. See also: dehumanised perception, dehumanization. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 677_lf |
| you do it too | and you too, appeal to hypocrisy, tu quoque, two wrongs make a right, you also, you do it too | An argument that something is acceptable because the opposition has also done it or an argument that an offered position must be false because the party putting it forth has not always acted in accordance with the position that they put forth. A "corrupt argument form ethos". A form of ad hominem. See also: ego quoque, nos quoque. | [1], [2], [3], [4] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 905_lf |
| you can't win if you don't play | An obverse of: Hoyle's fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-05 | 676_lf | |
| you also | and you too, appeal to hypocrisy, tu quoque, two wrongs make a right, you also, you do it too | An argument that something is acceptable because the opposition has also done it or an argument that an offered position must be false because the party putting it forth has not always acted in accordance with the position that they put forth. A "corrupt argument form ethos". A form of ad hominem. See also: ego quoque, nos quoque. | [1], [2], [3], [4] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-27 | 490_lf |
| xenophobia | othering, otherizing, prejudice, racism, speakee fallacy, stereotyping, they're not like us, xenophobia, you speakee da english | An argument in which facts are arbitrarily discarded due to a claim that another group of people are different from the in-group. A "bady corrupted...argument from ethos". A form of: ad hominem argument, argumentum ad hominem, argument toward the man, attacking the person, personal attack, poisoning the well. See also: dehumanised perception, dehumanization. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 904_lf |
| worst-case fallacy | an abundance of caution, better safe than sorry, better to prevent than to lament, just in case, we can't afford to take chances, worst-case fallacy | A fallacy of pessimism with reasoning based on a far-fetched, unlikely, or even entirely imaginary worst-case scenario isntead of being based on reality. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 675_lf |
| worst negates the bad | be grateful for what you've got, worst negates the bad | A fallacy in which it is claimed that "an objectively bad situation somehow isn't so bad simply because it could have been far worse, or because someone, somewhere has it even worse". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 674_lf |
| worse-than-average effect | A tendency to "believe ourselves to be worse than others at tasks which are difficult". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 366_cb | |
| work exploitation fallacy | A mistaken belief that "employment is a form of exploitation". A fallacy surrounding: capitalism. | [27] | 2024-07-15 | 2024-08-28 | 826_lf | |
| women are wonderful effect | A tendency to "associate more positive attributes with women than with men". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 365_cb | |
| wishful thinking | A tendency to belive something based on "what might be pleasing to imagine, rather than on evidence, rationality, or reality". | [6], [30] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 364_cb | |
| wise up | they're all liars, third person effect, wise up | A phenomenon in which people opt to remain in ignorance rather than listening to "mainstream media, the president, the medical establishment, professionals, pforessors, doctors, the academic elite, or other authorities or information sources, even about urgent subjects" and instead of becoming educated and participatory on a subject, thus laeding such uninformed people to believe that others are more influenced by mass media in comparsion with themselves. Example of: deliberate ignorance. See also: simpleton's fallacy, trust your gut. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 639_lf |
| wisdom of the crowd | crowdsourcing, magic of the market, wisdom of the crowd, Wikipedia fallacy | The idea that the market or the crowd is infallible, ignoring historical examples of the majority having been wrong about something. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 673_lf |
| winning isn't everything it's the only thing | all's fair in love and war, changing the rules, moving the goalposts, nuclear option | Starting with certain requirements for a decision, then, when, the criteria are met, requiring a higher bar. "A fallacy of logos". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-14 | 672_lf |
| willful ignorance | obscurantism, obscurationism, willful ignorance | The argument that there are some things that humans, as mere mortals, either simply are not meant to know, or must never seek to know. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-26 | 902_lf |
| Wikipedia fallacy | crowdsourcing, magic of the market, wisdom of the crowd, Wikipedia fallacy | The idea that the market or the crowd is infallible, ignoring historical examples of the majority having been wrong about something. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 692_lf |
| whistling by the graveyard | self deception, self fooling, whistling by the graveyard | The deliberate and knowing delusion of oneself "in order to achieve a goal, or perhaps simply to suppress anxiety and maintain one's energy level, enthusiasm, morale, peace of mind or sanity in moments of adversity." | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 671_lf |
| where there's smoke there's fire | hasty conclusions | Arriving at a snap conculsion without sufficient supporting evidence. Opposite of: paralysis of analysis. See also: jumping to conclusions. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 670_lf |
| whatever is is right | acquiescence, better the devil you know than the devil you don't, deal with it, default bias, get used to it, if it ain't broke don't fix it, it is what it is, let it be let it be, making one's peace with the situation, normalization of evil, this is the best of all possible worlds, this is the only possible world | The fallacy that just because something is the current state that is therefore the preferred state. Opposite of: nihilism. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 703_lf |
| whataboutism | attacking the evidence, missing link fallacy, whataboutery, whataboutism | Incorrectly claiming that "some or all of the key evidence is missing, incomplete, or faked"; or, asking "what about" some false assertion about the veracity or completeness of the evidence or claim presented. See also: appeal to a lack of evidence, appeal to ignorance, argument from ignorance, argumentum ad ignorantiam. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-28 | 055_lf |
| whataboutery | attacking the evidence, missing link fallacy, whataboutery, whataboutism | Incorrectly claiming that "some or all of the key evidence is missing, incomplete, or faked"; or, asking "what about" some false assertion about the veracity or completeness of the evidence or claim presented. See also: appeal to a lack of evidence, appeal to ignorance, argument from ignorance, argumentum ad ignorantiam. | [3] | 2024-08-28 | 906_lf | |
| what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas | heart of darkness syndrome, I think we're alone now, nobody will ever know, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas | A fallacy holding that "one may freely commit immoral, selfish, negative or evil acts at will without expecting any of the normal consequences or punishment" "just because nobody important is looking (or because one is on vacation, or away in college, or overseas)". A counterpart to: appeal to privacy, mind your own business, MYOB, none of yer beeswax, so what, you're not the boss of me | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-26 | 900_lf |
| what goes around comes around | Job's comforter fallacy, karma is a bi**h, what goes around comes around | An argument that there is no random chance, and that one's own misfortunes must be punishment for sins or wickedness. Opposite of: appeal to heaven. See also: magical thinking. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 899_lf |
| well travelled road effect | A tendency to "underestimate the duration taken to traverse oft-travelled routes and overestimate the duration taken to traverse less familiar routes". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 363_cb | |
| Weber–Fechner law | Dual tendencies in which "the perceived change in stimuli is proportional to the initial stimuli" and also "for multiplications in stimulus strength, the strength of perception only adds" (except, neither tendency is the case "at low intensity"). | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 362_cb | |
| wealth is the disease and I am the cure | con artist's fallacy, dacoit's fallacy, profiteering, shearing the sheeple, vulture capitalism, wealth is the disease and I am the cure | Fallacy saying that those who are less capable therefore are less deserving and therefore can be justifiably victimized due to how nature is. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 489_lf |
| we have to send a message | placebo effect, political theater, security theater, we have to do something, we have to send a message | The position that when there is a problem or disconcert, then doing anything is beter than doing nothing, even if that action might seem illogical. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 658_lf |
| we have to do something | placebo effect, political theater, security theater, we have to do something, we have to send a message | The position that when there is a problem or disconcert, then doing anything is beter than doing nothing, even if that action might seem illogical. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 669_lf |
| we do it too | ego quoque, I do it too, nos quoque, we do it too | The attempted justification (or minimization of criticism) of some position or action on the basis that oneself or one's own group has also done the same thing. See also: and you too, appeal to hypocrisy, tu quoque, two wrongs make a right, you also, you do it too. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 898_lf |
| we can't afford to take chances | an abundance of caution, better safe than sorry, better to prevent than to lament, just in case, we can't afford to take chances, worst-case fallacy | A fallacy of pessimism with reasoning based on a far-fetched, unlikely, or even entirely imaginary worst-case scenario isntead of being based on reality. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 897_lf |
| waving the bloody shirt | blood of the martyrs fallacy, waving the bloody shirt | A fallacy holding that "a cause or argument, no matter how questionable or reprehensible, cannot be questioned without dishonoring the blood and sacrifice of those who died so nobly for that cause". An extreme example of: e for effort, I'm trying by best, lost cause. See also: appeal to pity, argument from inertia, cost bias, heroes all, sob story, soldiers' honor fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-03 | 668_lf |
| wage dictation fallacy | A mistaken belief that "salaries are set by individual companies or the government, and that some salaries are artificially inflated or deflated". A fallacy surrounding: capitalism. | [27] | 2024-07-15 | 2024-08-28 | 865_lf | |
| vulture capitalism | con artist's fallacy, dacoit's fallacy, profiteering, shearing the sheeple, vulture capitalism, wealth is the disease and I am the cure | Fallacy saying that those who are less capable therefore are less deserving and therefore can be justifiably victimized due to how nature is. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 488_lf |
| von Restorff effect | A tendency in which "an item that sticks out is more likely to be remembered than other items". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 361_cb | |
| voice of the voiceless | One who says that there exists a silent majority may then claim for themselves the title of being the voice of those who are voiceless, even if there is no evidence of such a group of people sharing their position. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 667_lf | |
| vicious circle | begging the question, catch 22, circular reasoning, circulus in probando, petitio principii, vicious circle | A fallacy in which the same proposition appears as a premise and as a conclusion (sometimes worded in two statements appearing differently enough to make this not very obvious); for example, "A, therefore B." and also "B, therefore A". Sometimes, begging the question and circular reasoning are used interchangeably and sometimes with a difference--begging the question or petitio principii more specifically assumes as evidence the conclusion they are trying to prove.) A fallacy of logos. A component fallacy. See also: complex question, big lie technique. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-03 | 487_lf |
| verbatim effect | A tendency in which "the 'gist' of what someone has said is better remembered than the verbatim wording". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 360_cb | |
| venue | Arbitrarily invalidating an otherwise-valid argument or piece of evidence because it is alleged to have come from a wrong place, time, medium, or forum. See also: disciplinary blinders. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 666_lf | |
| venting | letting off steam, loose lips, venting | A claim that someone ought to be "excempt from criticism" becuase they were just venting, even though venting implies expression of their actual position on some matter. Opposite of: political correctness, scripted message. See also: affective fallacy, alpha-male speech,bad-boy talk, locker-room talk. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 665_lf |
| values | just plain folks, values | An argument that someone who speaks in simple terms and seems like a straight talker is necessarily worthy of being believed for that reason alone, especially in contrast with more sophisticated or fancier seeming speakers. A "corrupt...argument from ethos". See also: ad hominem fallacy, plain truth fallacy, simpleton's fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 896_lf |
| value selection bias | A tendency to "rely on existing numerical data when reasoning in an unfamiliar context, even if calculation or numerical manipulation is required". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 359_cb | |
| valence effect | A tendency in which, given equivalent factual information, the framing of an event as positive (desirable) or negative (undesirable) can result in differing levels of unrealistic optimism. See also: optimism bias. | [6], [29] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 358_cb | |
| unthinking obedience | blind loyalty, blind obedience, Nuremberg defense, team player appeal, unthinking obedience | A fallacy which holds that "an argument or action is right simply and solely because a respected leader or source (a President, expert, one's parents, one's own side, team or country, one's boss or commanding officers) says it is right". A corrupted argument from ethos. See also: big brain little brain fallacy, soldiers' honor fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-03 | 486_lf |
| unit bias | A tendency in which a "standard suggested amount of consumption (e.g., food serving size) is perceived to be appropriate" and in which "a person would consume it all even if it is too much for this particular person". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 357_cb | |
| uniformity | Fordism, keeping up standards, procrustean fallacy, standardization, uniformity | The inappropriate application "the norms and requirements of standardized manufacturing. quality control and rigid scheduling, or of military discipline to inherently diverse free human beings, their lives, education, behavior, clothing and appearance". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 895_lf |
| uniformitarianism | plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose, nothing new under the sun, seen it all before, surprise surprise, uniformitarianism | An incorrect assertion that there "is not and will never be any real novelty in this world". Or, literally, "the more things change, the more they stay the same". A "corruption of the argument from logos". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 894_lf |
| undistributed middle term | A component fallacy. | [1] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-11 | 020_lf | |
| underlying meaning | etymological fallacy, underlying meaning | A fallacy of "drawing false conclusions from the...linguistic origins of a current word" or the "alleged meanings or associations of that word in another langauge". "A fallacy of logos."" | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-06 | 893_lf |
| unconscious bias | implicit bias, unconscious bias | A pheneomenon of "underlying attitudes and stereotypes that people unconsciously attribute to another person or group of people that affect how they understand and engage with them". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 355_cb |
| unaffordable innovation fallacy | A mistaken belief that "technology is unaffordable and is only for the rich". A fallacy surrounding: capitalism. | [27] | 2024-07-15 | 2024-08-28 | 819_lf | |
| ultimate attribution error | A tendency in which "a person is likely to make an internal attribution to an entire group instead of the individuals within the group". Similar to: fundamental attribution error. A type of: attribution bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 354_cb | |
| two-sides fallacy | false balance, false equivalence, teach the controversy, two-sides fallacy | Presenting an issue in such a way that makes it seemas though there are "two sides of equal weight or significance, when in fact a consensus or much stronger argument supports just one side". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 664_lf |
| two wrongs make a right | and you too, appeal to hypocrisy, tu quoque, two wrongs make a right, you also, you do it too | An argument that something is acceptable because the opposition has also done it or an argument that an offered position must be false because the party putting it forth has not always acted in accordance with the position that they put forth. A "corrupt argument form ethos". A form of ad hominem. See also: ego quoque, nos quoque. | [1], [2], [3], [4] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 892_lf |
| two truths | compartmentalization, epistemically closed systems, two truths | A position that "there exists one truth in one given environment (e.g., in science, work or school) and simultaneously a different, formally contradictory but equally true truth in a different epistemic system, context, environment, intended audience or discourse community (e.g., in one's religion or at home)". A "fallacy of logos and ethos". See also: alternative truth, disciplinary blinders. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 663_lf |
| Turkey illusion | A tendency to be surprised by a break in at trend "if one does not know the causes or the framework conditions for this trend". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 353_cb | |
| tuning out | closed-mindedness, deliberate ignorance, hear no evil see no evil speak no evil, I don't want to hear it, motivated ignorance, three monkeys' fallacy, tuning out | The action of "choosing not to listen", "turning off any information, evidence or arguments that challenge one's beliefs, ideology, standpoint, or peace of mind", perhaps saying "Don't try to confuse me with the facts; my mind is made up". See also: confirmation bias, obscurantism, obscurationism, positive thinking fallacy, simpleton's fallacy, third person effect, they're all crooks, trust your gut, willful ignorance. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 485_lf |
| tu quoque | and you too, appeal to hypocrisy, tu quoque, two wrongs make a right, you also, you do it too | An argument that something is acceptable because the opposition has also done it or an argument that an offered position must be false because the party putting it forth has not always acted in accordance with the position that they put forth. A "corrupt argument form ethos". A form of ad hominem. See also: ego quoque, nos quoque. | [1], [2], [3], [4] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 662_lf |
| truthout fallacy | brave heretic, conspiracy theories, iconoclastic fallacy, romantic rebel, truthout fallacy, truthdig fallacy | A fallacy of holding a claim as true just because that position "is supposedly standing up heroically to the dominant orthodoxy, the current standard model, conventional wisdom or political correctness, or whatever may be the bandwagon of the moment". A corrupt argument from ethos. The opposite of: bandwagon fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-03 | 891_lf |
| truthiness | complexity, ineffability, post-truth, truthiness | An arbitrary declaration tht "today's world is so complex that there is no truth" or that if truth does exist it is "unknowable excerpt perhaps by God". Opposite of: executive summary, keep it short and simple, keep it simple stupid, KISS principle, monocausal fallacy, plain truth fallacy, salience bias, simple truth fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 661_lf |
| truthdig fallacy | brave heretic, conspiracy theories, iconoclastic fallacy, romantic rebel, truthout fallacy, truthdig fallacy | A fallacy of holding a claim as true just because that position "is supposedly standing up heroically to the dominant orthodoxy, the current standard model, conventional wisdom or political correctness, or whatever may be the bandwagon of the moment". A corrupt argument from ethos. The opposite of: bandwagon fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-03 | 890_lf |
| truth bias | A tendency "towards believing, to some degree, the communication of another person, regardless of whether or not that person is actually lying or being untruthful". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 352_cb | |
| trust your intuition | emotional reasoning, trust your feelings, trust your gut, trust your heart, trust your instincts, trust your intuition | The use primarily of gut feelings instead of reason or evidence when deciding something. A "corrupt argument from pathos". See also: affective fallacy, deliberate ignorance, third person effect. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 889_lf |
| trust your instincts | emotional reasoning, trust your feelings, trust your gut, trust your heart, trust your instincts, trust your intuition | The use primarily of gut feelings instead of reason or evidence when deciding something. A "corrupt argument from pathos". See also: affective fallacy, deliberate ignorance, third person effect. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 888_lf |
| trust your heart | emotional reasoning, trust your feelings, trust your gut, trust your heart, trust your instincts, trust your intuition | The use primarily of gut feelings instead of reason or evidence when deciding something. A "corrupt argument from pathos". See also: affective fallacy, deliberate ignorance, third person effect. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 887_lf |
| trust your gut | emotional reasoning, trust your feelings, trust your gut, trust your heart, trust your instincts, trust your intuition | The use primarily of gut feelings instead of reason or evidence when deciding something. A "corrupt argument from pathos". See also: affective fallacy, deliberate ignorance, third person effect. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 660_lf |
| trust your feelings | emotional reasoning, trust your feelings, trust your gut, trust your heart, trust your instincts, trust your intuition | The use primarily of gut feelings instead of reason or evidence when deciding something. A "corrupt argument from pathos". See also: affective fallacy, deliberate ignorance, third person effect. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 886_lf |
| Travis syndrome | A tendency to overestimate "the significance of the present". See also: chronological snobbery, appeal to novelty. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 351_cb | |
| transfer | name dropping, transfer | The false association of "a famous or respected person, place or thing with an unrelated thesis or standpoint". A "corrupt argument form ethos". See also: star power. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-27 | 484_lf |
| trait ascription bias | A tendency "for people to view themselves as relatively variable in terms of personality, behavior, and mood while viewing others as much more predictable". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 350_cb | |
| totus pro partes fallacy | overgeneralization, totus pro partes, mereological fallacy | Applying an agreed-upon generalization to "all particular cases". A "fallacy of logos". Literally, "totus pro partes" means "whole for parts", and refers to extrapolating from a claim about a whole to a claim about all components. The term "mereological" refers to the study of the relationship between parts and a wholes.) See also: hasty generalization, pars pro toto fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 885_lf |
| too much of a coincidence | after this therefore because of this, clustering illusion, post hoc argument, post hoc propter hoc, post hoc ergo propter hoc, too much of a coincidence | A mistaken conclusion that one event must have been caused by a specific earlier event. Example of: correlation implies causation, cum hoc ergo propter hoc, coincidental correlation, false cause, false cause and effect, non causa pro causa, not the cause for the cause. | [3], [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 034_lf |
| tone policing | Judging the validity of an argument based on the emotional tone in which it is delivered, ignoring that the fact or argument could be valid regardless of the tone of its delivery. A "corrupt argument from pathos". See also: F-bomb. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 659_lf | |
| token endorsement | Fallacy saying that a positive statement made by an individual with a pertinent characteristic must be true because of their possession of that characteristic. For example, a claim that, just because a member of a minority group states that a person of the majority group is not bigoted against the minority group, that this must therefore be true. (It is still possible for the statement to be incorrect, despite the group membership of the person making the statement.) | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-13 | 042_lf | |
| tip of the tongue phenomenon | A phenomenon in which one is "able to recall parts of an item, or related information, but is frustratingly unable to recall the whole item". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 349_cb | |
| tiny percentage fallacy | A claim that "an amount or action that is quite significant in and of itself somehow becomes insignificant simply because it's a tiny percentage of something much larger". A form of: lying with statistics. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 657_lf | |
| TINA | fait accompli, get over it, love it or leave it, suck it up, there is no alternative, TINA | The rejection of opposing ideas on the basis that "there is no realistic alternative to a given standpoint, status or action, arbitrarily ruling any and all other options out of bounds, or announcing that a decision has been made and any further discussion is insubordination, disloyalty, treason, disobedience or simply a waste of precious time when there's a job to be done". An extension of: either/or fallacy. A form of: appeal to force, argument from force, argument from strength, argument from the club (stick), argumentum ad baculum, bullying, fascism, hard power, might-makes-right, muscular leadership, non-negotiable demands, power-play, resolution by force of arms, shock and awe. See also: taboo, finish the job. See also: appeal to closure, acquiescence, better the devil you know than the devil you don't, deal with it, default bias, get used to it, if it ain't broke don't fix it, it is what it is, let it be let it be, making one's peace with the situation, normalization of evil, this is the best of all possible worlds, whatever is is right. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 651_lf |
| time-saving bias | A tendency to "underestimate the time that could be saved (or lost) when increasing (or decreasing) from a relatively low speed, and to overestimate the time that could be saved (or lost) when increasing (or decreasing) from a relatively high speed". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 348_cb | |
| time inconsistency | dynamic inconsistency, time inconsistency | A scenario in which "a decision-maker's preferences change over time in such a way that a preference can become inconsistent at another point in time". See also: current moment bias, hyperbiolic discounting, present bias. | [6], [21] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-07 | 704_cb |
| throwing good money after bad | sunk cost fallacy, throwing good money after bad | Claiming that new investment is needed or else the prior investment would be lost, while ignoring the probability that additional investment will not result in actual gains, either. See also: argument from inertia. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 656_lf |
| three monkeys' fallacy | closed-mindedness, deliberate ignorance, hear no evil see no evil speak no evil, I don't want to hear it, motivated ignorance, three monkeys' fallacy, tuning out | The action of "choosing not to listen", "turning off any information, evidence or arguments that challenge one's beliefs, ideology, standpoint, or peace of mind", perhaps saying "Don't try to confuse me with the facts; my mind is made up". See also: confirmation bias, obscurantism, obscurationism, positive thinking fallacy, simpleton's fallacy, third person effect, they're all crooks, trust your gut, willful ignorance. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-26 | 884_lf |
| thousand flowers fallacy | take names and kick butt, thousand flowers fallacy | A phenomenon of deceptively allowing, encouraging, or demanding free and open brainstorming or discussion, which is only temporary and for the purpose of identifying and then punishing the opposition. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 655_lf |
| this is the best of all possible worlds | acquiescence, better the devil you know than the devil you don't, deal with it, default bias, get used to it, if it ain't broke don't fix it, it is what it is, let it be let it be, making one's peace with the situation, normalization of evil, this is the best of all possible worlds, whatever is is right | The fallacy that just because something is the current state that is therefore the preferred state. Opposite of: nihilism. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 491_lf |
| third-person effect | A tendency to "believe that mass-communicated media messages have a greater effect on others than on themselves". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 347_cb | |
| third person effect | they're all liars, third person effect, wise up | A phenomenon in which people opt to remain in ignorance rather than listening to "mainstream media, the president, the medical establishment, professionals, pforessors, doctors, the academic elite, or other authorities or information sources, even about urgent subjects" and instead of becoming educated and participatory on a subject, thus laeding such uninformed people to believe that others are more influenced by mass media in comparsion with themselves. Example of: deliberate ignorance. See also: simpleton's fallacy, trust your gut. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 654_lf |
| they're not like us | othering, otherizing, prejudice, racism, speakee fallacy, stereotyping, they're not like us, xenophobia, you speakee da english | An argument in which facts are arbitrarily discarded due to a claim that another group of people are different from the in-group. A "bady corrupted...argument from ethos". A form of: ad hominem argument, argumentum ad hominem, argument toward the man, attacking the person, personal attack, poisoning the well. See also: dehumanised perception, dehumanization. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 882_lf |
| they're just like us | Pollyanna principle, projection bias, singing kumbaya, they're just like us | An automatic and false assumption that everybody in some group context shares "basically the same (positive) wishes, desires, interests, concerns, ethics and moral code". A "fallacy of ethos". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 881_lf |
| they're all liars | they're all liars, third person effect, wise up | A phenomenon in which people opt to remain in ignorance rather than listening to "mainstream media, the president, the medical establishment, professionals, pforessors, doctors, the academic elite, or other authorities or information sources, even about urgent subjects" and instead of becoming educated and participatory on a subject, thus laeding such uninformed people to believe that others are more influenced by mass media in comparsion with themselves. Example of: deliberate ignorance. See also: simpleton's fallacy, trust your gut. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 880_lf |
| they're all crooks | A refusal to "get involved in public politics because all politicians...are allegedly corrupt" while ignoring that "it is precisely because decent people...refuse to get involved, leaving the field open to the [alleged] crooks by default". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 653_lf | |
| they're all biased | A scenario in which an "extremely common contemporary [phenomenon] of ignoring news and news media because none tells the objective truth and all push some agenda" results in, instead of reviewing "a variety of media sources in order to get any approximation of reality", "many...people..." then totally ignore "news...and public affairs altogether". See also: deliberate ignorance, they're all crooks, third person effect. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 652_lf | |
| there is no alternative | fait accompli, get over it, love it or leave it, suck it up, there is no alternative, TINA | The rejection of opposing ideas on the basis that "there is no realistic alternative to a given standpoint, status or action, arbitrarily ruling any and all other options out of bounds, or announcing that a decision has been made and any further discussion is insubordination, disloyalty, treason, disobedience or simply a waste of precious time when there's a job to be done". An extension of: either/or fallacy. A form of: appeal to force, argument from force, argument from strength, argument from the club (stick), argumentum ad baculum, bullying, fascism, hard power, might-makes-right, muscular leadership, non-negotiable demands, power-play, resolution by force of arms, shock and awe. See also: taboo, finish the job. See also: appeal to closure, acquiescence, better the devil you know than the devil you don't, deal with it, default bias, get used to it, if it ain't broke don't fix it, it is what it is, let it be let it be, making one's peace with the situation, normalization of evil, this is the best of all possible worlds, whatever is is right. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 879_lf |
| the politics of the center | falacia ad temperantiam, marginalization of the adversary, middle of the road fallacy, politics of the center | An argument that a position is correct "not on its own merits" but "solely or mainly by presenting it as the only moderate path among two or more obviously unacceptable extreme alternatives". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 877_lf |
| the perfect is the enemy of the good | hero-busting, perfect is the enemy of good, the perfect is the enemy of the good | A fallacy of pointing out that nobody could have been a hero because "nobody and nothing in this world is perfect". Examples: pointing out the faults of historic figures generally held to have been otherwise heroic in some way; reviewing everything a political opponent has ever done or said to find something to condemn or misinterpret. A "postmodern fallacy of ethos". Opposite of: hereoes all. Can aid: identity fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-27 | 483_lf |
| the nose knows | olfactory rhetoric, the nose knows | olfactory rhetoric, the nose knows | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 876_lf |
| the argument from motives | See too Questioning Motives. A kind of ad hominem. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-11 | 058_lf | |
| Texas sharpshooter fallacy | A fallacy in which "differences in data are ignored, but similarities are overemphasized". An "informal fallacy". | [22] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-08 | 708_ | |
| testing effect | A tendency to "more easily recall information one has read by rewriting it instead of rereading it". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 345_cb | |
| testimonial | eminence-based practice, falacia ad verecundiam, faulty use of authority, questionable authority, star power, testimonial | A fallacy in which arguments "are granted fame and validity or condemed to obscurity soley by whoever may be the reigning stars or premier journals of the profession or discpline at the moment". A "corrupt argument from ethos". Includes: faulty use of quotes. | [3] | 2024-06-21 | 2024-08-28 | 916_lf |
| tell me what were their names | prosopology, prosopography, reciting the litany, tell me what were their names, reading the roll of martyrs | The use of a long list of names (often unknown to the audience) to underline the gravity of an event, since proper names "can have near-mystical persuasive power". A "fallacy of pathos and ethos". | [3] | 2024-08-28 | 368_lf | |
| telescoping effect | A tendency to "displace recent events backwards in time and remote events forward in time". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 344_cb | |
| teleological bias | A tendency to "engage in overgeneralized ascriptions of purpose to entities and events that did not arise from goal-directed action, design, or selection based on functional effects". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 343_cb | |
| team player appeal | blind loyalty, blind obedience, Nuremberg defense, team player appeal, unthinking obedience | A fallacy which holds that "an argument or action is right simply and solely because a respected leader or source (a President, expert, one's parents, one's own side, team or country, one's boss or commanding officers) says it is right". A corrupted argument from ethos. See also: big brain little brain fallacy, soldiers' honor fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-03 | 482_lf |
| teach the controversy | false balance, false equivalence, teach the controversy, two-sides fallacy | Presenting an issue in such a way that makes it seemas though there are "two sides of equal weight or significance, when in fact a consensus or much stronger argument supports just one side". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 871_lf |
| talking points | scripted message, talking points | The strict limitation of public statements on a topic to ones that have been carefully prepared and are often "exaggerated or empty phrases developed to achieve maximum acceptance or maximum desired reaction from a target audience". Opposite of: venting. See also: big lie technique, dog whistle politics, political correctness. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 650_lf |
| take names and kick butt | take names and kick butt, thousand flowers fallacy | A phenomenon of deceptively allowing, encouraging, or demanding free and open brainstorming or discussion, which is only temporary and for the purpose of identifying and then punishing the opposition. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 870_lf |
| tachypsychia | A phenomenon in which "time perceived by the individual either lengthens, making events appear to slow down, or contracts". A form of: memory bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 342_cb | |
| taboo | dogmatism, taboo | Arbitrarily claiming that certain "arguments, assumptions, dogmas, standpoints, or actions" are not open to discussion. A form of: argumentum ad baculum. See also: mind your own business, tone policing, calling "cards". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 649_lf |
| systematic bias | A phenomenon when "targets of differentiating judgement become subject to effects of regression that are not equivalent". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 341_cb | |
| system justification | A tendency to "defend and bolster the status quo". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 340_cb | |
| sweeping generalization | ignoring qualifications, secundum quid, secundum quid et simpliciter, sweeping generalization | Literally, "secundum quid" means "according to something", and "secundum quid et simpliciter" means "what is true in a certain respect and what is true absolutely". A common type of "secundum quid" is: accident ("a dicto simpliciter ad dictum secundum quid"), in which a general rule is applied to an edge case that is actually an exception to the rule. Another common type of "secundum quid" is: converse accident ("a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter"), in which "a rule that applies only to an exceptional case is wrongly applied to all cases in general". See also: a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter, converse accident, destroying the exception, dicto simpliciter, hasty generalization, jumping to conclusions, reverse accident.[1], [2], [31], [32] | [1], [2], [31], [32] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 563_lf |
| survivorship bias | A phenomenon of "concentrating on the people or things that 'survived' some process and inadvertently overlooking those that did not because of their lack of visibility". Example of: availability heuristic. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 339_cb | |
| surrogation | A phenomenon of "lLosing sight of the strategic construct that a measure is intended to represent, and subsequently acting as though the measure is the construct of interest.". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 338_cb | |
| surprise surprise | plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose, nothing new under the sun, seen it all before, surprise surprise, uniformitarianism | An incorrect assertion that there "is not and will never be any real novelty in this world". Or, literally, "the more things change, the more they stay the same". A "corruption of the argument from logos". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 869_lf |
| superiority bias | better-than-average effect, illusory superiority, Lake Wobegon effect, superiority bias | A "tendency to overestimate one's desirable qualities, and underestimate undesirable qualities, relative to other people". A form of egocentric bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 337_cb |
| sunk cost fallacy | escalation of commitment, irrational escalation, sunk cost fallacy, throwing good money after bad | As a cognitive bias, a tendency in which "people justify increased investment in a decision, based on the cumulative prior investment, despite new evidence suggesting that the decision was probably wrong". As a logical fallacy, claiming that new investment is needed or else the prior investment would be lost, while ignoring the probability that additional investment will not result in actual gains, either. See also: argument from inertia. | [3], [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-28 | 336_cb_lf |
| sui generis fallacy | difference, sui generis fallacy | A rejection of "the validity of analogy and of inductive reasoning altogether" on the basis that " any given person, place, thing or idea under consideration is...different and unique, in a class unto itself". Literally, "sui generis" means "of its own kind". Opposite of: false analogy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 648_lf |
| suggestibility | A phenomenon in which "ideas suggested by a questioner are mistaken for memory". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 335_cb | |
| suffix effect | A "diminishment of the recency effect because a sound item is appended to the list that the subject is not required to recall". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 334_cb | |
| suck it up | fait accompli, get over it, love it or leave it, suck it up, there is no alternative, TINA | The rejection of opposing ideas on the basis that "there is no realistic alternative to a given standpoint, status or action, arbitrarily ruling any and all other options out of bounds, or announcing that a decision has been made and any further discussion is insubordination, disloyalty, treason, disobedience or simply a waste of precious time when there's a job to be done". An extension of: either/or fallacy. A form of: appeal to force, argument from force, argument from strength, argument from the club (stick), argumentum ad baculum, bullying, fascism, hard power, might-makes-right, muscular leadership, non-negotiable demands, power-play, resolution by force of arms, shock and awe. See also: taboo, finish the job. See also: appeal to closure, acquiescence, better the devil you know than the devil you don't, deal with it, default bias, get used to it, if it ain't broke don't fix it, it is what it is, let it be let it be, making one's peace with the situation, normalization of evil, this is the best of all possible worlds, whatever is is right. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 647_lf |
| subjective validation | A phenomenon in which "statements are perceived as true if a subject's belief demands it to be true". Also in this phenomenon, one may assign "perceived connections between coincidences". A form of: truth judgement. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 333_cb | |
| subject-expectancy effect | A phenomenon in which a "research subject expects a given result and therefore unconsciously affects the outcome, or reports the expected result". See also: observer-expectancy effect. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 332_cb | |
| subadditivity effect | A tendency to "tendency to judge the probability of the whole to be less than the probabilities of the parts". Exampe of: logical fallacy. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 331_cb_lf | |
| strawman | straw figure, straw person, straw man, straw man argument, strawman | The setting up and knocking down or reduction to absurdity of a false, weak, extreme, or ridiculous version of an opponent's argument, while ignoring the actual components of the actual argument that the opponent puts forth. A subtype of red herring. A component fallacy. | [1], [2], [3 | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 828_lf |
| straw person | straw figure, straw person, straw man, straw man argument, strawman | The setting up and knocking down or reduction to absurdity of a false, weak, extreme, or ridiculous version of an opponent's argument, while ignoring the actual components of the actual argument that the opponent puts forth. A subtype of red herring. A component fallacy. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 868_lf |
| straw man argument | straw figure, straw person, straw man, straw man argument, strawman | The setting up and knocking down or reduction to absurdity of a false, weak, extreme, or ridiculous version of an opponent's argument, while ignoring the actual components of the actual argument that the opponent puts forth. A subtype of red herring. A component fallacy. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-28 | 015_lf |
| straw man | straw figure, straw person, straw man, straw man argument, strawman | The setting up and knocking down or reduction to absurdity of a false, weak, extreme, or ridiculous version of an opponent's argument, while ignoring the actual components of the actual argument that the opponent puts forth. A subtype of red herring. A component fallacy. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 646_lf |
| straw figure | straw figure, straw person, straw man, straw man argument, strawman | The setting up and knocking down or reduction to absurdity of a false, weak, extreme, or ridiculous version of an opponent's argument, while ignoring the actual components of the actual argument that the opponent puts forth. A subtype of red herring. A component fallacy. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 867_lf |
| Stockholm syndrome | The agreement with one's captor simply for psychological reasons related to survival rather than for one's own reasons. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 645_lf | |
| stereotyping | othering, otherizing, prejudice, racism, speakee fallacy, stereotyping, they're not like us, xenophobia, you speakee da english | As a cognitive bias, a pheneomenon of "expecting a member of a group to have certain characteristics without having actual information about that individual". Example of: false priors. As a logical fallacy, an argument in which facts are arbitrarily discarded due to a claim that another group of people are different from the in-group. A "bady corrupted...argument from ethos". A form of: ad hominem argument, argumentum ad hominem, argument toward the man, attacking the person, personal attack, poisoning the well. See also: dehumanised perception, dehumanization. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-28 | 330_cb_lf |
| stereotypical bias | stereotype bias, stereotypical bias | A phenomenon in which memory is "distorted towards stereotypes (e.g., racial or gender)" | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 329_cb |
| stereotype bias | stereotype bias, stereotypical bias | A phenomenon in which memory is "distorted towards stereotypes (e.g., racial or gender)" | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 328_cb |
| staying on message | big lie technique, bold faced lie, staying on message | A fallacy of "repeating a lie, fallacy, slogan, talking-point, nonsense-statement or deceptive half-truth over and over in different forms (particularly in the media) until it becomes part of daily discourse and people accept it without further proof or evidence". Notably, "the bolder and more outlandish the big lie becomes the more credible it seems". See also: alphabet soup, alternative truth; bandwagon fallacy, propaganda, straw man. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-03 | 481_lf |
| stay the course | argument from inertia, stay the course | A believe that "it is necessary to continue on a mistaken course of action regardless of pain and sacrifice involved and even after discovering it is mistaken, because changing course would mean admitting that one's decision (or one's leader, or one's country, or one's faith) was wrong, and all one's effort, expense, sacrifice and even bloodshed was for nothing, and that's unthinkable". A form of: argument from consequences, E for effort, or appeal to tradition. See also: throwing good money after bad. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 480_lf |
| status quo bias | A tendency to "prefer things to stay relatively the same". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 327_cb | |
| state-dependent memory | mood-congruent memory bias, state-dependent memory | A tendency in which "recall of information" is "congruent with one's current mood". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 250_cb |
| state actor fallacy | A position that "those who fight and die for their country...are worthy of honor or at least pardonable" regardless of their particular allegiance, while "those who fight for a non-state actor...are not...no matter...their cause...unless they win and become the recognized state or are adopted by a state after the fact". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 644_lf | |
| star power | eminence-based practice, falacia ad verecundiam, faulty use of authority, questionable authority, star power, testimonial | A fallacy in which arguments "are granted fame and validity or condemed to obscurity soley by whoever may be the reigning stars or premier journals of the profession or discpline at the moment". A "corrupt argument from ethos". Includes: faulty use of quotes. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-21 | 643_lf |
| standardization | Fordism, keeping up standards, procrustean fallacy, standardization, uniformity | The inappropriate application "the norms and requirements of standardized manufacturing. quality control and rigid scheduling, or of military discipline to inherently diverse free human beings, their lives, education, behavior, clothing and appearance". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 866_lf |
| standard version fallacy | A claim that one version of a text is the only correct one, thus removing some original meaning and also stopping discussion of the meaning of prior versions of the text. A form of: argumentum ad baculum. See also: argumentum ad mysteriam, dog-whistle politics, othering, monolingual fallacy, othering. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 642_lf | |
| stacking the deck | card stacking, half truth, incomplete information, stacking the deck | A fallacy of ignoring examples or evidence that disprove one's point and instead only listing examples or sharing evidence which would support one's point. A fallacy of omission. A "corrupt argument from logos". Different from: straw man. See also: confirmation bias, hasty generalization. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-03 | 028_lf |
| squeaky wheel gets the grease | appeasement, assertiveness, i know my rights, squeaky wheel gets the grease | A fallacy of obtaining a result not through argument but through the audience's willingness to give in so that the opposition will simply be satisfied, quieter, or no longer a nuisance. Common in public agencies, education, and retail. Sometimes promoted as a practical, nonviolent way for groups to promote change. See also: bribery. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-26 | 479_lf |
| spotlight effect | A tendecy to "overestimate the amount that other people notice one's appearance or behavior". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 326_cb | |
| sports world fallacy | hey sports fans, moving the ball down the field, scoring, sports world fallacy | The inappropriate application of sports analogy to other domains. See also: evening up the score, getting even. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 641_lf |
| special pleading | big but fallacy, special pleading | A fallacy of stating "a generally-accepted principle and then directly negating it with a 'but'. Often detailed as a special case "supposedly exempt from the usual rules of law, logic, morality, ethics or even credibility". Closely related to: contradictory premises. A component fallacy. | [1], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 022_lf |
| special covenant | American exceptionalism, appeal to heaven, argumentum ad coelum, Deus vult, Gott mit uns, manifest destiny | A fallacy based on claiming to know God's mind and wishes, which cannot really be challenged. A "deluded argument from ethos". Opposite of: Job's comforter fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-27 | 478_lf |
| speakee fallacy | othering, otherizing, prejudice, racism, speakee fallacy, stereotyping, they're not like us, xenophobia, you speakee da english | An argument in which facts are arbitrarily discarded due to a claim that another group of people are different from the in-group. A "bady corrupted...argument from ethos". A form of: ad hominem argument, argumentum ad hominem, argument toward the man, attacking the person, personal attack, poisoning the well. See also: dehumanised perception, dehumanization. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 640_lf |
| spacing effect | A tendency in which "information is better recalled if exposure to it is repeated over a long span of time rather than a short one". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 325_cb | |
| source confusion | A phenomenon in which "episodic memories are confused with other information, creating distorted memories". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 324_cb | |
| sophism | arguing in bad faith, mala fides, sophism | A fallacy of putting forth an argument that the argue knows is invalid. Includes: motivational truth, demagogy, campaign promises, self deception, whistling by the graveyward. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-26 | 864_lf |
| someone's going to win and it might as well be you | An obverse of: Hoyle's fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-05 | 863_lf | |
| soldiers' honor fallacy | A position that "all who wore a uniform, fought hard and followed orders are...heroes" regardless for whom or for what causes they were fighting, for example, regardless of whether that soldiering was "for freedom or to defend slavery". See also: blind loyalty, heroes all, state actor fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 638_lf | |
| social desirability bias | A tendency to "over-report socially desirable characteristics or behaviours in oneself and under-report socially undesirable characteristics or behaviours". See also: courtesy bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 323_cb | |
| social cryptomnesia | A phenomenon of "a failure by people and society in general to remember the origin of a change, in which people know that a change has occurred in society, but forget how this change occurred; that is, the steps that were taken to bring this change about, and who took these steps". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 322_cb | |
| social comparison bias | A tendency "when making decisions, to favour potential candidates who do not compete with one's own particular strengths". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 321_cb | |
| sob story | bleeding heart, drama queen or drama king fallacy, pathetic fallacy, playing on emotion, sob story | A fallacy in which, ignoring facts, emotion is evoked alone. A fallacy "of pure argument from pathos". The opposite is: apathetic fallacy, burnout, compassion fatigue, cynicism. An obverse is: refinement, real feelings. See also: othering. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 862_lf |
| so what | appeal to privacy, mind your own business, MYOB, none of yer beeswax, so what, you're not the boss of me | A fallacy of preventing discussion of one's point by "drawing a phony curtian of privacy around oneself and one's actions". A counterpart is: heart of darkness syndrome, I think we're alone now, nobody will ever know, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-26 | 499_lf |
| snow job | falacia ad verbosium, information bias, snow job | An attempt to prove a claim by overwhelming an audience with "mountains of true but marginally-relevant documents, graphs, words, facts, numbers, information and statistics s that look extremely impressive but which the...audience cannot be expected to understand or evaluate properly." A "fallacy of logos". Opposite of: plain truth fallacy. See also: lying with statistics. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 637_lf |
| sloganeering | oversimplifying, sloganeering, reductionism | Deceipt through "simple answers or bumper-sticker slogans in response to complex questions". See also: dog-whistle politics, plain truth fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 860_lf |
| slippery slope fallacy | camel's nose fallacy | A fallacy holding that "one thing inevitably leads to another" when this is not necessarily the case. A non sequitur. A component fallacy. | [1], [2] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-03 | 017_lf |
| slippery slope | camel's nose fallacy, domino theory, slippery slope | A fallacy holding that "one thing inevitably leads to another" when this is not necessarily the case. A non sequitur. A component fallacy. | [1], [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-03 | 636_lf |
| singing kumbaya | Pollyanna principle, projection bias, singing kumbaya, they're just like us | An automatic and false assumption that everybody in some group context shares "basically the same (positive) wishes, desires, interests, concerns, ethics and moral code". A "fallacy of ethos". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 859_lf |
| sin of presumption | expect a miracle, magical thinking, sin of presumption | An argument that when it really matters, one just has to pray or do the right rituals and then a miracle will occur. A "fallacy... of logos". See also: appeal to heaven, Job's comforter fallacy, positive thinking. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 858_lf |
| simpleton's fallacy | good simpleton, simpleton's fallacy | A claim that uninformed perspectives are equally as valid as fully informed perspectives. A "fallacy of logos". See also: argument from ignorance, just plain folks, plain truth fallacy, third person effect. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 635_lf |
| simple truth fallacy | executive summary, keep it short and simple, keep it simple stupid, KISS principle, monocausal fallacy, plain truth fallacy, salience bias, simple truth fallacy | The favoring of "familiar, singular, summarized or easily comprehensible data, examples, explanations and evidence over those that are more complex and unfamiliar but much closer to the truth". Might appear as "I don't want a whole lesson on it, just boil it down to the plain truth" or as an assertion that "the truth is always simple and only enemies of truth would make it complicated". A "fallacy of logos". Opposite of: complexity, ineffability, post-truth, truthiness. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 857_lf |
| silent treatment | noncooperation, nonviolent civil disobedience, pout, silent treatment | The arbitrary rejection of dialogue "before it is concluded". A from of: argumentum ad baculum. See also: no discussion, non-recognition. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 856_lf |
| silent majority fallacy | A claim that a most people do not say anything about a matter but are in agreement about it, "contrary to the repeated findings of polls, surveys and...vote totals". A form of: argument from ignorance. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 634_lf | |
| shopping hungry fallacy | The making of important decisions poorly while "under the influence of strong emotion". A "fallacy of pathos". See also: big but fallacy, playing on emotions, scare tactics, we have to do something. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 633_lf | |
| shockdoc | appeal to fear, bogeyman fallacy, paranoia, scare tactics, shockdoc, shock doctrine, rally 'round the flag, rally 'round the president | A fallacy in which one takes "advantage of a emergent or deliberately-created crisis and its associated public shock, panic and chaos in order to impose an argument, action or solution that would be clearly unacceptable if carefully considered". A "corrupted argument from pathos". A form of playing on emotions. See also: shopping hungry fallacy, dog-whistle politics, we have to do something, worst-case fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 855_lf |
| shock doctrine | appeal to fear, bogeyman fallacy, paranoia, scare tactics, shockdoc, shock doctrine, rally 'round the flag, rally 'round the president | A fallacy in which one takes "advantage of a emergent or deliberately-created crisis and its associated public shock, panic and chaos in order to impose an argument, action or solution that would be clearly unacceptable if carefully considered". A "corrupted argument from pathos". A form of playing on emotions. See also: shopping hungry fallacy, dog-whistle politics, we have to do something, worst-case fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 854_lf |
| shock and awe | appeal to force, argument from force, argument from strength, argument from the club (stick), argumentum ad baculum, bullying, fascism, hard power, might-makes-right, muscular leadership, non-negotiable demands, power-play, resolution by force of arms, shock and awe | A fallacy in which a conclusion is reached due to force, threat of force, or threat of unpleasantness. A fallacy of relevance, since reason for conclusion is not relevant to the argument at hand. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-03 | 853_lf |
| shifting the burden of proof | Challenging "an opponent to disprove a claim rather than asking the person making the claim to defend" their own argument. A "fallacy of logos". See also: argument from ignorance. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 632_lf | |
| shearing the sheeple | con artist's fallacy, dacoit's fallacy, profiteering, shearing the sheeple, vulture capitalism, wealth is the disease and I am the cure | Fallacy saying that those who are less capable therefore are less deserving and therefore can be justifiably victimized due to how nature is. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 477_lf |
| shared information bias | A tendency "for group members to spend more time and energy discussing information that all members are already familiar with (i.e., shared information), and less time and energy discussing information that only some members are aware of (i.e., unshared information)". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 319_cb | |
| sexual underperception bias | A tendency to "underestimate sexual interest of another person in oneself". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 304_cb | |
| sexual overperception bias | A tendency to "overestimate sexual interest of another person in oneself". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 318_cb | |
| seven sins of memory | A tendency for memory failures to occur of the following types, as written about by Havard psychologist Daniel Schacter: transience, absent-mindedness, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias, and persistence | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 317_cb | |
| serial position effect | A tendency in which "items near the end of a sequence are the easiest to recall, followed by the items at the beginning of a sequence; items in the middle are the least likely to be remembered". See also: recency effect, primacy effect, suffix effect. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 316_cb | |
| sending the wrong message | Attacking something "no matter how good, true or necessary" for the reason that supporting it would "send the wrong message", often such that "those who use this fallacy are openly confessing...that the truth will destroy the fragile web of illusion they have deliberately created by their lies". A "fallacy of logos". See also: mala fides. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 630_lf | |
| Semmelweis reflex | A tendency to "reject new evidence that contradicts a paradigm". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 315_cb | |
| self-serving bias | A tendency to "claim more responsibility for successes than failures" or a tendency to "evaluate ambiguous information in a way beneficial to [one's] interests". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 314_cb | |
| self-relevance effect | A tendency in which "memories relating to the self are better recalled than similar information relating to others". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 313_cb | |
| self-generation effect | generation effect, self-generation effect | A tendnecy in which "self-generated information is remembered best". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-10 | 193_cb |
| self righteousness | moral high ground, moral superiority, self righteousness | An argument that "evil has no rights" that must be respected by "the good and the righteous", in direct denial of the "golden rule". See also: appeal to heaven, moving the goalposts. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 629_lf |
| self justification | attribution error, fundamental attribution error, self justification | A tendency to assume that others' (poor) behavior results from character defects (personality) while under-emphasizing the influence of the situation on others' behavior, while, at the same time, one's own behavior is held to be due to environmental factors (situtation). A "corrupt argument from ethos". Obverse is: self debasement, self deprecation. See also: group attribution error, ultimate attribution error. | [3], [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-10 | 476_lf |
| self fooling | self deception, self fooling, whistling by the graveyard | The deliberate and knowing delusion of oneself "in order to achieve a goal, or perhaps simply to suppress anxiety and maintain one's energy level, enthusiasm, morale, peace of mind or sanity in moments of adversity." | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 712_lf | |
| self deprecation | self debasement, self deprecation | A secenario in which false humility or genuine low self-esteem results in one's deliberately putting oneself down, "most often in hopes of attracting denials, gratifying compliments, and praise". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 628_lf |
| self deception | self deception, self fooling, whistling by the graveyard | The deliberate and knowing delusion of oneself "in order to achieve a goal, or perhaps simply to suppress anxiety and maintain one's energy level, enthusiasm, morale, peace of mind or sanity in moments of adversity." | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 627_lf |
| self debasement | self debasement, self deprecation | A secenario in which false humility or genuine low self-esteem results in one's deliberately putting oneself down, "most often in hopes of attracting denials, gratifying compliments, and praise". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 626_lf |
| selective perception | A tendency for "expectations to affect perception". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 312_cb | |
| selection effect | selection bias, selection effect | The result when "the members of a statistical sample are not chosen completely at random", and as a result, the sample is "not representative of the population". An example of: availability heuristic. | [6], [20] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 469_cb |
| selection bias | selection bias, selection effect | The result when "the members of a statistical sample are not chosen completely at random", and as a result, the sample is "not representative of the population". An example of: availability heuristic. | [6], [20] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 311_cb |
| seen it all before | plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose, nothing new under the sun, seen it all before, surprise surprise, uniformitarianism | An incorrect assertion that there "is not and will never be any real novelty in this world". Or, literally, "the more things change, the more they stay the same". A "corruption of the argument from logos". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 852_lf |
| security theater | placebo effect, political theater, security theater, we have to do something, we have to send a message | The position that when there is a problem or disconcert, then doing anything is beter than doing nothing, even if that action might seem illogical. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 851_lf |
| secundum quid et simpliciter | ignoring qualifications, secundum quid, secundum quid et simpliciter | Literally, "secundum quid" means "according to something", and "secundum quid et simpliciter" means "what is true in a certain respect and what is true absolutely". A common type of "secundum quid" is: accident ("a dicto simpliciter ad dictum secundum quid"), in which a general rule is applied to an edge case that is actually an exception to the rule. Another common type of "secundum quid" is: converse accident ("a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter"), in which "a rule that applies only to an exceptional case is wrongly applied to all cases in general". See also: a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter, converse accident, destroying the exception, dicto simpliciter, hasty generalization, jumping to conclusions, reverse accident. | [1], [2], [31], [32] | 2024-08-26 | 2024-08-28 | 785_lf |
| secundum quid | ignoring qualifications, secundum quid, secundum quid et simpliciter, sweeping generalization | Literally, "secundum quid" means "according to something", and "secundum quid et simpliciter" means "what is true in a certain respect and what is true absolutely". A common type of "secundum quid" is: accident ("a dicto simpliciter ad dictum secundum quid"), in which a general rule is applied to an edge case that is actually an exception to the rule. Another common type of "secundum quid" is: converse accident ("a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter"), in which "a rule that applies only to an exceptional case is wrongly applied to all cases in general". See also: a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter, converse accident, destroying the exception, dicto simpliciter, hasty generalization, jumping to conclusions, reverse accident. | [1], [2], [31], [32] | 2024-08-27 | 2024-08-28 | 786_lf |
| scruples | The obsession "to pathological excess about one's accidental, forgotten, unconfessed or unforgiven sins and because of them, the seemingly inevitable prospect of eternal damnation" Opposite of: moral licensing. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 625_lf | |
| Scrooge McDuck fallacy | A mistaken belief that "wealthy peole hoard their money in bank vaults". A fallacy surrounding: capitalism. | [27] | 2024-07-15 | 2024-08-28 | 878_lf | |
| scripted message | scripted message, talking points | The strict limitation of public statements on a topic to ones that have been carefully prepared and are often "exaggerated or empty phrases developed to achieve maximum acceptance or maximum desired reaction from a target audience". Opposite of: venting. See also: big lie technique, dog whistle politics, political correctness. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 624_lf |
| scoring | hey sports fans, moving the ball down the field, scoring, sports world fallacy | The inappropriate application of sports analogy to other domains. See also: evening up the score, getting even. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 623_lf |
| scope neglect | scope neglect, scope insensitivity | A tendency to "be insensitive to the size of a problem when evaluating it". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 310_cb |
| scope insensitivity | scope neglect, scope insensitivity | A tendency to "be insensitive to the size of a problem when evaluating it". | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 291_cb | |
| scare tactics | appeal to fear, bogeyman fallacy, paranoia, scare tactics, shockdoc, shock doctrine, rally 'round the flag, rally 'round the president | A fallacy in which one takes "advantage of a emergent or deliberately-created crisis and its associated public shock, panic and chaos in order to impose an argument, action or solution that would be clearly unacceptable if carefully considered". A "corrupted argument from pathos". A form of playing on emotions. See also: shopping hungry fallacy, dog-whistle politics, we have to do something, worst-case fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 622_lf |
| scarcity fallacy | A mistaken belief that "earth is ru nning out of resources". A fallacy surrounding: capitalism. | [27] | 2024-07-15 | 2024-08-28 | 817_lf | |
| scapegoating | blamecasting, scapegoating | A fallacy in which there is always someone else to blame than oneself when anything goes wrong. For scapegoating, the blamed entity is typically "other" or marginalized in some way already. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 621_lf |
| saying is believing effect | A phenomenon in which "communicating a socially tuned message to an audience can lead to a bias of identifying the tuned message as one's own thoughts". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 309_cb | |
| save the children fallacy | humanitarian crisis, save the children fallacy | Attracting public support for one side a distant crisis by invoking "in gross detail" the suffering of "the innocent, defenseless little children" while "conveniently ignoring the reality that innocent children on all sides usually suffer the most in any war, conflict, famine or crisis". A "fallacy of pathos". An example of: appeal to pity. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 620_lf |
| salience bias | executive summary, keep it short and simple, keep it simple stupid, KISS principle, monocausal fallacy, plain truth fallacy, salience bias, simple truth fallacy | As a cognitive bias, a tendency to "focus on items that are more prominent or emotionally striking and ignore those that are unremarkable, even though this difference is often irrelevant by objective standards". As a logical fallacy, the favoring of "familiar, singular, summarized or easily comprehensible data, examples, explanations and evidence over those that are more complex and unfamiliar but much closer to the truth". Might appear as "I don't want a whole lesson on it, just boil it down to the plain truth" or as an assertion that "the truth is always simple and only enemies of truth would make it complicated". A "fallacy of logos". Opposite of: complexity, ineffability, post-truth, truthiness. | [3], [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-28 | 308_cb_lf |
| salacious fallacy | The false attraction of attention and potential agreement to an argument "by inappropriately sexualizing it, particularly connecting it to some form of sex that is perceived as deviant, perverted or prohibited". See also: cursing, F-bomb, obscenity, profanity, red herring. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 619_lf | |
| safe space | safe place, safe space | The disallowance to "refute, challenge or even discuss another's beliefs" due to concerns over the discomfort or trigging effect on the emotionally fragile. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 618_lf |
| safe place | safe place, safe space | The disallowance to "refute, challenge or even discuss another's beliefs" due to concerns over the discomfort or trigging effect on the emotionally fragile. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 617_lf |
| rosy retrospection | A tendency to remember "the past as having been better than it really was". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 307_cb | |
| romantic rebel | brave heretic, conspiracy theories, iconoclastic fallacy, romantic rebel, truthout fallacy, truthdig fallacy | A fallacy of holding a claim as true just because that position "is supposedly standing up heroically to the dominant orthodoxy, the current standard model, conventional wisdom or political correctness, or whatever may be the bandwagon of the moment". A corrupt argument from ethos. The opposite of: bandwagon fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-03 | 616_lf |
| romantic fallacy | affective fallacy, appeal to emotion, appeal to pity, argument from pity, argumentum ad misericordiam, emotion over reflection, follow your heart, playing to emotions, romantic fallacy | "An emotional appeal to what should be a logical issue". "Opposite to this is...chosen emotion fallacy. Often, "a fallacy of encouragement to root of the underdog regardless of the issues at hand". "A corrupt argument from pathos." A fallacy of relevance. Closely related to angelism. "Opposite to this is...chosen emotion fallacy." Opposite of: appeal to rigor. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-24 | 475_lf |
| risk compensation | Peltzman effect, risk compensation | A tendency to "take greater risks when perceived safety increases". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 305_cb |
| rhyme as reason effect | A tendnecy in which "rhyming statements are perceived as more truthful". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 303_cb | |
| reverse accident | a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter, converse accident, destroying the exception, dicto simpliciter, hasty generalization, jumping to conclusions, reverse accident | Literally, "a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter" means "from a qualified statement to a simple statement"; the shorter "dictum simpliciter" means "simple statement". A fallacy in which "a rule that applies only to an exceptional case is wrongly applied to all cases in general". Also, "mistaken use of inductive reasoning when there are too few samples to prove a point." A common example is the misleading statistic, a statistic seems compelling the way it is presented, but a fuller picture would show otherwise. A component fallacy. See also: ignoring qualifications, secundum quid, secundum quid et simpliciter, sweeping generalization. | [1], [2], [31], [32] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 558_lf |
| restraint bias | A tendency to "overestimate one's ability to show restraint in the face of temptation". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 302_cb | |
| resolution by force of arms | appeal to force, argument from force, argument from strength, argument from the club (stick), argumentum ad baculum, bullying, fascism, hard power, might-makes-right, muscular leadership, non-negotiable demands, power-play, resolution by force of arms, shock and awe | A fallacy in which a conclusion is reached due to force, threat of force, or threat of unpleasantness. A fallacy of relevance, since reason for conclusion is not relevant to the argument at hand. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-03 | 849_lf |
| resilience doctrine | every revolution ends up eating its own young, grit, law of unintended consequences, resilience doctrine | An argument that, since it is impossible to know everything or to forsee anything, then unknown unknowns will always blindside and overwhelm, so therefore one must be prepared to maintain strength, withstand, and to recover as a main means of survival. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 848_lf |
| repetition blindness | The phenomenon of an "unexpected difficulty in remembering more than one instance of a visual sequence". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 301_cb | |
| rent control fallacy | A mistaken belief that "rent caps lower prices". A fallacy surrounding: capitalism. | [27] | 2024-07-15 | 2024-08-28 | 861_lf | |
| reminiscence bump | A tendnecy to recall "more personal events from adolescence and early adulthood than personal events from other lifetime periods". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 300_cb | |
| relativizing | A fallacy of dismissing arguments on the basis such as "it all depends", "that's your opinion; eveything is relative", or "whatever...I don't feel like arguing about it". May falsely invoke concepts from physics such as Einstein's relativity theory or Heisenberg's uncertainty uncertainty principle as an argument. Opposite of: essentializing. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-26 | 615_lf | |
| reifying | fallacy of misplaced concreteness, fallacy of reification, hypostatization, mistaking the map for the territory, reification, reifying | A fallacy in which imaginary or abstract concepts or categories are treated as "actual, material things". Treating a word for something as the same as the thing itself. A "fallacy of ambiguity". See also: faulty analogy, essentializing, equivocation. | [1], [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-26 | 614_lf |
| reification | fallacy of misplaced concreteness, fallacy of reification, hypostatization, mistaking the map for the territory, reification, reifying | A fallacy in which imaginary or abstract concepts or categories are treated as "actual, material things". Treating a word for something as the same as the thing itself. A "fallacy of ambiguity". See also: faulty analogy, essentializing, equivocation. | [1], [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-26 | 788_lf |
| regressive bias | conservatism bias, regressive bias | As a memory cognitive bias, the tendency "to remember high values and high likelihoods/probabilities/frequencies as lower than they actually were and low ones as higher than they actually were" ("memories are not extreme enough"). | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 064_ | |
| refinement | refinement, real feelings | A claim that "certain classes of living beings...in general are deemed incapable of experiencing...[certain feelings] like we do, or of having any real feelings at all". Opposite of: playing on emotion. See also: apathetic fallacy, burnout, compassion fatigue, cynicism. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 613_lf |
| reductionism | oversimplifying, sloganeering, reductionism | Deceipt through "simple answers or bumper-sticker slogans in response to complex questions". See also: dog-whistle politics, plain truth fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 612_lf |
| reductio ad Hitlerum | ad Hitlerum | An example of ad hominem or guilt by association that invokes a specific extreme persona from history. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-13 | 611_lf |
| red herring | distraction, red herring | An attempt to change the subject or redirect argument from the issue at hand. A form of: arguing beside the point, ignorantio elenchi, ignoring the issue, irrelevant conclusion. Examples include: appeal to emotion, irrelevant conclusion, personal attack, straw man. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-28 | 039_lf |
| reciting the litany | prosopology, prosopography, reciting the litany, tell me what were their names, reading the roll of martyrs | The use of a long list of names (often unknown to the audience) to underline the gravity of an event, since proper names "can have near-mystical persuasive power". A "fallacy of pathos and ethos". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 847_lf |
| recency illusion | A mistaken perception that "a phenomenon one has noticed only recently is itself recent". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 299_cb | |
| recency effect | A "form of serial position effect where an item at the end of a list is easier to recall". Can be disrupted by: suffix effet. See also: primacy effect. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 298_cb | |
| recency bias | appeal to novelty, bad old days, early adopter's fallacy, pro-innovation bias, recency bias | A fallacy that a view or other thing must be correct or better because it is new or recent. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-21 | 297_cb |
| real feelings | refinement, real feelings | A claim that "certain classes of living beings...in general are deemed incapable of experiencing...[certain feelings] like we do, or of having any real feelings at all". Opposite of: playing on emotion. See also: apathetic fallacy, burnout, compassion fatigue, cynicism. | [3] | 2024-08-28 | 2024-08-28 | 077_lf |
| reading the roll of martyrs | prosopology, prosopography, reciting the litany, tell me what were their names, reading the roll of martyrs | The use of a long list of names (often unknown to the audience) to underline the gravity of an event, since proper names "can have near-mystical persuasive power". A "fallacy of pathos and ethos". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 846_lf |
| reactive devaluation | A tendency to devalue proposals "only because they purportedly originated with an adversary.". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 296_cb | |
| reactance | A tendency to "do the opposite of what someone wants one to do out of a need to resist a perceived attempt to constrain one's freedom of choice". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 295_cb | |
| rationalization | a priori argument, proof texting, rationalization | A given pre-conceived conclusion is determined from the start, then any argument is sought to support it. Reasoning "from what is before" without observation or experience. Deciding that some claim is true and then "searching for any reasonable or reasonable-sounding argument to rationalize, defend or justify it". A "corrupt arguent form logos". Opposite of: taboo. See also: argument from ignorance. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 845_lf |
| rally 'round the president | appeal to fear, bogeyman fallacy, paranoia, scare tactics, shockdoc, shock doctrine, rally 'round the flag, rally 'round the president | A fallacy in which one takes "advantage of a emergent or deliberately-created crisis and its associated public shock, panic and chaos in order to impose an argument, action or solution that would be clearly unacceptable if carefully considered". A "corrupted argument from pathos". A form of playing on emotions. See also: shopping hungry fallacy, dog-whistle politics, we have to do something, worst-case fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 844_lf |
| rally 'round the flag | appeal to fear, bogeyman fallacy, paranoia, scare tactics, shockdoc, shock doctrine, rally 'round the flag, rally 'round the president | A fallacy in which one takes "advantage of a emergent or deliberately-created crisis and its associated public shock, panic and chaos in order to impose an argument, action or solution that would be clearly unacceptable if carefully considered". A "corrupted argument from pathos". A form of playing on emotions. See also: shopping hungry fallacy, dog-whistle politics, we have to do something, worst-case fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 843_lf |
| radicalization | brainwashing, propaganda, radicalization | The idea that "an enemy can instantly win over or radicalize an unsuspecting" individual with "vile but...persuasive propaganda" or by "beating an argument into" an a prisoner in coordination with techniques involving harsh treatment or drugs. Generally used in the sense that only the other side can brainwash, while one's own side does not. See also: bribery, love bombing, Stockholm syndrome. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-27 | 474_lf |
| racism | othering, otherizing, prejudice, racism, speakee fallacy, stereotyping, they're not like us, xenophobia, you speakee da english | An argument in which facts are arbitrarily discarded due to a claim that another group of people are different from the in-group. A "bady corrupted...argument from ethos". A form of: ad hominem argument, argumentum ad hominem, argument toward the man, attacking the person, personal attack, poisoning the well. See also: dehumanised perception, dehumanization. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 842_lf |
| questioning motives | argument from motives, questioning motives | A fallacy of claiming a point to be false simply on account of improper or evil motives of the person making the claim. See also: moral licensing. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-28 | 841_lf |
| questionable authority | eminence-based practice, falacia ad verecundiam, faulty use of authority, questionable authority, star power, testimonial | A fallacy in which arguments "are granted fame and validity or condemed to obscurity soley by whoever may be the reigning stars or premier journals of the profession or discpline at the moment". A "corrupt argument from ethos". Includes: faulty use of quotes. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-21 | 840_lf |
| Pygmalion effect | A tendency in whcih "others' expectations of a target person affect the target person's performance". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 294_cb | |
| puritanical bias | A tendency to "attribute cause of an undesirable outcome or wrongdoing by an individual to a moral deficiency or lack of self-control rather than taking into account the impact of broader societal determinants". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 293_cb | |
| pseudocertainty effect | A tendency to "make risk-averse choices if the expected outcome is positive, but make risk-seeking choices to avoid negative outcomes". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 292_cb | |
| prosopology | prosopology, prosopography, reciting the litany, tell me what were their names, reading the roll of martyrs | The use of a long list of names (often unknown to the audience) to underline the gravity of an event, since proper names "can have near-mystical persuasive power". A "fallacy of pathos and ethos". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 610_lf |
| prosopography | prosopology, prosopography, reciting the litany, tell me what were their names, reading the roll of martyrs | The use of a long list of names (often unknown to the reader) to underline the gravity of an event, since proper names "can have near-mystical persuasive power". A "fallacy of pathos and ethos". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 839_lf |
| proportionality bias | An "innate tendency to assume that big events have big causes" which "may also explain our tendency to accept conspiracy theories". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 290_cb | |
| propaganda | brainwashing, propaganda, radicalization | The idea that "an enemy can instantly win over or radicalize an unsuspecting" individual with "vile but...persuasive propaganda" or by "beating an argument into" an a prisoner in coordination with techniques involving harsh treatment or drugs. Generally used in the sense that only the other side can brainwash, while one's own side does not. See also: bribery, love bombing, Stockholm syndrome. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-27 | 473_lf |
| proof texting | a priori argument, proof texting, rationalization | A given pre-conceived conclusion is determined from the start, then any argument is sought to support it. Reasoning "from what is before" without observation or experience. Deciding that some claim is true and then "searching for any reasonable or reasonable-sounding argument to rationalize, defend or justify it". A "corrupt arguent form logos". Opposite of: taboo. See also: argument from ignorance. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 838_lf |
| projection bias | As a cognitive bias, a tendency "to overestimate how much one's future selves will share one's current preferences, thoughts and values, thus leading to sub-optimal choices". As a logical fallacy, an automatic and false assumption that everybody in some group context shares "basically the same (positive) wishes, desires, interests, concerns, ethics and moral code". A "fallacy of ethos". | [3], [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-28 | 289_cb_lf | |
| profiteering | con artist's fallacy, dacoit's fallacy, profiteering, shearing the sheeple, vulture capitalism, wealth is the disease and I am the cure | Fallacy saying that those who are less capable therefore are less deserving and therefore can be justifiably victimized due to how nature is. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 472_lf |
| profanity | cursing, F-bomb, obscenity, profanity | An attempt to "defend or strengthen one's argument with gratuitous, unrelated sexual, obscene, vulgar, crude or profane language when such language does nothing to make an argument stronger, other than perhaps to create a sense of identity with certain...audiences". A fallacy of pathos. Related to: salacious fallacy. See also: red herring. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 471_lf |
| procrustean fallacy | Fordism, keeping up standards, procrustean fallacy, standardization, uniformity | The inappropriate application "the norms and requirements of standardized manufacturing. quality control and rigid scheduling, or of military discipline to inherently diverse free human beings, their lives, education, behavior, clothing and appearance". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 609_lf |
| procrastination | analysis paralysis, nirvana fallacy, paralysis of analysis, procrastination | An argument that since all data is never available, therefore no decision can ever be made and action should always be delayed. A "corruption of...argument from logos". See also: law of unintended consequences. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 837_lf |
| processing difficulty effect | A tendency in which "information that takes longer to read and is thought about more (processed with more difficulty) is more easily remembered". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 288_cb | |
| probability matching | A phenomenon of "sub-optimal matching of the probability of choices with the probability of reward in a stochastic context". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 287_cb | |
| pro-innovation bias | appeal to novelty, bad old days, early adopter's fallacy, pro-innovation bias, recency bias | A fallacy that a view or other thing must be correct or better because it is new or recent. | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-21 | 470_lf | |
| primacy effect | A tendency in which "an item at the beginning of a list is more easily recalled". A form of: serial position effect. See also: recency effect, suffix effect. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 286_cb | |
| prevention bias | A tendency "when investing money to protect against risks, decision makers perceive that a dollar spent on prevention buys more security than a dollar spent on timely detection and response, even when investing in either option is equally effective". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 285_cb | |
| present bias | current moment bias, hyperbolic discounting, present bias | A tendency "for people to have a stronger preference for more immediate payoffs relative to later payoffs". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 284_cb |
| prejudice | othering, otherizing, prejudice, racism, speakee fallacy, stereotyping, they're not like us, xenophobia, you speakee da english | An argument in which facts are arbitrarily discarded due to a claim that another group of people are different from the in-group. A "bady corrupted...argument from ethos". A form of: ad hominem argument, argumentum ad hominem, argument toward the man, attacking the person, personal attack, poisoning the well. See also: dehumanised perception, dehumanization. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 836_lf |
| power-play | appeal to force, argument from force, argument from strength, argument from the club (stick), argumentum ad baculum, bullying, fascism, hard power, might-makes-right, muscular leadership, non-negotiable demands, power-play, resolution by force of arms, shock and awe | A fallacy in which a conclusion is reached due to force, threat of force, or threat of unpleasantness. A fallacy of relevance, since reason for conclusion is not relevant to the argument at hand. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-03 | 835_lf |
| pout | noncooperation, nonviolent civil disobedience, pout, silent treatment | The arbitrary rejection of dialogue "before it is concluded". A from of: argumentum ad baculum. See also: no discussion, non-recognition. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 608_lf |
| poster child | fable, narrative fallacy, poster child | Wrapping a message in a "heartwarming or horrifying story or fable" is more persusasive than more formal or direct argument, even if the story is fictional. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 834_lf |
| post-truth | complexity, ineffability, post-truth, truthiness | An arbitrary declaration tht "today's world is so complex that there is no truth" or that if truth does exist it is "unknowable excerpt perhaps by God". Opposite of: executive summary, keep it short and simple, keep it simple stupid, KISS principle, monocausal fallacy, plain truth fallacy, salience bias, simple truth fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 607_lf |
| post hoc propter hoc | after this therefore because of this, clustering illusion, post hoc argument, post hoc propter hoc, post hoc ergo propter hoc, too much of a coincidence | A mistaken conclusion that one event must have been caused by a specific earlier event. Example of: correlation implies causation, cum hoc ergo propter hoc, coincidental correlation, false cause, false cause and effect, non causa pro causa, not the cause for the cause. | [1], [2], [4] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-26 | 833_lf |
| post hoc ergo propter hoc | after this therefore because of this, clustering illusion, post hoc argument, post hoc propter hoc, post hoc ergo propter hoc, too much of a coincidence | A mistaken conclusion that one event must have been caused by a specific earlier event. Example of: correlation implies causation, cum hoc ergo propter hoc, coincidental correlation, false cause, false cause and effect, non causa pro causa, not the cause for the cause. | [1], [2], [4] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-26 | 832_lf |
| post hoc argument | after this therefore because of this, clustering illusion, post hoc argument, post hoc propter hoc, post hoc ergo propter hoc, too much of a coincidence | A mistaken conclusion that one event must have been caused by a specific earlier event. Example of: correlation implies causation, cum hoc ergo propter hoc, coincidental correlation, false cause, false cause and effect, non causa pro causa, not the cause for the cause. | [1], [2], [4] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-26 | 606_lf |
| positivity effect | A tendency in which "older adults favor positive over negative information in their memories". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 283_cb | |
| positive thinking fallacy | The position that objective reality will become changed favorably because one is thinking positively, often in addition to refusing to acknowledge evidence or counterarguments. A "fallacy of logos". See also: deliberate ignorance. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 605_lf | |
| positive outcome bias | A tendency in which people "overestimate the probability of good things happening to them". See also: optimism bias. | [6], [28] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 282_cb | |
| Pollyanna principle | Pollyanna principle, projection bias, singing kumbaya, they're just like us | An automatic and false assumption that everybody in some group context shares "basically the same (positive) wishes, desires, interests, concerns, ethics and moral code". A "fallacy of ethos". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 604_lf |
| political theater | placebo effect, political theater, security theater, we have to do something, we have to send a message | The position that when there is a problem or disconcert, then doing anything is beter than doing nothing, even if that action might seem illogical. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 830_lf |
| political correctness | The that the nature of a thing or scenario can be changed by changing its name. SEe also: language control, non-recognition, venting. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 603_lf | |
| poisoning the well | ad hominem argument, argumentum ad hominem, argument toward the man, attacking the person, personal attack, poisoning the well | Arguing against the opposing party instead of the reasoning given by the opposing party. This might question the intelligence, credentials, or character of the opposition. A "corrupted negative argument from ethos". Subcategories include abusive and circumstantial types. A fallacy of relevance. The opposite of star power. An obverse is token endorsement. See also: guilt by association. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 468_lf |
| plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose | the more things change the more they stay the same | An incorrect assertion that there "is not and will never be any real novelty in this world". Or, literally, "the more things change, the more they stay the same". A "corruption of the argument from logos". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 829_lf |
| pleasure-hating | live as though you're dying, mortification, no pain no gain, pleasure-hating | An attempt to gain positive benefit from extreme exercise, the infliction of pain, intentional starvation, or similar practices while denying that discomfort and pain are definite signals warning against bodily damage. A "fallacy of logos". Opposite of: hedonism. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 602_lf |
| playing to emotions | affective fallacy, appeal to emotion, appeal to pity, argument from pity, argumentum ad misericordiam, emotion over reflection, follow your heart, playing to emotions, romantic fallacy | "An emotional appeal to what should be a logical issue". "Opposite to this is...chosen emotion fallacy. Often, "a fallacy of encouragement to root of the underdog regardless of the issues at hand". "A corrupt argument from pathos." A fallacy of relevance. Closely related to angelism. "Opposite to this is...chosen emotion fallacy." Opposite of: appeal to rigor. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-24 | 106_cb |
| playing on emotion | bleeding heart, drama queen or drama king fallacy, pathetic fallacy, playing on emotion, sob story | A fallacy in which, ignoring facts, emotion is evoked alone. A fallacy "of pure argument from pathos". The opposite is: apathetic fallacy, burnout, compassion fatigue, cynicism. An obverse is: refinement, real feelings. See also: othering. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 601_lf |
| plausible deniability | A secenario in which "someone in power forces those under his or her control to do some questionable or evil act and to then falsely assume or conceal responsibility for that act in order to protect the ethos of the one in command". A "fallacy of ethos". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 600_lf | |
| plant blindness | A tendency for people "to ignore plants in their environment" and "a failure to recognize and appreciate the utility of plants to life on earth". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 281_cb | |
| planning fallacy | A tendency "for people to underestimate the time it will take them to complete a given task". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 280_cb | |
| plan continuation bias | A tendency to fail to "recognize that the original plan of action is no longer appropriate for a changing situation or for a situation that is different from anticipated". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 279_cb_lf | |
| plain truth fallacy | executive summary, keep it short and simple, keep it simple stupid, KISS principle, monocausal fallacy, plain truth fallacy, salience bias, simple truth fallacy | The favoring of "familiar, singular, summarized or easily comprehensible data, examples, explanations and evidence over those that are more complex and unfamiliar but much closer to the truth". Might appear as "I don't want a whole lesson on it, just boil it down to the plain truth" or as an assertion that "the truth is always simple and only enemies of truth would make it complicated". A "fallacy of logos". Opposite of: complexity, ineffability, post-truth, truthiness. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 599_lf |
| placement bias | A tendency to "remember ourselves to be better than others at tasks at which we rate ourselves above average" and "to remember ourselves to be worse than others at tasks at which we rate ourselves below average". See also: better-than-average effect, illusory superiority, worse-than-average effect. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 278_cb | |
| placebo effect | placebo effect, political theater, security theater, we have to do something, we have to send a message | The position that when there is a problem or disconcert, then doing anything is beter than doing nothing, even if that action might seem illogical. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 827_lf |
| picture superiority effect | A tendency in which "concepts that are learned by viewing pictures are more easily and frequently recalled than are concepts that are learned by viewing their written word form counterparts." | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 277_cb | |
| petitio principii | begging the question, catch 22, circular reasoning, circulus in probando, petitio principii, vicious circle | A fallacy in which the same proposition appears as a premise and as a conclusion (sometimes worded in two statements appearing differently enough to make this not very obvious); for example, "A, therefore B." and also "B, therefore A". Sometimes, begging the question and circular reasoning are used interchangeably and sometimes with a difference--begging the question or petitio principii more specifically assumes as evidence the conclusion they are trying to prove.) A fallacy of logos. A component fallacy. See also: complex question, big lie technique. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-03 | 467_lf |
| pessimism bias | A tendency "for some people...to overestimate the likelihood of negative things happening to them". See also: cynicism. Opposite of: optimism bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 276_cb | |
| personalization | Seeing oneself or someone else as "the essential cause of some external event" for which that "person had no responsibilty". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 598_lf | |
| personal attack | ad hominem argument, argumentum ad hominem, argument toward the man, attacking the person, personal attack, poisoning the well | Arguing against the opposing party instead of the reasoning given by the opposing party. This might question the intelligence, credentials, or character of the opposition. A "corrupted negative argument from ethos". Subcategories include abusive and circumstantial types. A fallacy of relevance. The opposite of star power. An obverse is token endorsement. See also: guilt by association. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 002_lf |
| persistence | A tendency for a traumatic event to result in unwanted recurrence of memories. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 275_cb | |
| Perky effect | A tendency "real images" to "influence imagined images, or be misremembered as imagined rather than real". An example of: misattribution of memory. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 346_cb | |
| perfect is the enemy of good | hero-busting, perfect is the enemy of good, the perfect is the enemy of the good | A fallacy of pointing out that nobody could have been a hero because "nobody and nothing in this world is perfect". Examples: pointing out the faults of historic figures generally held to have been otherwise heroic in some way; reviewing everything a political opponent has ever done or said to find something to condemn or misinterpret. A "postmodern fallacy of ethos". Opposite of: hereoes all. Can aid: identity fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-27 | 070_lf |
| Peltzman effect | Peltzman effect, risk compensation | A tendency to "take greater risks when perceived safety increases". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 306_cb |
| peak–end rule | A tendency in which "people seem to perceive not the sum of an experience but the average of how it was at its peak (e.g., pleasant or unpleasant) and how it ended". A form of: memory bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 274_cb | |
| peace through strength | control voice, muscular foreign policy, no discussion, no negotiation, peace through strength | The rejection of reasoned dialogue along with the offer of "either instant, unconditional compliance...or defeat as the only two options for settling even minor differences". A from of: appeal to force, argument from force, argument from strength, argument from the club (stick), argumentum ad baculum, bullying, fascism, hard power, might-makes-right, muscular leadership, non-negotiable demands, power-play, resolution by force of arms, shock and awe. See also: pout. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 825_lf |
| pathetic fallacy | bleeding heart, drama queen or drama king fallacy, pathetic fallacy, playing on emotion, sob story | A fallacy in which, ignoring facts, emotion is evoked alone. A fallacy "of pure argument from pathos". The opposite is: apathetic fallacy, burnout, compassion fatigue, cynicism. An obverse is: refinement, real feelings. See also: othering. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 824_lf |
| paternalism | This dismissal of an argument as childish or immature, usually with a "condescending attitude of superiority toward opposing standpoints or toward opponents themselves". A "fallacy of ethos". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 597_lf | |
| passive voice fallacy | bureaucratic passive, passive voice fallacy | An obverse is: be-verb fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 596_lf |
| part-list cueing effect | A tendency in which "being shown some items from a list and later retrieving one item causes it to become harder to retrieve the other items". A form of: memory bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 273_cb | |
| pars pro toto fallacy | An assumption that what is true of a part is necessarily true of the whole. Literally, "pars pro toto" means "part for the whole". See also: overgeneralization, totus pro partes, mereological fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 595_lf | |
| pareidolia | A tendency to "to perceive a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) as significant". A form of: apophenia. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 272_cb | |
| paranoia | appeal to fear, bogeyman fallacy, paranoia, scare tactics, shockdoc, shock doctrine, rally 'round the flag, rally 'round the president | A fallacy in which one takes "advantage of a emergent or deliberately-created crisis and its associated public shock, panic and chaos in order to impose an argument, action or solution that would be clearly unacceptable if carefully considered". A "corrupted argument from pathos". A form of playing on emotions. See also: shopping hungry fallacy, dog-whistle politics, we have to do something, worst-case fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 823_lf |
| paralysis of analysis | analysis paralysis, nirvana fallacy, paralysis of analysis, procrastination | An argument that since all data is never available, therefore no decision can ever be made and action should always be delayed. A "corruption of...argument from logos". See also: law of unintended consequences. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 594_lf |
| panic | An argument that "one's words or actions, no matter how damaging or evil" do not count due to having panicked. See also: diminished responsibility, venting. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 593_lf | |
| oversimplifying | oversimplifying, sloganeering, reductionism | Deceipt through "simple answers or bumper-sticker slogans in response to complex questions". See also: dog-whistle politics, plain truth fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 822_lf |
| overgeneralization | overgeneralization, totus pro partes, mereological fallacy | Applying an agreed-upon generalization to "all particular cases". A "fallacy of logos". Literally, "totus pro partes" means "whole for parts", and refers to extrapolating from one or two example cases to a claim about all cases. The term "mereological" refers to the study of the relationship between parts and a wholes.) See also: hasty generalization, pars pro toto fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 592_lf |
| overexplanation | A phenomenon in which, in reality, "beyond a certian point, more explanation, instructions, data, discussion, evidence, or proof inevitably results in less, not more, understanding." A "fallacy of logos". See also: plain truth, snow job. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 591_lf | |
| overconfidence effect | A tendency to "have excessive confidence in one's own answers to questions". A form of: egocentric bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 271_cb | |
| outgroup homogeneity bias | A tendency in which "individuals see members of other groups as being relatively less varied than members of their own group". A form of: ingroup bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 270_cb | |
| outgroup favoritism | A tendency in which "some socially disadvantaged groups will express favorable attitudes (and even preferences) toward social, cultural, or ethnic groups other than their own". A form of: social bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 269_cb | |
| outcome bias | argument from consequences, outcome bias | As a logical fallacy (outcome bias): a fallacy of claiming that something cannot be true because, if it were true, that would be bad or have a negative effect (while in reality the validity of the claim does not actually depend on the positive or negative impact of the claims). A fallacy of relevance. (See also: outcome bias. Do not confuse with: actions have consequences. As a cognitive bias (outcome bias): a fallacy "to judge a decision by its eventual outcome instead of the quality of the decision at the time it was made." | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 268_cb_lf |
| otherizing | othering, otherizing, prejudice, racism, speakee fallacy, stereotyping, they're not like us, xenophobia, you speakee da english | An argument in which facts are arbitrarily discarded due to a claim that another group of people are different from the in-group. A "bady corrupted...argument from ethos". A form of: ad hominem argument, argumentum ad hominem, argument toward the man, attacking the person, personal attack, poisoning the well. See also: dehumanised perception, dehumanization. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 821_lf |
| othering | othering, otherizing, prejudice, racism, speakee fallacy, stereotyping, they're not like us, xenophobia, you speakee da english | An argument in which facts are arbitrarily discarded due to a claim that another group of people are different from the in-group. A "bady corrupted...argument from ethos". A form of: ad hominem argument, argumentum ad hominem, argument toward the man, attacking the person, personal attack, poisoning the well. See also: dehumanised perception, dehumanization. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 590_lf |
| ostrich strategy | build a wall, Gitmo solution, lock em up and throw away the key, NIMBY, not in my back yard, ostrich strategy | The idea that a problem ceases to exist for all practical purposes so long as it can be made to go away to somewhere that is out of sight, or censored, or ignored, perhaps with a focus on positive things instead. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 820_lf |
| ostrich effect | A tendency to ignore an "obvious negative situation". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 267_cb | |
| optimism bias | A tendency "to be over-optimistic, underestimating greatly the probability of undesirable outcomes and overestimating favorable and pleasing outcomes". Opposite of: pessimism bias. See also: positive outcome bias, valence effect, wishful thinking. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 266_cb | |
| oops | judicial surprise, oh I forgot, I forgot, oops, October surprise | Typically, an attempt to end a debate by pretending to have "just remembered or uncovered some salient fact, argument or evidence", or suddenly presenting some sensational information only to then quuietly admit its lack of direct relevance to the topic at hand. A "corrupt argument from logos". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 589_lf |
| once bitten twice shy | hot stove effect, once bitten twice shy, non-adaptive choice switching | A tendency to "avoid the choice previously made when faced with the same decision problem again, even though the choice was optimal" after "experiencing a bad outcome with a decision problem". | [6] | 2024-08-22 | 2024-08-28 | 804_cb |
| omission bias | A tendency to "judge harmful actions (commissions) as worse, or less moral, than equally harmful inactions (omissions)". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 265_cb | |
| olfactory rhetoric | olfactory rhetoric, the nose knows | The marginalization of opponents based on false allegations of odor, poor hygeine, imagined diseases, or dirtiness. A "fallacy of pathos". See also: othering. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 588_lf |
| oh I forgot | judicial surprise, oh I forgot, I forgot, oops, October surprise | Typically, an attempt to end a debate by pretending to have "just remembered or uncovered some salient fact, argument or evidence", or suddenly presenting some sensational information only to then quuietly admit its lack of direct relevance to the topic at hand. A "corrupt argument from logos". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 684_lf |
| October surprise | judicial surprise, oh I forgot, I forgot, oops, October surprise | Typically, an attempt to end a debate by pretending to have "just remembered or uncovered some salient fact, argument or evidence", or suddenly presenting some sensational information only to then quuietly admit its lack of direct relevance to the topic at hand. A "corrupt argument from logos". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 690_lf |
| observer-expectancy effect | A tendency in which "a researcher expects a given result and therefore unconsciously manipulates an experiment or misinterprets data in order to find it". See also: subject-expectancy effect. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 264_cb | |
| observation selection effect | anthropic bias, anthropic principle, anthropic selection effect, observation selection effect | The tendency for observations about the universe to only be made when there is someone to observe the data or to do the study. Subforms include: weak anthropic principle (universe fine tuning being the result of survivorship bias), strong anthropic principle (the universe being compleled to have conscious, sapient life), participatory anthropic principle (the universe must be observed to exist), final anthropic principle (informational processing as inherent to universe existence). An example of: selection effect. | [19], [20] | 2024-06-16 | 2024-07-07 | 691_lf |
| obscurationism | obscurantism, obscurationism, willful ignorance | The argument that there are some things that humans, as mere mortals, either simply are not meant to know, or must never seek to know. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-26 | 818_lf |
| obscurantism | obscurantism, obscurationism, willful ignorance | The argument that there are some things that humans, as mere mortals, either simply are not meant to know, or must never seek to know. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-26 | 587_lf |
| obscenity | cursing, F-bomb, obscenity, profanity | An attempt to "defend or strengthen one's argument with gratuitous, unrelated sexual, obscene, vulgar, crude or profane language when such language does nothing to make an argument stronger, other than perhaps to create a sense of identity with certain...audiences". A fallacy of pathos. Related to: salacious fallacy. See also: red herring. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 466_lf |
| objectivity illusion | A tendency for people to "believe that they are more objective and unbiased than others". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 263_cb | |
| objectification | A tendency to treat "a person as an object or a thing". See also: anthropomorphism, dehumanised perception, dehumanization. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 262_cb | |
| Nuremberg defense | blind loyalty, blind obedience, Nuremberg defense, team player appeal, unthinking obedience | A fallacy which holds that "an argument or action is right simply and solely because a respected leader or source (a President, expert, one's parents, one's own side, team or country, one's boss or commanding officers) says it is right". A corrupted argument from ethos. See also: big brain little brain fallacy, soldiers' honor fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-03 | 372_lf |
| nuclear option | all's fair in love and war, changing the rules, moving the goalposts, winning isn't everything it's the only thing | Starting with certain requirements for a decision, then, when, the criteria are met, requiring a higher bar. "A fallacy of logos". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-14 | 586_lf |
| nothing new under the sun | plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose, nothing new under the sun, seen it all before, surprise surprise, uniformitarianism | An incorrect assertion that there "is not and will never be any real novelty in this world". Or, literally, "the more things change, the more they stay the same". A "corruption of the argument from logos". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 585_lf |
| not the cause for the cause | non causa pro causa, not the cause for the cause | A "catch-all...for mistaking a false cause of an event for the real cause". Example of: false cause, false cause and effect. See also: coincidental correlation, correlation implies causation, cum hoc ergo propter hoc, after this therefore because of this, post hoc argument, post hoc propter hoc, post hoc ergo propter hoc. | [1], [2], [4] | 2024-08-26 | 2024-08-28 | 795_lf |
| not invented here | A tendency to dislike or avoid the "contact with or use of products, research, standards, or knowledge developed outside a group". Example of: ingroup bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 261_cb | |
| not in my back yard | build a wall, Gitmo solution, lock em up and throw away the key, NIMBY, not in my back yard, ostrich strategy | The idea that a problem ceases to exist for all practical purposes so long as it can be made to go away to somewhere that is out of sight, or censored, or ignored, perhaps with a focus on positive things instead. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 584_lf |
| nos quoque | ego quoque, I do it too, nos quoque, we do it too | The attempted justification (or minimization of criticism) of some position or action on the basis that oneself or one's own group has also done the same thing. See also: and you too, appeal to hypocrisy, tu quoque, two wrongs make a right, you also, you do it too. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 523_lf |
| normalization of evil | acquiescence, better the devil you know than the devil you don't, deal with it, default bias, get used to it, if it ain't broke don't fix it, it is what it is, let it be let it be, making one's peace with the situation, normalization of evil, this is the best of all possible worlds, whatever is is right | The fallacy that just because something is the current state that is therefore the preferred state. Opposite of: nihilism. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 816_lf |
| normalcy bias | A tendency to refuse "to plan for, or react to, a disaster which has never happened before". Bias category: cognitive dissonance. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 260_cb | |
| nonviolent civil disobedience | noncooperation, nonviolent civil disobedience, pout, silent treatment | The arbitrary rejection of dialogue "before it is concluded". A from of: argumentum ad baculum. See also: no discussion, non-recognition. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 815_lf |
| none of yer beeswax | appeal to privacy, mind your own business, MYOB, none of yer beeswax, so what, you're not the boss of me | A fallacy of preventing discussion of one's point by "drawing a phony curtian of privacy around oneself and one's actions". A counterpart is: heart of darkness syndrome, I think we're alone now, nobody will ever know, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-26 | 814_lf |
| noncooperation | noncooperation, nonviolent civil disobedience, pout, silent treatment | The arbitrary rejection of dialogue "before it is concluded". A from of: argumentum ad baculum. See also: no discussion, non-recognition. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 812_lf |
| non-recognition | A choice "not to publicly recognize ground truth", typically with the idea that "this would somehow reward evil-doers" by recognizing "their deeds as real or consequential". See also: political correctness, pout, state actor fallacy. Not to be confused with: no negotiation. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 583_lf | |
| non-negotiable demands | appeal to force, argument from force, argument from strength, argument from the club (stick), argumentum ad baculum, bullying, fascism, hard power, might-makes-right, muscular leadership, non-negotiable demands, power-play, resolution by force of arms, shock and awe | A fallacy in which a conclusion is reached due to force, threat of force, or threat of unpleasantness. A fallacy of relevance, since reason for conclusion is not relevant to the argument at hand. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-03 | 811_lf |
| non-argument argument | draw your own conclusion fallacy, let the facts speak for themselves, non-argument argument | A fallacy in which carefully selected (and perhaps shocking) facts are presented to an audience that is then asked immediately to come to their own conclusions, while people are more convinced when drawing a conclusion themselves rather than being presented with both an argument and the proposed conclusion together, and while the appropriate question would be "what has been allegedly proven and how?". A "fallacy of logos". See also: leading the witness fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 465_lf |
| non-adaptive choice switching | hot stove effect, once bitten twice shy, non-adaptive choice switching | A tendency to "avoid the choice previously made when faced with the same decision problem again, even though the choice was optimal" after "experiencing a bad outcome with a decision problem". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 259_cb |
| non sequitur | it does not follow, non sequitur | An "argument that does not follow from the previous statements"; "using a premise to prove an unrelated point"; "conclusions that have no logical connection to the argument at hand". Often, a writer may have left out a step of an argument they had in their head but did not put on paper. While "applicable in general to any type of logical fallacy", often used by logicials specifically to reference "syllogistic errors such as the undistributed middle term, non causa pro causa, and ignorantio elenchi". A component fallacy. Common examples are: affirming the consequent, denying the antecedent. | [1], [2], [3], [4] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 016_lf |
| non causa pro causa | non causa pro causa, not the cause for the cause | A "catch-all...for mistaking a false cause of an event for the real cause". Example of: false cause, false cause and effect. See also: coincidental correlation, correlation implies causation, cum hoc ergo propter hoc, after this therefore because of this, post hoc argument, post hoc propter hoc, post hoc ergo propter hoc. | [1], [2], [4] | 2024-08-26 | 2024-08-26 | 240_lf |
| nobody will ever know | heart of darkness syndrome, I think we're alone now, nobody will ever know, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas | A fallacy holding that "one may freely commit immoral, selfish, negative or evil acts at will without expecting any of the normal consequences or punishment" "just because nobody important is looking (or because one is on vacation, or away in college, or overseas)". A counterpart to: appeal to privacy, mind your own business, MYOB, none of yer beeswax, so what, you're not the boss of me | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-26 | 582_lf |
| noble effort | E for effort, noble effort, I'm trying my best, lost cause | The idea that something must be good or true because someone has put a lot of good-faith effort or sacrifice into it. A "fallacy6 of ethos". An example is: waving the bloody shirt, the blood of the martyrs fallacy. See also: argument from inertia, cost bias, solider's honor fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 810_lf |
| no true Scotsman | A fallacy of omission. | [1] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-11 | 029_lf | |
| no pain no gain | live as though you're dying, mortification, no pain no gain, pleasure-hating | An attempt to gain positive benefit from extreme exercise, the infliction of pain, intentional starvation, or similar practices while denying that discomfort and pain are definite signals warning against bodily damage. A "fallacy of logos". Opposite of: hedonism. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 581_lf |
| no negotiation | control voice, muscular foreign policy, no discussion, no negotiation, peace through strength | The rejection of reasoned dialogue along with the offer of "either instant, unconditional compliance...or defeat as the only two options for settling even minor differences". A from of: appeal to force, argument from force, argument from strength, argument from the club (stick), argumentum ad baculum, bullying, fascism, hard power, might-makes-right, muscular leadership, non-negotiable demands, power-play, resolution by force of arms, shock and awe. See also: pout. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 809_lf |
| no discussion | control voice, muscular foreign policy, no discussion, no negotiation, peace through strength | The rejection of reasoned dialogue along with the offer of "either instant, unconditional compliance...or defeat as the only two options for settling even minor differences". A from of: appeal to force, argument from force, argument from strength, argument from the club (stick), argumentum ad baculum, bullying, fascism, hard power, might-makes-right, muscular leadership, non-negotiable demands, power-play, resolution by force of arms, shock and awe. See also: pout. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 580_lf |
| nirvana fallacy | analysis paralysis, nirvana fallacy, paralysis of analysis, procrastination | An argument that since all data is never available, therefore no decision can ever be made and action should always be delayed. A "corruption of...argument from logos". See also: law of unintended consequences. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 808_lf |
| NIMBY | build a wall, Gitmo solution, lock em up and throw away the key, NIMBY, not in my back yard, ostrich strategy | The idea that a problem ceases to exist for all practical purposes so long as it can be made to go away to somewhere that is out of sight, or censored, or ignored, perhaps with a focus on positive things instead. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 526_lf |
| nihilism | The blind rejection of "what exists in favor of what could be"; an "adolescent fantasy of romanticizing anarchy, chaos..., disorder, permanent revolution, or change for change's sake". Opposite of: default bias. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 579_lf | |
| next-in-line effect | A tendency in which "people tend to have diminished recall for the words of the person who spoke immediately before them" when "taking turns speaking in a group using a predetermined order (e.g. going clockwise around a room, taking numbers, etc)". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 258_cb | |
| newspeak | Creating "identification with a certain kind of audience by inventing or using racist or offensive, sometimes military-sounding nicknames for opponents or enemies". An example of: name-calling. See also: ad hominem argument, alphabet soup, reductionism. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 578_lf | |
| neglect of probability | A tendency in which some people "have a greater recall of unpleasant memories compared with positive memories". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 257_cb | |
| negativity effect | negativity effect, negativity effect | A tendency in which some people "have a greater recall of unpleasant memories compared with positive memories". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 256_cb |
| negativity bias | negativity effect, negativity effect | A tendency in which some people "have a greater recall of unpleasant memories compared with positive memories". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 255_cb |
| need to know | esoteric wisdom, gnosticism, inner truth, inner sanctum, need to know | A fallacy holding that "there is some knowledge reserved only for the wise, the holy or the enlightened, (or those with proper security clearance), things that the masses cannot understand and do not deserve to know, at least not until they become wiser, more trusted or more spiritually advanced". A "fallacy from logos and ethos". A counterpart is: obscurantism, obscurationism, willful ignorance. See also: plain truth fallacy, argument from mystery, argumentum ad mysteriam, mystagogy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 464_lf |
| naturalistic fallacy | G.E. Moore's naturalistic fallacy, naturalistic fallacy | A fallacy of inferring "that X is good from any proposition about X’s natural properties". Different than: "argument from nature", "the appeal to nature". | [25] | 2024-08-28 | 901_lf | |
| narrative fallacy | fable, narrative fallacy, poster child | Wrapping a message in a "heartwarming or horrifying story or fable" is more persusasive than more formal or direct argument, even if the story is fictional. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 577_lf |
| name-calling | An argument that simply because the proponent of a position is or is alleged to be problematic because of a label applied to them, then therefore any argument of theirs is invalid due to that label alone. Instead exploring actual points, the application of a label ends or prevents any actual argument. A form of: ad hominem. An example is: newspeak. See also: ad hominem argument, alphabet soup, reductionism. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 576_lf | |
| name dropping | name dropping, transfer | The false association of "a famous or respected person, place or thing with an unrelated thesis or standpoint". A "corrupt argument form ethos". See also: star power. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 575_lf |
| name calling | The fallacy of applying a label to an arguer and assigning or implying a conclusion based on that applied label instead of evaluating or addressing the argument at hand. A form of ad hominem. A simplified from of argumentum ad personam. | [8], [9], [11] | 2024-06-14 | 2024-06-14 | 913_lf | |
| naive realism | A tendency to belive that "we see reality as it really is", "objectively and without bias", and "that rational people will agree with us, and that those who do not are either uninformed, lazy, irrational, or biased". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 254_cb | |
| naive cynicism | A tendency to expect "more egocentric bias in others than in oneself". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 253_cb | |
| mystagogy | argument from mystery, argumentum ad mysteriam, mystagogy | A fallacy in which some "facts, evidence, practices or arguments" gain weight due to a "quasi-hypnotic effect" that "can often persuade more strongly than any logical argument" derived from special sounds, postures, clothing, rituals, recitations, chants, ancient languages, or other effects introducing a sense of the unknown. Example: long ago and far away. See also: esoteric knowledge. An obverse: standard version fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 807_lf |
| myside bias | choice-support bias, choice-supportive bias, defensiveness, myside bias | A fallacy and bias in which "after one has taken a given decision, commitment or course of action, one automatically tends to defend that decision and to irrationally dismiss opposing options even when one's decision later on proves to be shaky or wrong". A "fallacy of ethos (one's own)". See also argument from inertia, confirmation bias. | [3], [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-05 | 463_lf |
| MYOB | appeal to privacy, mind your own business, MYOB, none of yer beeswax, so what, you're not the boss of me | A fallacy of preventing discussion of one's point by "drawing a phony curtian of privacy around oneself and one's actions". A counterpart is: heart of darkness syndrome, I think we're alone now, nobody will ever know, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-26 | 565_lf |
| muscular leadership | appeal to force, argument from force, argument from strength, argument from the club (stick), argumentum ad baculum, bullying, fascism, hard power, might-makes-right, muscular leadership, non-negotiable demands, power-play, resolution by force of arms, shock and awe | A fallacy in which a conclusion is reached due to force, threat of force, or threat of unpleasantness. A fallacy of relevance, since reason for conclusion is not relevant to the argument at hand. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-03 | 806_lf |
| muscular foreign policy | control voice, muscular foreign policy, no discussion, no negotiation, peace through strength | The rejection of reasoned dialogue along with the offer of "either instant, unconditional compliance...or defeat as the only two options for settling even minor differences". A from of: appeal to force, argument from force, argument from strength, argument from the club (stick), argumentum ad baculum, bullying, fascism, hard power, might-makes-right, muscular leadership, non-negotiable demands, power-play, resolution by force of arms, shock and awe. See also: pout. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 530_lf |
| moving the goalposts | all's fair in love and war, changing the rules, nuclear option, winning isn't everything it's the only thing | Starting with certain requirements for a decision, then, when, the criteria are met, requiring a higher bar. "A fallacy of logos". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-14 | 574_lf |
| moving the ball down the field | hey sports fans, moving the ball down the field, scoring, sports world fallacy | The inappropriate application of sports analogy to other domains. See also: evening up the score, getting even. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 573_lf |
| motte and bailey fallacy | motte and bailey doctrine, motte and bailey fallacy | A fallacy of conflating two similar positions, one easier to defend and one much more controversial and harder to defend, in which the arguer "advances the controversial position, but when challenged, insists that only the more modest position is being advanced", then claims that the more controversial position has not been refuted. Ain informal fallacy. | [5] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 095_lf |
| motte and bailey doctrine | motte and bailey doctrine, motte and bailey fallacy | A fallacy of conflating two similar positions, one easier to defend and one much more controversial and harder to defend, in which the arguer "advances the controversial position, but when challenged, insists that only the more modest position is being advanced", then claims that the more controversial position has not been refuted. Ain informal fallacy. | [5] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-06 | 371_lf |
| motivational truth | campaign promises, demagogy, motivational truth | A fallacy of "deliberately lying to the people to gain their support or motivate" some action desired by the promoter of the lie. Related: self deception, whistling by the graveyard. See also: argument to the people, argumentum ad populum, dog-whistle politics, othering. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 572_lf |
| motivated ignorance | closed-mindedness, deliberate ignorance, hear no evil see no evil speak no evil, I don't want to hear it, motivated ignorance, three monkeys' fallacy, tuning out | The action of "choosing not to listen", "turning off any information, evidence or arguments that challenge one's beliefs, ideology, standpoint, or peace of mind", perhaps saying "Don't try to confuse me with the facts; my mind is made up". See also: confirmation bias, obscurantism, obscurationism, positive thinking fallacy, simpleton's fallacy, third person effect, they're all crooks, trust your gut, willful ignorance. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 462_lf |
| mortification | live as though you're dying, mortification, no pain no gain, pleasure-hating | An attempt to gain positive benefit from extreme exercise, the infliction of pain, intentional starvation, or similar practices while denying that discomfort and pain are definite signals warning against bodily damage. A "fallacy of logos". Opposite of: hedonism. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 571_lf |
| moral superiority | moral high ground, moral superiority, self righteousness | An argument that "evil has no rights" that must be respected by "the good and the righteous", in direct denial of the "golden rule". See also: appeal to heaven, moving the goalposts. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 570_lf |
| moral luck | A tendency "to ascribe greater or lesser moral standing based on the outcome of an event". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 252_cb | |
| moral licensing | An argument that one's "consistently moral life, good behavior or recent extreme suffering or sacrifice earns him/her the right to commit an immoral act without repercussions, consequences or punishment". Opposite of: scruples. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 569_lf | |
| moral high ground | moral high ground, moral superiority, self righteousness | An argument that "evil has no rights" that must be respected by "the good and the righteous", in direct denial of the "golden rule". See also: appeal to heaven, moving the goalposts. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 568_lf |
| moral credential effect | A tendency in which "someone who does something good" then "gives themselves permission to be less good in the future". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 251_cb | |
| mood-congruent memory bias | mood-congruent memory bias, state-dependent memory | A tendency in which "recall of information" is "congruent with one's current mood". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 249_cb |
| monolingual fallacy | An incorrect assumption that "transparent, in-depth translation between languages is the norm", thus ignoring "everyday issues of translation". See also: standard version fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 567_lf | |
| monocausal fallacy | executive summary, keep it short and simple, keep it simple stupid, KISS principle, monocausal fallacy, plain truth fallacy, salience bias, simple truth fallacy | The favoring of "familiar, singular, summarized or easily comprehensible data, examples, explanations and evidence over those that are more complex and unfamiliar but much closer to the truth". Might appear as "I don't want a whole lesson on it, just boil it down to the plain truth" or as an assertion that "the truth is always simple and only enemies of truth would make it complicated". A "fallacy of logos". Opposite of: complexity, ineffability, post-truth, truthiness. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 803_lf |
| money illusion | A tendency to "concentrate on the nominal value (face value) of money rather than its value in terms of purchasing power". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 248_cb | |
| modality effect | A tendency in which "memory recall is higher for the last items of a list when the list items were received via speech than when they were received through writing". A form of memory bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 247_cb | |
| mistaking the map for the territory | fallacy of misplaced concreteness, fallacy of reification, hypostatization, mistaking the map for the territory, reification, reifying | A fallacy in which imaginary or abstract concepts or categories are treated as "actual, material things". Treating a word for something as the same as the thing itself. A "fallacy of ambiguity". See also: faulty analogy, essentializing, equivocation. | [1], [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-26 | 802_lf |
| missing link fallacy | attacking the evidence, missing link fallacy, whataboutery, whataboutism | Incorrectly claiming that "some or all of the key evidence is missing, incomplete, or faked"; or, asking "what about" some false assertion about the veracity or completeness of the evidence or claim presented. See also: appeal to a lack of evidence, appeal to ignorance, argument from ignorance, argumentum ad ignorantiam. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 801_lf |
| missing link | See also: appeal to a lack of evidence, appeal to ignorance, argumentum ad ignorantiam, argument from ignorance. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 056_lf | |
| misinformation effect | The tendency for an "original memory" to be "affected by incorrect information received later" ("a person's recall of episodic memories becomes less accurate because of post-event information"). | [6], [18] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 246_cb | |
| misattribution of memory | A tendency for a person recalling a memory to misidentify the origin of the memory. Examples include: cryptomnesia, false memory, social crytomnesia, source confusion, suggestibility, Perky effect. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 245_cb | |
| mind-reading | A fallacy in which one claims to cleary understand another's thoughts, emotions, motivations, and body language based on mere speculation, at times claiming to understanding these things better than the subject himself. This speculative "knowledge" can be used in an attempt to incorrectly the support other claims. An ancient fallacy. A corruption of stasis theory (agreeing to disagree). The opposite of: autist's fallacy, mind blindness. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 566_lf | |
| mind your own business | appeal to privacy, mind your own business, MYOB, none of yer beeswax, so what, you're not the boss of me | A fallacy of preventing discussion of one's point by "drawing a phony curtian of privacy around oneself and one's actions". A counterpart is: heart of darkness syndrome, I think we're alone now, nobody will ever know, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-26 | 800_lf |
| mind blindness | autist's fallacy, mind blindness | A fallacy in which normal human capacity for "theory of mind" is entirely denied in which it is held that no one can truly understand or know "another's thoughts, emotions, motivations or intents". The opposite of: mind-reading. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 564_lf |
| might-makes-right | appeal to force, argument from force, argument from strength, argument from the club (stick), argumentum ad baculum, bullying, fascism, hard power, might-makes-right, muscular leadership, non-negotiable demands, power-play, resolution by force of arms, shock and awe | A fallacy in which a conclusion is reached due to force, threat of force, or threat of unpleasantness. A fallacy of relevance, since reason for conclusion is not relevant to the argument at hand. | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-03 | 461_lf | |
| middle of the road fallacy | falacia ad temperantiam, marginalization of the adversary, middle of the road fallacy, politics of the center | An argument that a position is correct "not on its own merits" but "solely or mainly by presenting it as the only moderate path among two or more obviously unacceptable extreme alternatives". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 562_lf |
| mereological fallacy | overgeneralization, totus pro partes, mereological fallacy | Applying an agreed-upon generalization to "all particular cases". A "fallacy of logos". Literally, "totus pro partes" means "whole for parts", and refers to extrapolating from one or two example cases to a claim about all cases. The term "mereological" refers to the study of the relationship between parts and a wholes.) See also: hasty generalization, pars pro toto fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 799_lf |
| mere exposure effect | familiarity principle, mere exposure principle | A tendency to "express undue liking for things merely because of familiarity with them". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-09 | 244_cb |
| memory inhibition | A tendency in which "being shown some items from a list makes it harder to retrieve the other items". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 243_cb | |
| memory bias | A general category of "cognitive bias that either enhances or impairs the recall of a memory". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 242_cb | |
| measurability | An argument that if something cannot "be measured, quantified and replicated" then "it does not exist", or that "anecdotal, touchy-feely stuff" is "unworthy of serious consideration" due to being mere gossip or subjective opinion. "A corrupt argument from logos and ethos." See also: a priori argument, complex question, lying with statistics, oversimplification procrustean fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 561_lf | |
| material persuasion | bribery, financial incentive, material incentive, material persuasion | A fallacy of obtaining a position through "gifts or favors". Often does not stick unless bribes continue. The reverse of: argumentum ad baculum, appeal to force, argument from the club (stick), argument from force, might-makes-right. See also: appeasement, assertiveness, I know my rights, squeaky wheel gets the grease. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-26 | 798_lf |
| material incentive | bribery, financial incentive, material incentive, material persuasion | A fallacy of obtaining a position through "gifts or favors". Often does not stick unless bribes continue. The reverse of: argumentum ad baculum, appeal to force, argument from the club (stick), argument from force, might-makes-right. See also: appeasement, assertiveness, I know my rights, squeaky wheel gets the grease. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-26 | 797_lf |
| marginalization of the adversary | falacia ad temperantiam, marginalization of the adversary, middle of the road fallacy, politics of the center | An argument that a position is correct "not on its own merits" but "solely or mainly by presenting it as the only moderate path among two or more obviously unacceptable extreme alternatives". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 796_lf |
| mansplaining | A tendency in which "many men to always have to be the smartest person in the room, regardless of the topic of discussion and how much they actually know". A form of: explanation. See also: plain truth fallacy, snow job. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 560_lf | |
| manifest destiny | American exceptionalism, appeal to heaven, argumentum ad coelum, Deus vult, Gott mit uns, special covenant | A fallacy based on claiming to know God's mind and wishes, which cannot really be challenged. A "deluded argument from ethos". Opposite of: Job's comforter fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-27 | 460_lf |
| mala fides | arguing in bad faith, mala fides, sophism | A fallacy of putting forth an argument that the argue knows is invalid. Includes: motivational truth, demagogy, campaign promises, self deception, whistling by the graveyward. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-26 | 559_lf |
| making one's peace with the situation | acquiescence, better the devil you know than the devil you don't, deal with it, default bias, get used to it, if it ain't broke don't fix it, it is what it is, let it be let it be, making one's peace with the situation, normalization of evil, this is the best of all possible worlds, whatever is is right | The fallacy that just because something is the current state that is therefore the preferred state. Opposite of: nihilism. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 794_lf |
| magical thinking | expect a miracle, magical thinking, sin of presumption | An argument that when it really matters, one just has to pray or do the right rituals and then a miracle will occur. A "fallacy... of logos". See also: appeal to heaven, Job's comforter fallacy, positive thinking. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 557_lf |
| magic of the market | crowdsourcing, magic of the market, wisdom of the crowd, Wikipedia fallacy | The idea that the market or the crowd is infallible, ignoring historical examples of the majority having been wrong about something. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 793_lf |
| mad leader disease | big brain little brain, führerprinzip, mad leader disease | A fallacy in which a person in a leadership or authority position (a work boss, military commander, or some sort of religious, cult, or group leader) tells people to think not with their little brains (the brain in their head) but instead with their big brain (the leader's brain). An "extreme example of the blind loyalty fallacy". Sometimes expressed positively in that the leader takes (moral) responsibilty for decisions. The opposite is: plausible deniability. See also: just do it, gaslighting. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 459_lf |
| lying with statistics | The misuse of "true figures and numbers" to claim to prove "unrelated claims". Examples include: tiny percentage fallacy. See also: half-truth, red herring, snow job. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 556_lf | |
| love it or leave it | fait accompli, get over it, love it or leave it, suck it up, there is no alternative, TINA | The rejection of opposing ideas on the basis that "there is no realistic alternative to a given standpoint, status or action, arbitrarily ruling any and all other options out of bounds, or announcing that a decision has been made and any further discussion is insubordination, disloyalty, treason, disobedience or simply a waste of precious time when there's a job to be done". An extension of: either/or fallacy. A form of: appeal to force, argument from force, argument from strength, argument from the club (stick), argumentum ad baculum, bullying, fascism, hard power, might-makes-right, muscular leadership, non-negotiable demands, power-play, resolution by force of arms, shock and awe. See also: taboo, finish the job. See also: appeal to closure, acquiescence, better the devil you know than the devil you don't, deal with it, default bias, get used to it, if it ain't broke don't fix it, it is what it is, let it be let it be, making one's peace with the situation, normalization of evil, this is the best of all possible worlds, whatever is is right. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 555_lf |
| love bombing | The use of positive affirmations to gain favor, especially with the anticipation that continued affection will continue if the recipient agrees with something or takes some action. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 554_lf | |
| lost cause | E for effort, noble effort, I'm trying my best, lost cause | The idea that something must be good or true because someone has put a lot of good-faith effort or sacrifice into it. A "fallacy6 of ethos". An example is: waving the bloody shirt, the blood of the martyrs fallacy. See also: argument from inertia, cost bias, solider's honor fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 792_lf |
| loss aversion | A tendency in which "the perceived disutility of giving up an object is greater than the utility associated with acquiring it". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 241_cb | |
| loose lips | letting off steam, loose lips, venting | A claim that someone ought to be "excempt from criticism" becuase they were just venting, even though venting implies expression of their actual position on some matter. Opposite of: political correctness, scripted message. See also: affective fallacy, alpha-male speech,bad-boy talk, locker-room talk. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 791_lf |
| long ago and far away | A holding that "facts, evidence, practices or arguments from ancient times, distant lands and/or exotic cultures seem to acquire a special gravitas or ethos simply because of their antiquity, language or origin". An example of: argument from mystery, argumentum ad mysteriam, mystagogy. See also: esoteric knowledge, standard version fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 553_lf | |
| locker-room talk | alpha-male talk, bad-boy talk | A form of "frank, unguarded or uninhibited offensive expression". A fallacy that holds that some words are excempt from criticism because they are simply the true expression of some perspective having merit due to their representing the uncensored expression of true feelings. See also: venting. See also: affective fallacy. Opposite to this are political correctness and scripted message. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-14 | 552_lf |
| lock em up and throw away the key | build a wall, Gitmo solution, lock em up and throw away the key, NIMBY, not in my back yard, ostrich strategy | The idea that a problem ceases to exist for all practical purposes so long as it can be made to go away to somewhere that is out of sight, or censored, or ignored, perhaps with a focus on positive things instead. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 525_lf |
| loaded question | complex question, loaded question | The phrasing of a question or statement to imply that an "unproven statement is true without evidence or discussion". A "fallacy of omission". Often overlaps with: begging the question. A counterpart of: either/or reasoning. | [1] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 458_lf |
| live as though you're dying | live as though you're dying, mortification, no pain no gain, pleasure-hating | An attempt to gain positive benefit from extreme exercise, the infliction of pain, intentional starvation, or similar practices while denying that discomfort and pain are definite signals warning against bodily damage. A "fallacy of logos". Opposite of: hedonism. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 551_lf |
| list-length effect | A tendency in which "a smaller percentage of items are remembered in a longer list, but as the length of the list increases, the absolute number of items remembered increases as well". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 239_cb | |
| levels-of-processing effect | A tendency in which "different methods of encoding information into memory have different levels of effectiveness". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 238_cb | |
| leveling and sharpening | A tendency toward "memory distortions introduced by the loss of details in a recollection over time" as well as "sharpening or selective recollection of certain details that take on exaggerated significance in relation to the details or aspects of the experience lost through leveling". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 237_cb | |
| letting off steam | letting off steam, loose lips, venting | A claim that someone ought to be "excempt from criticism" becuase they were just venting, even though venting implies expression of their actual position on some matter. Opposite of: political correctness, scripted message. See also: affective fallacy, alpha-male speech,bad-boy talk, locker-room talk. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 789_lf |
| let the facts speak for themselves | draw your own conclusion fallacy, let the facts speak for themselves, non-argument argument | A fallacy in which carefully selected (and perhaps shocking) facts are presented to an audience that is then asked immediately to come to their own conclusions, while people are more convinced when drawing a conclusion themselves rather than being presented with both an argument and the proposed conclusion together, and while the appropriate question would be "what has been allegedly proven and how?". A "fallacy of logos". See also: leading the witness fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 457_lf |
| let it be let it be | acquiescence, better the devil you know than the devil you don't, deal with it, default bias, get used to it, if it ain't broke don't fix it, it is what it is, let it be let it be, making one's peace with the situation, normalization of evil, this is the best of all possible worlds, whatever is is right | The fallacy that just because something is the current state that is therefore the preferred state. Opposite of: nihilism. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 787_lf |
| less-is-better effect | A tendency to "prefer a smaller set to a larger set judged separately, but not jointly". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 236_cb | |
| leading the witness fallacy | A fallacy in which "a sham, sarcastic or biased question is asked solely in order to evoke a desired answer". See also: draw your own conclusion fallacy, let the facts speak for themselves, non-argument argument. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-26 | 550_lf | |
| law of unintended consequences | every revolution ends up eating its own young, grit, law of unintended consequences, resilience doctrine | An argument that, since it is impossible to know everything or to forsee anything, then unknown unknowns will always blindside and overwhelm, so therefore one must be prepared to maintain strength, withstand, and to recover as a main means of survival. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 549_lf |
| law of the instrument | A tendency toward "over-reliance on a familiar tool or methods, ignoring or under-valuing alternative approaches". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 235_cb | |
| large-sample bias | A tendency for a model based on large samples of data to under-represent, or not represent, valid and important components that only appeared in a small portion of the sampled data. | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 137_ | ||
| language control | The application of politically oriented language focused on not using particular terminology such as an opponents' own names for themselves (which, for instance, might make that subject more relatable and less of a dehumanized other). See also: name calling, passive voice fallacy, political correctness, scripted message. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 548_lf | |
| Lake Wobegon effect | better-than-average effect, illusory superiority, Lake Wobegon effect, superiority bias | A "tendency to overestimate one's desirable qualities, and underestimate undesirable qualities, relative to other people". A form of egocentric bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 234_cb |
| lag effect | A tendency in which "learning is greater when studying is spread out over time, as opposed to studying the same amount of time in a single session". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 233_cb | |
| KISS principle | executive summary, keep it short and simple, keep it simple stupid, KISS principle, monocausal fallacy, plain truth fallacy, salience bias, simple truth fallacy | The favoring of "familiar, singular, summarized or easily comprehensible data, examples, explanations and evidence over those that are more complex and unfamiliar but much closer to the truth". Might appear as "I don't want a whole lesson on it, just boil it down to the plain truth" or as an assertion that "the truth is always simple and only enemies of truth would make it complicated". A "fallacy of logos". Opposite of: complexity, ineffability, post-truth, truthiness. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 689_lf |
| keeping up standards | Fordism, keeping up standards, procrustean fallacy, standardization, uniformity | Fordism, keeping up standards, procrustean fallacy, standardization, uniformity | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 784_lf |
| keep it simple stupid | executive summary, keep it short and simple, keep it simple stupid, KISS principle, monocausal fallacy, plain truth fallacy, salience bias, simple truth fallacy | The favoring of "familiar, singular, summarized or easily comprehensible data, examples, explanations and evidence over those that are more complex and unfamiliar but much closer to the truth". Might appear as "I don't want a whole lesson on it, just boil it down to the plain truth" or as an assertion that "the truth is always simple and only enemies of truth would make it complicated". A "fallacy of logos". Opposite of: complexity, ineffability, post-truth, truthiness. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 783_lf |
| keep it short and simple | executive summary, keep it short and simple, keep it simple stupid, KISS principle, monocausal fallacy, plain truth fallacy, salience bias, simple truth fallacy | The favoring of "familiar, singular, summarized or easily comprehensible data, examples, explanations and evidence over those that are more complex and unfamiliar but much closer to the truth". Might appear as "I don't want a whole lesson on it, just boil it down to the plain truth" or as an assertion that "the truth is always simple and only enemies of truth would make it complicated". A "fallacy of logos". Opposite of: complexity, ineffability, post-truth, truthiness. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 782_lf |
| karma is a bi**h | Job's comforter fallacy, karma is a bi**h, what goes around comes around | An argument that there is no random chance, and that one's own misfortunes must be punishment for sins or wickedness. Opposite of: appeal to heaven. See also: magical thinking. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 781_lf |
| just-world hypothesis | A tendency to "want to believe that the world is fundamentally just, causing them to rationalize an otherwise inexplicable injustice as deserved by the victim(s)". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 232_cb | |
| just plain folks | just plain folks, values | An argument that someone who speaks in simple terms and seems like a straight talker is necessarily worthy of being believed for that reason alone, especially in contrast with more sophisticated or fancier seeming speakers. A "corrupt...argument from ethos". See also: ad hominem fallacy, plain truth fallacy, simpleton's fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 547_lf |
| just in case | an abundance of caution, better safe than sorry, better to prevent than to lament, just in case, we can't afford to take chances, worst-case fallacy | A fallacy of pessimism with reasoning based on a far-fetched, unlikely, or even entirely imaginary worst-case scenario isntead of being based on reality. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 780_lf |
| just do it | accomplish the mission, by any means necessary, find a way, I don't care how you do it | An argumentum ad baculum (argument from force) that implies arriving at an outcome by setting aside morality. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-29 | 546_lf |
| just a job | The false justification that something is okay because it is "just a job" "like any other" that "they get paid to do". See also: finish the job. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 545_lf | |
| jumping to conclusions | a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter, converse accident, destroying the exception, dicto simpliciter, hasty generalization, jumping to conclusions, reverse accident | Literally, "a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter" means "from a qualified statement to a simple statement"; the shorter "dictum simpliciter" means "simple statement". A fallacy in which "a rule that applies only to an exceptional case is wrongly applied to all cases in general". Also, "mistaken use of inductive reasoning when there are too few samples to prove a point." A common example is the misleading statistic, a statistic seems compelling the way it is presented, but a fuller picture would show otherwise. A component fallacy. See also: ignoring qualifications, secundum quid, secundum quid et simpliciter, sweeping generalization. | [1], [2], [31], [32] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-28 | 456_lf |
| judicial surprise | judicial surprise, oh I forgot, I forgot, oops, October surprise | Typically, an attempt to end a debate by pretending to have "just remembered or uncovered some salient fact, argument or evidence", or suddenly presenting some sensational information only to then quuietly admit its lack of direct relevance to the topic at hand. A "corrupt argument from logos". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 875_lf |
| judenrein | broken windows policing, disproportionate response, even one is too many, judenrein, exemplary punishment, zero-risk bias, zero tolerance | A fallacy of "declaring an 'emergency' and promising to disregard justice and due process and devote unlimited resources (and occasionally, unlimited cruelty) to stamp out a limited, insignificant or even nonexistent problem". A "corrupt and cynical argument from pathos". "Almost always politically driven." A "sinister" form of dog whistle politics. An example of: we have to do something (placebo effect, political theater, security theater, we have to send a message). | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 778_lf |
| Job's comforter fallacy | Job's comforter fallacy, karma is a bi**h, what goes around comes around | An argument that there is no random chance, and that one's own misfortunes must be punishment for sins or wickedness. Opposite of: appeal to heaven. See also: magical thinking. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 493_lf |
| it is what it is | acquiescence, better the devil you know than the devil you don't, deal with it, default bias, get used to it, if it ain't broke don't fix it, it is what it is, let it be let it be, making one's peace with the situation, normalization of evil, this is the best of all possible worlds, whatever is is right | The fallacy that just because something is the current state that is therefore the preferred state. Opposite of: nihilism. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 544_lf |
| it does not follow | it does not follow, non sequitur | An "argument that does not follow from the previous statements"; "using a premise to prove an unrelated point"; "conclusions that have no logical connection to the argument at hand". Often, a writer may have left out a step of an argument they had in their head but did not put on paper. While "applicable in general to any type of logical fallacy", often used by logicials specifically to reference "syllogistic errors such as the undistributed middle term, non causa pro causa, and ignorantio elenchi". A component fallacy. Common examples are: affirming the consequent, denying the antecedent. | [1], [2], [3], [4] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 455_lf |
| irrelevant conclusion | arguing beside the point, ignorantio elenchi, ignoring the issue, irrelevant conclusion | A fallacy of switching attention to a different issue (which might be a valid issue but is unrelated to the topic at hand). A component fallacy. Similar to: begging the question. A common form: the red herring. Another example: tu quoque, and you too. | [1], [2] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-26 | 014_lf |
| irrational escalation | escalation of commitment, irrational escalation, sunk cost fallacy | A tendency in which "people justify increased investment in a decision, based on the cumulative prior investment, despite new evidence suggesting that the decision was probably wrong". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-09 | 231_cb_lf |
| interoceptive bias or hungry judge effect | A tendency "for sensory input about the body itself to affect one's judgement about external, unrelated circumstances". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-21 | 230_cb | |
| intergroup bias | group-serving bias, intergroup bias, in-group bias, in-group favoritism, in-group-out-group bias, in-group preference | A tendency to favor members of a social group to which one blogs over people who are not members of that social group. | [6], [23] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-10 | 161_cb |
| intentionality bias | A tendency to "judge human action to be intentional rather than accidental". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-21 | 229_cb | |
| insensitivity to sample size | A tendency "to under-expect variation in small samples". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-21 | 228_cb | |
| inner truth | esoteric wisdom, gnosticism, inner truth, inner sanctum, need to know | A fallacy holding that "there is some knowledge reserved only for the wise, the holy or the enlightened, (or those with proper security clearance), things that the masses cannot understand and do not deserve to know, at least not until they become wiser, more trusted or more spiritually advanced". A "fallacy from logos and ethos". A counterpart is: obscurantism, obscurationism, willful ignorance. See also: plain truth fallacy, argument from mystery, argumentum ad mysteriam, mystagogy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 454_lf |
| inner sanctum | esoteric wisdom, gnosticism, inner truth, inner sanctum, need to know | A fallacy holding that "there is some knowledge reserved only for the wise, the holy or the enlightened, (or those with proper security clearance), things that the masses cannot understand and do not deserve to know, at least not until they become wiser, more trusted or more spiritually advanced". A "fallacy from logos and ethos". A counterpart is: obscurantism, obscurationism, willful ignorance. See also: plain truth fallacy, argument from mystery, argumentum ad mysteriam, mystagogy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 453_lf |
| ingroup bias | A tendency "to give preferential treatment to others they perceive to be members of their own groups". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-21 | 226_cb | |
| infowars | fake news, infotainment, infortainment, infowars | The deliberate mixing of "facts, news, falsities and outright lies with entertainment". See also: dog-whistle politics. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 777_lf |
| infotainment | fake news, infotainment, infortainment, infowars | The deliberate mixing of "facts, news, falsities and outright lies with entertainment". See also: dog-whistle politics. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 543_lf |
| infortainment | fake news, infotainment, infortainment, infowars | The deliberate mixing of "facts, news, falsities and outright lies with entertainment". See also: dog-whistle politics. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 776_lf |
| information pollution | alt facts, alternate facts, alternative truth, counterknowledge, disinformation, information pollution | A fallacy holding that objective facts and truth cannot really exist, are not durable, or are really subjective. A "fallacy of logos rooted in postmodernism". Related to: big lie technique. See also: gaslighting, blind loyalty, big brain little brain fallacy, two truths. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 452_lf |
| information cascade | A fallacy in which one echoes others' opinions (often online), even when their own opinions or information exposure contradicts that position. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-26 | 542_lf | |
| information bias | As a cognitive bias, a tendency "to seek information even when it cannot affect action". As a logical fallacy, an attempt to prove a claim by overwhelming an audience with "mountains of true but marginally-relevant documents, graphs, words, facts, numbers, information and statistics s that look extremely impressive but which the...audience cannot be expected to understand or evaluate properly." A "fallacy of logos". Opposite of: plain truth fallacy. See also: lying with statistics. | [3], [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-28 | 227_cb_lf | |
| ineffability | complexity, ineffability, post-truth, truthiness | An arbitrary declaration tht "today's world is so complex that there is no truth" or that if truth does exist it is "unknowable excerpt perhaps by God". Opposite of: executive summary, keep it short and simple, keep it simple stupid, KISS principle, monocausal fallacy, plain truth fallacy, salience bias, simple truth fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 541_lf |
| incomplete information | card stacking, half truth, incomplete information, stacking the deck | A fallacy of ignoring examples or evidence that disprove one's point and instead only listing examples or sharing evidence which would support one's point. A fallacy of omission. A "corrupt argument from logos". Different from: straw man. See also: confirmation bias, hasty generalization. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-03 | 775_lf |
| in-group-out-group bias | group-serving bias, intergroup bias, in-group bias, in-group favoritism, in-group-out-group bias, in-group preference | A tendency to favor members of a social group to which one blogs over people who are not members of that social group. | [6], [23] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-10 | 715_cb |
| in-group preference | group-serving bias, intergroup bias, in-group bias, in-group favoritism, in-group-out-group bias, in-group preference | A tendency to favor members of a social group to which one blogs over people who are not members of that social group. | [6], [23] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-10 | 717_cb |
| in-group favoritism | group-serving bias, intergroup bias, in-group bias, in-group favoritism, in-group-out-group bias, in-group preference | A tendency to favor members of a social group to which one blogs over people who are not members of that social group. | [6], [23] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-10 | 186_cb |
| in-group bias | group-serving bias, intergroup bias, in-group bias, in-group favoritism, in-group-out-group bias, in-group preference | A tendency to favor members of a social group to which one blogs over people who are not members of that social group. | [6], [23] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-10 | 225_cb |
| impostor syndrome | A tendency in which "an individual doubts their skills, talents, or accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a fraud". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-21 | 224_cb | |
| implicit bias | implicit bias, unconscious bias | A pheneomenon of "underlying attitudes and stereotypes that people unconsciously attribute to another person or group of people that affect how they understand and engage with them". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-22 | 356_cb |
| implicit association | A tendency in which "the speed with which people can match words depends on how closely they are associated". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-21 | 223_cb | |
| illusory truth effect | illusion-of-truth effect, illusory truth effect | A tendency to "identify as true statements" ones that people "have previously heard (even if they cannot consciously remember having heard them), regardless of the actual validity of the statement." | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-21 | 222_cb |
| illusory superiority | better-than-average effect, illusory superiority, Lake Wobegon effect, superiority bias | A "tendency to overestimate one's desirable qualities, and underestimate undesirable qualities, relative to other people". A form of egocentric bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 221_cb |
| illusory correlation | A tendency to inaccurately see "a relationship between two events related by coincidence". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-21 | 220_cb | |
| illusion-of-truth effect | illusion-of-truth effect, illusory truth effect | A tendency to "identify as true statements" ones that people "have previously heard (even if they cannot consciously remember having heard them), regardless of the actual validity of the statement." | [6] | 2024-08-21 | 2024-08-28 | 813_cb |
| illusion of validity | A tendency "to overestimate the accuracy of one's judgments, especially when available information is consistent or inter-correlated". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-21 | 219_cb | |
| illusion of transparency | A tendency "to overestimate the degree to which their personal mental state is known by others, and to overestimate how well they understand others' personal mental states". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-21 | 218_cb | |
| illusion of explanatory depth | A tendency to "believe that one understands a topic much better than one actually does". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-21 | 217_cb | |
| illusion of control | A tendency to "overestimate one's degree of influence over other external events". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-21 | 216_cb | |
| illusion of asymmetric insight | A tendency to "perceive [that] their knowledge of their peers" exceeds "their peers' knowledge of them". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-21 | 215_cb | |
| IKEA effect | A tendency "for people to place a disproportionately high value on objects that they partially assembled themselves". Ane xample of: effort justification. Bias category: cognitive dissonance. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 214_cb | |
| ignoring the issue | arguing beside the point, ignorantio elenchi, ignoring the issue, irrelevant conclusion | A fallacy of switching attention to a different issue (which might be a valid issue but is unrelated to the topic at hand). A component fallacy. Similar to: begging the question. A common form: the red herring. Another example: tu quoque, and you too. | [1], [2] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-26 | 451_lf |
| ignoring qualifications | ignoring qualifications, secundum quid, secundum quid et simpliciter, sweeping generalization | Literally, "secundum quid" means "according to something", and "secundum quid et simpliciter" means "what is true in a certain respect and what is true absolutely". A common type of "secundum quid" is: accident ("a dicto simpliciter ad dictum secundum quid"), in which a general rule is applied to an edge case that is actually an exception to the rule. Another common type of "secundum quid" is: converse accident ("a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter"), in which "a rule that applies only to an exceptional case is wrongly applied to all cases in general". See also: a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter, converse accident, destroying the exception, dicto simpliciter, hasty generalization, jumping to conclusions, reverse accident. | [1], [2], [31], [32] | 2024-08-26 | 2024-08-28 | 742_lf |
| ignorantio elenchi | arguing beside the point, ignorantio elenchi, ignoring the issue, irrelevant conclusion | A fallacy of switching attention to a different issue (which might be a valid issue but is unrelated to the topic at hand). A component fallacy. Similar to: begging the question. A common form: the red herring. Another example: tu quoque, and you too. | [1], [2] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-26 | 450_lf |
| if it ain't broke don't fix it | acquiescence, better the devil you know than the devil you don't, deal with it, default bias, get used to it, if it ain't broke don't fix it, it is what it is, let it be let it be, making one's peace with the situation, normalization of evil, this is the best of all possible worlds, whatever is is right | The fallacy that just because something is the current state that is therefore the preferred state. Opposite of: nihilism. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 774_lf |
| identity politics | die away ye old forms and logic, identity fallacy, identity politics | A scenario in which the "validity of one's logic, evidence, experience or arguments depends not on their own strength but rather on whether the one arguing is a member of a given social class, generation, nationality, religious or ethnic group, color, gender or sexual orientation, profession, occupation or subgroup". See also: cultural appropriation. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 773_lf |
| identity fallacy | die away ye old forms and logic, identity fallacy, identity politics | A scenario in which the "validity of one's logic, evidence, experience or arguments depends not on their own strength but rather on whether the one arguing is a member of a given social class, generation, nationality, religious or ethnic group, color, gender or sexual orientation, profession, occupation or subgroup". See also: cultural appropriation. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 540_lf |
| iconoclastic fallacy | brave heretic, conspiracy theories, iconoclastic fallacy, romantic rebel, truthout fallacy, truthdig fallacy | A fallacy of holding a claim as true just because that position "is supposedly standing up heroically to the dominant orthodoxy, the current standard model, conventional wisdom or political correctness, or whatever may be the bandwagon of the moment". A corrupt argument from ethos. The opposite of: bandwagon fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-03 | 772_lf |
| I-knew-it-all-along effect | hindsight bias, hindsight is 20/20, I-knew-it-all-along effect | A tendency to "see past events as having been predictable". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 204_cb |
| I've got to do what I've got to do | a person's got to do what a person's got to do, a man's got to do what a man's got to do, I've got to do what I've got to do | This fallacy draws a conclusion based on (potentially prejudiced identity or gender-based) feelings or emotion not necessarily having a foundation in logical reasoning (e.g., it is possible that they do not really have to arrive at that outcome). A form of the affective fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-14 | 2024-07-02 | 912_lf |
| I'm trying my best | E for effort, noble effort, I'm trying my best, lost cause | The idea that something must be good or true because someone has put a lot of good-faith effort or sacrifice into it. A "fallacy6 of ethos". An example is: waving the bloody shirt, the blood of the martyrs fallacy. See also: argument from inertia, cost bias, solider's honor fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 688_lf |
| I wish I had a magic wand | Falsely proclaiming oneself to be unfortunately "powerless to change a bad or objectionable situation" over which one actually does have power (for example, by ignoring various real possibilities). See also: there is no alternative, TINA. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 492_lf | |
| I think we're alone now | heart of darkness syndrome, I think we're alone now, nobody will ever know, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas | A fallacy holding that "one may freely commit immoral, selfish, negative or evil acts at will without expecting any of the normal consequences or punishment" "just because nobody important is looking (or because one is on vacation, or away in college, or overseas)". A counterpart to: appeal to privacy, mind your own business, MYOB, none of yer beeswax, so what, you're not the boss of me | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-26 | 687_lf |
| I know my rights | appeasement, assertiveness, I know my rights, squeaky wheel gets the grease | A fallacy of obtaining a result not through argument but through the audience's willingness to give in so that the opposition will simply be satisfied, quieter, or no longer a nuisance. Common in public agencies, education, and retail. Sometimes promoted as a practical, nonviolent way for groups to promote change. See also: bribery. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-26 | 449_lf |
| I forgot | judicial surprise, oh I forgot, I forgot, oops, October surprise | Typically, an attempt to end a debate by pretending to have "just remembered or uncovered some salient fact, argument or evidence", or suddenly presenting some sensational information only to then quuietly admit its lack of direct relevance to the topic at hand. A "corrupt argument from logos". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 685_lf |
| I don't want to hear it | closed-mindedness, deliberate ignorance, hear no evil see no evil speak no evil, I don't want to hear it, motivated ignorance, three monkeys' fallacy, tuning out | The action of "choosing not to listen", "turning off any information, evidence or arguments that challenge one's beliefs, ideology, standpoint, or peace of mind", perhaps saying "Don't try to confuse me with the facts; my mind is made up". See also: confirmation bias, obscurantism, obscurationism, positive thinking fallacy, simpleton's fallacy, third person effect, they're all crooks, trust your gut, willful ignorance. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 370_lf |
| I don't care how you do it | accomplish the mission, by any means necessary, find a way, just do it | An argumentum ad baculum (argument from force) that implies arriving at an outcome by setting aside morality. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-29 | 683_lf |
| I do it too | ego quoque, I do it too, nos quoque, we do it too | The attempted justification (or minimization of criticism) of some position or action on the basis that oneself or one's own group has also done the same thing. See also: and you too, appeal to hypocrisy, tu quoque, two wrongs make a right, you also, you do it too. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 682_lf |
| I can read you like a book | fallacy of speculation, mind-reading, I can read you like a book | A fallacy in which one claims to cleary understand another's thoughts, emotions, motivations, and body language based on mere speculation, at times claiming to understanding these things better than the subject himself. This speculative "knowledge" can be used in an attempt to incorrectly the support other claims. An ancient fallacy. A corruption of stasis theory (agreeing to disagree). The opposite of: autist's fallacy, mind blindness. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 678_lf |
| hypostatization | fallacy of misplaced concreteness, fallacy of reification, hypostatization, mistaking the map for the territory, reification, reifying | A fallacy in which imaginary or abstract concepts or categories are treated as "actual, material things". Treating a word for something as the same as the thing itself. A "fallacy of ambiguity". See also: faulty analogy, essentializing, equivocation. | [1], [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-26 | 539_lf |
| hyperbolic discounting | current moment bias, hyperbolic discounting, present bias | A tendency "for people to have a stronger preference for more immediate payoffs relative to later payoffs". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 212_cb |
| hyperbole | An "immediate instance is immediately proclaimed the most significant in all of human history or the words in the whole world". See also: anchoring bias, attention bias, availability bias, catastrophizing, magnification. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 538_lf | |
| humor effect | A tendency for "humorous items" to be "more easily remembered than non-humorous ones". A form of: memory bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 211_cb | |
| humanitarian crisis | humanitarian crisis, save the children fallacy | Attracting public support for one side a distant crisis by invoking "in gross detail" the suffering of "the innocent, defenseless little children" while "conveniently ignoring the reality that innocent children on all sides usually suffer the most in any war, conflict, famine or crisis". A "fallacy of pathos". An example of: appeal to pity. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 771_lf |
| Hoyle's fallacy | The false assumption that a low-probablility event could never have happened or will never happen. An obverse: you can't win if you don't play, someone's going to win and it might as well be you. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-05 | 097_lf | |
| hot-hand fallacy | hot hand, hot-hand fallacy, hot hand phenomenon | A tendency to believe that "a person who has experienced success with a random event has a greater chance of further success in additional attempts". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 210_cb |
| hot-cold empathy gap | A tendency to "underestimate the influence of visceral drives on one's attitudes, preferences, and behaviors". Bias category: self-assessment. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 207_cb | |
| hot stove effect | hot stove effect, once bitten twice shy, non-adaptive choice switching | A tendency to "avoid the choice previously made when faced with the same decision problem again, even though the choice was optimal" after "experiencing a bad outcome with a decision problem". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-28 | 805_cb |
| hot hand phenomenon | hot hand, hot-hand fallacy, hot hand phenomenon | A tendency to believe that "a person who has experienced success with a random event has a greater chance of further success in additional attempts". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 209_cb |
| hot hand | hot hand, hot-hand fallacy, hot hand phenomenon | A tendency to believe that "a person who has experienced success with a random event has a greater chance of further success in additional attempts". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 208_cb |
| hostile attribution bias | A tendency to "interpret others' behaviors as having hostile intent, even when the behavior is ambiguous or benign". A form of: attribution bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 206_cb | |
| homophily | confirmation bias, homophily | The cognitive bias and logical fallacy of a tendency to "search for, interpret, focus on and remember information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions". Includes: backfire effect, congruence effect, experimenter's bias, expectation bias, observer-expectancy effect, selective perception, Semmelweis reflex. See also: defensiveness, half truth. | [3], [6] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 770_lf |
| hindsight is 20/20 effect | hindsight bias, hindsight is 20/20, I-knew-it-all-along effect | A tendency to "see past events as having been predictable". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 205_cb |
| hindsight bias | hindsight bias, hindsight is 20/20 effect, I-knew-it-all-along effect | A tendency to "see past events as having been predictable". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 203_cb |
| hey sports fans | hey sports fans, moving the ball down the field, scoring, sports world fallacy | The inappropriate application of sports analogy to other domains. See also: evening up the score, getting even | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 537_lf |
| heroes all | everybody's a winner, heroes all | A fallacy holding that "everyone is above average or extraordinary". Opposite is: all the king's men. See also: hero-busting, identity fallacy, perfect is the enemy of good. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 096_lf |
| hero-busting | hero-busting, perfect is the enemy of good, the perfect is the enemy of the good | A fallacy of pointing out that nobody could have been a hero because "nobody and nothing in this world is perfect". Examples: pointing out the faults of historic figures generally held to have been otherwise heroic in some way; reviewing everything a political opponent has ever done or said to find something to condemn or misinterpret. A "postmodern fallacy of ethos". Opposite of: hereoes all. Can aid: identity fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-27 | 094_lf |
| herd behavior | A tendency of "individuals in a group acting collectively without centralized direction". | [6], [24] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 202_cb | |
| hedonism | The seeking and valuing of "physical pleasure as a good in itself, simply for it own sake". Opposite of: live as though you're dying, mortification, no pain no gain, pleasure-hating. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 535_lf | |
| hedonic recall bias | A tendency "for people who are satisfied with their wage to overestimate how much they earn, and vice versa, for people who are unsatisfied with their wage to underestimate it". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-10 | 201_cb | |
| heart of darkness syndrome | heart of darkness syndrome, I think we're alone now, nobody will ever know, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas | A fallacy holding that "one may freely commit immoral, selfish, negative or evil acts at will without expecting any of the normal consequences or punishment" "just because nobody important is looking (or because one is on vacation, or away in college, or overseas)". A counterpart to: appeal to privacy, mind your own business, MYOB, none of yer beeswax, so what, you're not the boss of me | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-26 | 769_lf |
| hear no evil see no evil speak no evil | closed-mindedness, deliberate ignorance, hear no evil see no evil speak no evil, I don't want to hear it, motivated ignorance, three monkeys' fallacy, tuning out | The action of "choosing not to listen", "turning off any information, evidence or arguments that challenge one's beliefs, ideology, standpoint, or peace of mind", perhaps saying "Don't try to confuse me with the facts; my mind is made up". See also: confirmation bias, obscurantism, obscurationism, positive thinking fallacy, simpleton's fallacy, third person effect, they're all crooks, trust your gut, willful ignorance. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-26 | 768_lf |
| hasty generalization | a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter, converse accident, destroying the exception, dicto simpliciter, hasty generalization, jumping to conclusions, reverse accident | Literally, "a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter" means "from a qualified statement to a simple statement"; the shorter "dictum simpliciter" means "simple statement". A fallacy in which "a rule that applies only to an exceptional case is wrongly applied to all cases in general". Also, "mistaken use of inductive reasoning when there are too few samples to prove a point." A common example is the misleading statistic, a statistic seems compelling the way it is presented, but a fuller picture would show otherwise. A component fallacy. See also: ignoring qualifications, secundum quid, secundum quid et simpliciter, sweeping generalization. | [1], [2], [31], [32] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-28 | 012_lf |
| hasty conclusion | hasty conclusions, where there's smoke there's fire | Arriving at a snap conculsion without sufficient supporting evidence. Opposite of: paralysis of analysis. See also: jumping to conclusions. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 767_lf |
| hard–easy effect | A tendency "to overestimate one's ability to accomplish hard tasks, and underestimate one's ability to accomplish easy tasks". Category of bias: self-assessment. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-10 | 200_cb | |
| hard power | appeal to force, argument from force, argument from strength, argument from the club (stick), argumentum ad baculum, bullying, fascism, hard power, might-makes-right, muscular leadership, non-negotiable demands, power-play, resolution by force of arms, shock and awe | A fallacy in which a conclusion is reached due to force, threat of force, or threat of unpleasantness. A fallacy of relevance, since reason for conclusion is not relevant to the argument at hand. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-03 | 766_lf |
| halo effect | A social bias. A form of association fallacy. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 199_cb | |
| half truth | card stacking, half truth, incomplete information, stacking the deck | A fallacy of ignoring examples or evidence that disprove one's point and instead only listing examples or sharing evidence which would support one's point. A fallacy of omission. A "corrupt argument from logos". Different from: straw man. See also: confirmation bias, hasty generalization. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-03 | 447_lf |
| guilt by association | discredit by association | A fallacy of trying to argue against a point by "evoking the negative ethos" (the negative charcteristics) of the associations of the opponent (e.g., by way of their professional or social relationships, political party, religion, ethnicity, or other group or institutional memberhip). An extreme case is: for my enemies nothing. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-16 | 093_lf |
| groupthink | A tendency in which "the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome" as people "try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative viewpoints by actively suppressing dissenting viewpoints, and by isolating themselves from outside influences". Example of: conformity. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-10 | 198_cb | |
| groupshift | A tendency "for decisions to be more risk-seeking or risk-averse than the group as a whole, if the group is already biased in that direction". Example of: conformity. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-10 | 197_cb | |
| group-serving bias | group-serving bias, intergroup bias, in-group bias, in-group favoritism, in-group-out-group bias, in-group preference | A tendency to favor members of a social group to which one blogs over people who are not members of that social group. | [6], [23] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-10 | 196_cb |
| group attribution error | A tendency to believe that "the characteristics of an individual group member are reflective of the group as a whole" or to "assume that group decision outcomes reflect the preferences of group members" "even when information is available that clearly suggests otherwise". Example of: attribution bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-10 | 195_cb | |
| grit | every revolution ends up eating its own young, grit, law of unintended consequences, resilience doctrine | An argument that, since it is impossible to know everything or to forsee anything, then unknown unknowns will always blindside and overwhelm, so therefore one must be prepared to maintain strength, withstand, and to recover as a main means of survival. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 765_lf |
| green fallacy | appeal to nature, biologizing, green fallacy | A fallacy that just because something is natural, therefore "it has to be good, healthy, and beneficial". A "contemporary romantic fallacy of ethos". See also: argument from natural law. | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-23 | 446_lf | |
| greedflation fallacy | A mistaken belief that "corporate greed causes inflation". A fallacy surrounding: capitalism. | [27] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-15 | 213_lf | |
| Gott mit uns | American exceptionalism, appeal to heaven, argumentum ad coelum, Deus vult, manifest destiny, special covenant | A fallacy based on claiming to know God's mind and wishes, which cannot really be challenged. A "deluded argument from ethos". Opposite of: Job's comforter fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-27 | 445_lf |
| Google effect | A tendency to "forget information that can be found readily online by using Internet search engines". A memory bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-10 | 194_cb | |
| good simpleton | good simpleton, simpleton's fallacy | A claim that uninformed perspectives are equally as valid as fully informed perspectives. A "fallacy of logos". See also: argument from ignorance, just plain folks, plain truth fallacy, third person effect. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 764_lf |
| good old days | appeal to tradition, argumentum ad traditionem, argumentum ad antiquitatem, back in those good times, conservative bias, good old days | A fallacy of holding a position as correct or a thing (scenario or deed) as good because it has always been that way or was that way long ago (and might still "serve one particular group very well"). A fallacy of relevance. A "corrupted argument from ethos" (from the past). Often related in time to the audience's young years, but not prior. Opposite of: appeal to novelty, bad old days, early adopter's fallacy, pro-innovation bias, recency bias. | [1], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-26 | 444_lf |
| golden age fallacy | A mistaken belief that people "should strive to return to" a "perfect time in history" that existed. A fallacy surrounding: capitalism. | [27] | 2024-07-15 | 2024-08-28 | 874_lf | |
| gnosticism | esoteric wisdom, gnosticism, inner truth, inner sanctum, need to know | A fallacy holding that "there is some knowledge reserved only for the wise, the holy or the enlightened, (or those with proper security clearance), things that the masses cannot understand and do not deserve to know, at least not until they become wiser, more trusted or more spiritually advanced". A "fallacy from logos and ethos". A counterpart is: obscurantism, obscurationism, willful ignorance. See also: plain truth fallacy, argument from mystery, argumentum ad mysteriam, mystagogy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 443_lf |
| Gitmo solution | build a wall, Gitmo solution, lock em up and throw away the key, NIMBY, not in my back yard, ostrich strategy | The idea that a problem ceases to exist for all practical purposes so long as it can be made to go away to somewhere that is out of sight, or censored, or ignored, perhaps with a focus on positive things instead. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 681_lf |
| getting even | evening up the score, getting even | An argument for inflicting punishment on a false premise of life being a sporting event based on keeping track of scores. See also: hey sports fans, moving the baall down the field, scoring, sports world fallacy | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 763_lf |
| get used to it | acquiescence, better the devil you know than the devil you don't, deal with it, default bias, get used to it, if it ain't broke don't fix it, it is what it is, let it be let it be, making one's peace with the situation, normalization of evil, this is the best of all possible worlds, whatever is is right | The fallacy that just because something is the current state that is therefore the preferred state. Opposite of: nihilism. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 762_lf |
| get over it | fait accompli, get over it, love it or leave it, suck it up, there is no alternative, TINA | The rejection of opposing ideas on the basis that "there is no realistic alternative to a given standpoint, status or action, arbitrarily ruling any and all other options out of bounds, or announcing that a decision has been made and any further discussion is insubordination, disloyalty, treason, disobedience or simply a waste of precious time when there's a job to be done". An extension of: either/or fallacy. A form of: appeal to force, argument from force, argument from strength, argument from the club (stick), argumentum ad baculum, bullying, fascism, hard power, might-makes-right, muscular leadership, non-negotiable demands, power-play, resolution by force of arms, shock and awe. See also: taboo, finish the job. See also: appeal to closure, acquiescence, better the devil you know than the devil you don't, deal with it, default bias, get used to it, if it ain't broke don't fix it, it is what it is, let it be let it be, making one's peace with the situation, normalization of evil, this is the best of all possible worlds, whatever is is right. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 534_lf |
| genetic fallacy | A fallacy of claiming something as untrustworthy due to its "racial, geographic, or ethnic origin". A fallacy of relevance. Related to ad hominem, personal attack. | [1] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-21 | 004_lf | |
| generation effect | generation effect, self-generation effect | A tendnecy in which "self-generated information is remembered best". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-10 | 192_cb |
| gender differences in eyewitness memory | A tendency "for a witness to remember more details about someone of the same gender". A memory bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-10 | 191_cb | |
| gender bias | A "set of implicit biases that discriminate against a gender". Examples: "the assumption that women are less suited to jobs requiring high intellectual ability" and "the assumption that people or animals are male in the absence of any indicators of gender". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-10 | 190_cb | |
| gaslighting | A fallacy of "denying or invalidating a person's own knowledge and experiences by deliberately twisting or distorting known facts, memories, scenes, events and evidence in order to disorient a vulnerable opponent and to make him or her doubt his/her sanity". An example is: emotional invalidation. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-05 | 091_lf | |
| gambler's fallacy | A tendency to "think that future probabilities are altered by past events, when in reality they are unchanged". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-10 | 189_cb | |
| G.E. Moore's naturalistic fallacy | G.E. Moore's naturalistic fallacy, naturalistic fallacy | A fallacy of inferring "that X is good from any proposition about X’s natural properties". Different than: "argument from nature", "the appeal to nature". | [25] | 2024-07-11 | 2024-08-28 | 883_lf |
| G. I. Joe fallacy | A tendency to "think that knowing about cognitive bias is enough to overcome it". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-10 | 188_cb | |
| führerprinzip | big brain little brain, führerprinzip, mad leader disease | A fallacy in which a person in a leadership or authority position (a work boss, military commander, or some sort of religious, cult, or group leader) tells people to think not with their little brains (the brain in their head) but instead with their big brain (the leader's brain). An "extreme example of the blind loyalty fallacy". Sometimes expressed positively in that the leader takes (moral) responsibilty for decisions. The opposite is: plausible deniability. See also: just do it, gaslighting. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 442_lf |
| fundamental pain bias | A tendency "for people to believe they accurately report their own pain levels while holding the paradoxical belief that others exaggerate it". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-10 | 187_cb | |
| fundamental attribution error | attribution error, fundamental attribution error, self justification | A tendency to assume that others' (poor) behavior results from character defects (personality) while under-emphasizing the influence of the situation on others' behavior, while, at the same time, one's own behavior is held to be due to environmental factors (situtation). A "corrupt argument from ethos". Obverse is: self debasement, self deprecation. See also: group attribution error, ultimate attribution error. | [3], [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-10 | 090_cb_lf |
| functional fixedness | A tendenency "limiting a person to using an object only in the way it is traditionally used". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-09 | 185_cb | |
| frequency illusion | Baader–Meinhof phenomenon, frequency illusion | A cognitive bias in which "once something has been noticed, then every instance of that thing is noticed, leading to the belief it has a high frequency of occurrence". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 184_cb |
| free speech fallacy | An example is the Safe Space or Safe Place. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-11 | 089_lf | |
| framing effect | The tendency to "draw different conclusions from the same information, depending on how that information is presented". Examples include: contrast effect, decoy effect, default effect, denomination effect, distinction bias, domain neglect bias, context neglect bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 183_cb | |
| form function attribution bias | A tendnecy of people "to make systematic errors when interacting with a robot""based on its appearance (form)". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-09 | 182_cb | |
| Forer effect | Barnum effect, Forer effect | A tendency "for individuals to give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for them, but are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people". A form of egocentric bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-09 | 181_cb |
| Fordism | Fordism, keeping up standards, procrustean fallacy, standardization, uniformity | The inappropriate application "the norms and requirements of standardized manufacturing. quality control and rigid scheduling, or of military discipline to inherently diverse free human beings, their lives, education, behavior, clothing and appearance". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 680_lf |
| for my friends anything | blood is thicker than water, compadrismo, favoritism, for my friends anything | Automatically regarding a claim or action as "true, correct, and above challenge" because "one is related to, knows and likes, or is on the same team or side, or belongs to the same religion, party, club or fraternity as the individual involved". A "corrupt argument from ethos". Reverse of: ad hominem. See also: identity fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 441_lf |
| for my enemies nothing | Holding that one's "real or perceived enemies are by definition always wrong and must be conceded nothing". An example of: guilt by association. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 532_lf | |
| follow your heart | affective fallacy, appeal to emotion, appeal to pity, argument from pity, argumentum ad misericordiam, emotion over reflection, follow your heart, playing to emotions, romantic | "An emotional appeal to what should be a logical issue". "Opposite to this is...chosen emotion fallacy. Often, "a fallacy of encouragement to root of the underdog regardless of the issues at hand". "A corrupt argument from pathos." A fallacy of relevance. Closely related to angelism. "Opposite to this is...chosen emotion fallacy." Opposite of: appeal to rigor. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-24 | 440_lf |
| focalism | A tendency to rely too much on one particular thing (often the first available thing) when considering a decision. See also: common source bias, conservatism bias, functional fixedness, law of the instrument. See also: anchoring bias, attention bias, attentional bias, availability bias, availability heuristic. | [6] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 903_cb | |
| fixed pie fallacy | A mistaken belief that "there is a fixed pie of wealth, and every winner creates a loser". A fallacy surrounding: capitalism. | [27] | 2024-07-15 | 2024-08-28 | 831_lf | |
| finish the job | Related to Just a Job. See also Blind Loyalty, Soldiers Honor Fallacy, Argument from Inertia. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-11 | 088_lf | |
| find a way | accomplish the mission, by any means necessary, just do it, I don't care how you do it | An argumentum ad baculum (argument from force) that implies arriving at an outcome by setting aside morality. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-29 | 909_lf |
| financial incentive | bribery, financial incentive, material incentive, material persuasion | A fallacy of obtaining a position through "gifts or favors". Often does not stick unless bribes continue. The reverse of: argumentum ad baculum, appeal to force, argument from the club (stick), argument from force, might-makes-right. See also: appeasement, assertiveness, I know my rights, squeaky wheel gets the grease. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-26 | 760_lf |
| favoritism | blood is thicker than water, compadrismo, favoritism, for my friends anything | Automatically regarding a claim or action as "true, correct, and above challenge" because "one is related to, knows and likes, or is on the same team or side, or belongs to the same religion, party, club or fraternity as the individual involved". A "corrupt argument from ethos". Reverse of: ad hominem. See also: identity fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 439_lf |
| faulty use of quotes | devil quotes scripture, faulty use of quotes | The use of quotations "out of context or against the clear intent of the original speaker or author". See also: eminence-based practice, falacia ad verecundiam, faulty use of authority, questionable authority, star power, testimonial. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 531_lf |
| faulty use of authority | eminence-based practice, falacia ad verecundiam, faulty use of authority, questionable authority, star power, testimonial | A fallacy in which arguments "are granted fame and validity or condemed to obscurity soley by whoever may be the reigning stars or premier journals of the profession or discpline at the moment". A "corrupt argument from ethos". Includes: faulty use of quotes. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-21 | 759_lf |
| faulty analogy | A component fallacy. | [1] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-11 | 019_lf | |
| fascism | appeal to force, argument from force, argument from strength, argument from the club (stick), argumentum ad baculum, bullying, fascism, hard power, might-makes-right, muscular leadership, non-negotiable demands, power-play, resolution by force of arms, shock and awe | A fallacy in which a conclusion is reached due to force, threat of force, or threat of unpleasantness. A fallacy of relevance, since reason for conclusion is not relevant to the argument at hand. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-03 | 758_lf |
| familiarity principle | familiarity principle, mere exposure principle | A tendency to "express undue liking for things merely because of familiarity with them". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-09 | 180_cb |
| false uniqueness bias | A tendency people have to "see their projects and themselves as more singular than they actually are". A form of: egocentric bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-09 | 179_cb | |
| false priors | A scenarion in which "initial beliefs and knowledge ... interfere with the unbiased evaluation of factual evidence and lead to incorrect conclusions". Examples include: agent detection bias, automation bias, gender bias, sexual overperception bias, stereotyping. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-09 | 178_cb | |
| false memory | A scenarion in which "imagination is mistaken for a memory". A form of: misattribution of memory. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-09 | 177_cb | |
| false equivalence | false balance, false equivalence, teach the controversy, two-sides fallacy | Presenting an issue in such a way that makes it seem as though there are "two sides of equal weight or significance, when in fact a consensus or much stronger argument supports just one side". | [3] | 2024-08-28 | 2024-08-28 | 036_lf |
| false dilemma | all or nothing thinking, bifurcation, black and white fallacy, black/white fallacy, either or fallacy, either/or reasoning, excluded middle, false binary, false dilemma | A conclusion is reached based on there only being two possible options, when really the possibilities are not so limited. A component fallacy. | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-14 | 438_lf | |
| false dichotomy | all or nothing thinking, bifurcation, black and white fallacy, black/white fallacy, either or fallacy, either/or reasoning, excluded middle, false binary, false dilemma | A conclusion is reached based on there only being two possible options, when really the possibilities are not so limited. A component fallacy. | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-14 | 437_lf | |
| false consensus effect | A tendency to "overestimate the degree to which others agree with them". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-09 | 176_cb | |
| false cause and effect | coincidental correlation, false cause, false cause and effect | Claiming or establishing "a cause/effect relationship that does not exist". A component fallacy. Examples include: correlation implies causation, cum hoc ergo propter hoc, non causa pro causa, not the cause for the cause, after this therefore because of this, post hoc argument, post hoc propter hoc, post hoc ergo propter hoc. | [1], [2], [4] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 320_lf |
| false cause | coincidental correlation, false cause, false cause and effect | Claiming or establishing "a cause/effect relationship that does not exist". A component fallacy. Examples include: correlation implies causation, cum hoc ergo propter hoc, non causa pro causa, not the cause for the cause, after this therefore because of this, post hoc argument, post hoc propter hoc, post hoc ergo propter hoc. | [1], [2], [4] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 013_lf |
| false binary | all or nothing thinking, bifurcation, black and white fallacy, black/white fallacy, either or fallacy, either/or reasoning, excluded middle, false binary, false dilemma | A conclusion is reached based on there only being two possible options, when really the possibilities are not so limited. A component fallacy. | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-14 | 436_lf | |
| false balance | false balance, false equivalence, teach the controversy, two-sides fallacy | Presenting an issue in such a way that makes it seem as though there are "two sides of equal weight or significance, when in fact a consensus or much stronger argument supports just one side". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 631_lf |
| false analogy | Opposite of Sui Generis Fallacy, Difference. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-11 | 087_lf | |
| fallacy of speculation | fallacy of speculation, mind-reading, I can read you like a book | A fallacy in which one claims to cleary understand another's thoughts, emotions, motivations, and body language based on mere speculation, at times claiming to understanding these things better than the subject himself. This speculative "knowledge" can be used in an attempt to incorrectly the support other claims. An ancient fallacy. A corruption of stasis theory (agreeing to disagree). The opposite of: autist's fallacy, mind blindness. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 757_lf |
| fallacy of reification | fallacy of misplaced concreteness, fallacy of reification, hypostatization, mistaking the map for the territory, reification, reifying | A fallacy in which imaginary or abstract concepts or categories are treated as "actual, material things". Treating a word for something as the same as the thing itself. A "fallacy of ambiguity". See also: faulty analogy, essentializing, equivocation. | [1], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 027_lf |
| fallacy of misplaced concreteness | fallacy of misplaced concreteness, fallacy of reification, hypostatization, mistaking the map for the territory, reification, reifying | A fallacy in which imaginary or abstract concepts or categories are treated as "actual, material things". Treating a word for something as the same as the thing itself. A "fallacy of ambiguity". See also: faulty analogy, essentializing, equivocation. | [1], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 435_lf |
| falacia ad verecundiam | eminence-based practice, falacia ad verecundiam, faulty use of authority, questionable authority, star power, testimonial | A fallacy in which arguments "are granted fame and validity or condemed to obscurity soley by whoever may be the reigning stars or premier journals of the profession or discpline at the moment". A "corrupt argument from ethos". Includes: faulty use of quotes. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-21 | 756_lf |
| falacia ad verbosium | falacia ad verbosium, information bias, snow job | An attempt to prove a claim by overwhelming an audience with "mountains of true but marginally-relevant documents, graphs, words, facts, numbers, information and statistics s that look extremely impressive but which the...audience cannot be expected to understand or evaluate properly." A "fallacy of logos". Opposite of: plain truth fallacy. See also: lying with statistics. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 755_lf |
| falacia ad temperantiam | falacia ad temperantiam, marginalization of the adversary, middle of the road fallacy, politics of the center | An argument that a position is correct "not on its own merits" but "solely or mainly by presenting it as the only moderate path among two or more obviously unacceptable extreme alternatives". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 754_lf |
| fake news | fake news, infotainment, infortainment, infowars | The deliberate mixing of "facts, news, falsities and outright lies with entertainment". See also: dog-whistle politics. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 753_lf |
| fait accompli | fait accompli, get over it, love it or leave it, suck it up, there is no alternative, TINA | The rejection of opposing ideas on the basis that "there is no realistic alternative to a given standpoint, status or action, arbitrarily ruling any and all other options out of bounds, or announcing that a decision has been made and any further discussion is insubordination, disloyalty, treason, disobedience or simply a waste of precious time when there's a job to be done". An extension of: either/or fallacy. A form of: appeal to force, argument from force, argument from strength, argument from the club (stick), argumentum ad baculum, bullying, fascism, hard power, might-makes-right, muscular leadership, non-negotiable demands, power-play, resolution by force of arms, shock and awe. See also: taboo, finish the job. See also: appeal to closure, acquiescence, better the devil you know than the devil you don't, deal with it, default bias, get used to it, if it ain't broke don't fix it, it is what it is, let it be let it be, making one's peace with the situation, normalization of evil, this is the best of all possible worlds, whatever is is right. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 529_lf |
| fair share fallacy | A mistaken belief that "the rich pay no tax". A fallacy surrounding: capitalism. | [27] | 2024-07-15 | 2024-08-28 | 872_lf | |
| fading affect bias | A tendency in which "the emotion associated with unpleasant memories fades more quickly than the emotion associated with positive events". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-09 | 175_cb | |
| fable | fable, narrative fallacy, poster child | Wrapping a message in a "heartwarming or horrifying story or fable" is more persusasive than more formal or direct argument, even if the story is fictional. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 752_lf |
| F-bomb | cursing, F-bomb, obscenity, profanity | An attempt to "defend or strengthen one's argument with gratuitous, unrelated sexual, obscene, vulgar, crude or profane language when such language does nothing to make an argument stronger, other than perhaps to create a sense of identity with certain...audiences". A fallacy of pathos. Related to: salacious fallacy. See also: red herring. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 086_lf |
| extrinsic incentives bias | A scenario in which "people view others as having (situational) extrinsic motivations and (dispositional) intrinsic motivations for oneself". An exception to: fundamental attribution error. A form of: attribution bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-09 | 174_cb | |
| extension neglect | A senario in which "the quantity of the sample size is not sufficiently taken into consideration when assessing the outcome, relevance or judgement". Examples include: base rate fallacy, compassion fade, conjunction fallacy, duration neglect, hyperbolic discounting, insensitivity to sample size, less-is-better effect, neglect of probability, scope insensitivity, scope neglect, zero-risk bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-09 | 173_cb | |
| experimenter's bias | expectation bias, experimenter's bias | A tendency "for experimenters to believe, certify, and publish data that agree with their expectations for the outcome of an experiment, and to disbelieve, discard, or downgrade the corresponding weightings for data that appear to conflict with those expectations". An example of: confirmation bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-09 | 172_cb |
| expectation bias | expectation bias, experimenter's bias | A tendency "for experimenters to believe, certify, and publish data that agree with their expectations for the outcome of an experiment, and to disbelieve, discard, or downgrade the corresponding weightings for data that appear to conflict with those expectations". An example of: confirmation bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-09 | 171_cb |
| expect a miracle | expect a miracle, magical thinking, sin of presumption | An argument that when it really matters, one just has to pray or do the right rituals and then a miracle will occur. A "fallacy... of logos". See also: appeal to heaven, Job's comforter fallacy, positive thinking. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 751_lf |
| exemplary punishment | broken windows policing, disproportionate response, even one is too many, judenrein, exemplary punishment, zero-risk bias, zero tolerance | A fallacy of "declaring an 'emergency' and promising to disregard justice and due process and devote unlimited resources (and occasionally, unlimited cruelty) to stamp out a limited, insignificant or even nonexistent problem". A "corrupt and cynical argument from pathos". "Almost always politically driven." A "sinister" form of dog whistle politics. An example of: we have to do something (placebo effect, political theater, security theater, we have to send a message). | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 750_lf |
| executive summary | executive summary, keep it short and simple, keep it simple stupid, KISS principle, monocausal fallacy, plain truth fallacy, salience bias, simple truth fallacy | executive summary, keep it short and simple, keep it simple stupid, KISS principle, monocausal fallacy, plain truth fallacy, salience bias, simple truth fallacyThe favoring of "familiar, singular, summarized or easily comprehensible data, examples, explanations and evidence over those that are more complex and unfamiliar but much closer to the truth". Might appear as "I don't want a whole lesson on it, just boil it down to the plain truth" or as an assertion that "the truth is always simple and only enemies of truth would make it complicated". A "fallacy of logos". Opposite of: complexity, ineffability, post-truth, truthiness. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 749_lf |
| excluded outliers | The arbitrary discarding of evidence as "weird, outliers, or atypical" if it would disprove one's point. Opposite of: excluded middle, falacia ad temperantiam, marginalization of the adversary, middle of the road fallacy, politics of the center. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 528_lf | |
| excluded middle | all or nothing thinking, bifurcation, black and white fallacy, black/white fallacy, either or fallacy, either/or reasoning, excluded middle, false binary, false dichotomy, false dilemma | If a little is good, then more must be better. Or, if less is good, then none is better. "A corrupted argument from logos". One opposite is excluded outliers. Another opposite is middle of the road fallacy (falacia ad temperantiam, the politics of the center, marginalization of the adversary). A conclusion is reached based on there only being two possible options, when really the possibilities are not so limited. A component fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-09-05 | 085_lf |
| exaggerated expectation | A tendency to "expect or predict more extreme outcomes than those outcomes that actually happen". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-09 | 170_cb | |
| everybody's a winner | everybody's a winner, heroes all | A fallacy holding that "everyone is above average or extraordinary". Opposite is: all the king's men. See also: hero-busting, identity fallacy, perfect is the enemy of good. | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 434_lf | |
| every revolution ends up eating its own young | every revolution ends up eating its own young, grit, law of unintended consequences, resilience doctrine | An argument that, since it is impossible to know everything or to forsee anything, then unknown unknowns will always blindside and overwhelm, so therefore one must be prepared to maintain strength, withstand, and to recover as a main means of survival. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 748_lf |
| evening up the score | evening up the score, getting even | An argument for inflicting punishment on a false premise of life being a sporting event based on keeping track of scores. See also: hey sports fans, moving the baall down the field, scoring, sports world fallacy | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 527_lf |
| even one is too many | broken windows policing, disproportionate response, even one is too many, judenrein, exemplary punishment, zero-risk bias, zero tolerance | A fallacy of "declaring an 'emergency' and promising to disregard justice and due process and devote unlimited resources (and occasionally, unlimited cruelty) to stamp out a limited, insignificant or even nonexistent problem". A "corrupt and cynical argument from pathos". "Almost always politically driven." A "sinister" form of dog whistle politics. An example of: we have to do something (placebo effect, political theater, security theater, we have to send a message). | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 747_lf |
| euphoric recall | A tendency to "remember past experiences in a positive light, while overlooking negative experiences associated with that even". A type of: memory bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-09 | 169_cb | |
| etymological fallacy | etymological fallacy, underlying meaning | A fallacy of "drawing false conclusions from the...linguistic origins of a current word" or the "alleged meanings or associations of that word in another langauge". "A fallacy of logos."" | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-06 | 084_lf |
| essentializing | A fallacy of treating a thing such that it is and can only ever be that which it is said to be at its core. A "fallacy of logos". Opposite of: relativizing. See also: red herring, Appeal to Nature. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 083_lf | |
| esoteric wisdom | esoteric wisdom, gnosticism, inner truth, inner sanctum, need to know | A fallacy holding that "there is some knowledge reserved only for the wise, the holy or the enlightened, (or those with proper security clearance), things that the masses cannot understand and do not deserve to know, at least not until they become wiser, more trusted or more spiritually advanced". A "fallacy from logos and ethos". A counterpart is: obscurantism, obscurationism, willful ignorance. See also: plain truth fallacy, argument from mystery, argumentum ad mysteriam, mystagogy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 433_lf |
| esoteric knowledge | esoteric wisdom, gnosticism, inner truth, inner sanctum, need to know | A fallacy holding that "there is some knowledge reserved only for the wise, the holy or the enlightened, (or those with proper security clearance), things that the masses cannot understand and do not deserve to know, at least not until they become wiser, more trusted or more spiritually advanced". A "fallacy from logos and ethos". A counterpart is: obscurantism, obscurationism, willful ignorance. See also: plain truth fallacy, argument from mystery, argumentum ad mysteriam, mystagogy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 082_lf |
| eschatological fallacy | A fallacy that argues that "the world is coming to an end" so therefore some position is reasonable. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-05 | 081_lf | |
| escalation of commitment | escalation of commitment, irrational escalation, sunk cost fallacy | A tendency in which "people justify increased investment in a decision, based on the cumulative prior investment, despite new evidence suggesting that the decision was probably wrong". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-28 | 168_cb |
| equivocation | A fallacy of ambiguity. | [1] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-11 | 023_lf | |
| equivocation | A fallacy of "knowingly and deliberately using words in a different sense than the one the audience will understand" or "deliberately failing to define one's terms" or for "the same term...using differing meanings" or "using a word in a different way than the author used it in the original premise" or "changing definitions halfway through a discussion". A fallacy of ambiguity. Compare with: amphiboly. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-05 | 037_lf | |
| epistemically closed systems | compartmentalization, epistemically closed systems, two truths | A position that "there exists one truth in one given environment (e.g., in science, work or school) and simultaneously a different, formally contradictory but equally true truth in a different epistemic system, context, environment, intended audience or discourse community (e.g., in one's religion or at home)". A "fallacy of logos and ethos". See also: alternative truth, disciplinary blinders. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 746_lf |
| endowment effect | A tendency "for people to demand much more to give up an object than they would be willing to pay to acquire it". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-09 | 167_cb | |
| end-of-history illusion | A an "age-independent" tendency to "believe that one will change less in the future than one has in the past". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-09 | 166_cb | |
| emotional reasoning | emotional reasoning, trust your feelings, trust your gut, trust your heart, trust your instincts, trust your intuition | The use primarily of gut feelings instead of reason or evidence when deciding something. A "corrupt argument from pathos". See also: affective fallacy, deliberate ignorance, third person effect. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 745_lf |
| emotional invalidation | A fallacy of "questioning, after the fact, the reality or validity of affective [emotional] states, either another's or one's own". An example of: gaslighting. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-05 | 092_lf | |
| emotion over reflection | affective fallacy, appeal to emotion, appeal to pity, argument from pity, argumentum ad misericordiam, emotion over reflection, follow your heart, playing to emotions, romantic fallacy | "An emotional appeal to what should be a logical issue". "Opposite to this is...chosen emotion fallacy. Often, "a fallacy of encouragement to root of the underdog regardless of the issues at hand". "A corrupt argument from pathos." A fallacy of relevance. Closely related to angelism. "Opposite to this is...chosen emotion fallacy." Opposite of: appeal to rigor. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-24 | 432_lf |
| eminence-based practice | eminence-based practice, falacia ad verecundiam, faulty use of authority, questionable authority, star power, testimonial | A fallacy in which arguments "are granted fame and validity or condemed to obscurity soley by whoever may be the reigning stars or premier journals of the profession or discpline at the moment". A "corrupt argument from ethos". Includes: faulty use of quotes. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-21 | 744_lf |
| either/or reasoning | all or nothing thinking, bifurcation, black and white fallacy, black/white fallacy, either/or reasoning, excluded middle, false binary, false dichotomy, false dilemma | A conclusion is reached based on there only being two possible options, when really the possibilities are not so limited. A component fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-14 | 524_lf |
| either or fallacy | all or nothing thinking, bifurcation, black and white fallacy, black/white fallacy, either/or reasoning, excluded middle, false binary, false dichotomy, false dilemma | A conclusion is reached based on there only being two possible options, when really the possibilities are not so limited. A component fallacy. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-14 | 018_lf |
| egocentric bias | A "tendency to rely too heavily on one's own perspective and/or have a different perception of oneself relative to others". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 165_cb | |
| ego quoque | ego quoque, I do it too, nos quoque, we do it too | The attempted justification (or minimization of criticism) of some position or action on the basis that oneself or one's own group has also done the same thing. See also: and you too, appeal to hypocrisy, tu quoque, two wrongs make a right, you also, you do it too. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-27 | 448_lf |
| effort justification | A tendency to "attribute greater value to an outcome if they had to put effort into achieving it". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-09 | 164_cb | |
| early adopter's fallacy | appeal to novelty, bad old days, early adopter's fallacy, pro-innovation bias, recency bias | A fallacy that a view or other thing must be correct or better because it is new or recent. | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-21 | 431_lf | |
| E for effort | E for effort, noble effort, I'm trying my best, lost cause | The idea that something must be good or true because someone has put a lot of good-faith effort or sacrifice into it. A "fallacy6 of ethos". An example is: waving the bloody shirt, the blood of the martyrs fallacy. See also: argument from inertia, cost bias, solider's honor fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-28 | 080_lf |
| dynamic inconsistency | dynamic inconsistency, time inconsistency | A scenario in which "a decision-maker's preferences change over time in such a way that a preference can become inconsistent at another point in time". See also: current moment bias, hyperbiolic discounting, present bias | [6], [21] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 163_cb |
| duration neglect | The "neglect of the duration of an episode in determining its value". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-06 | 162_cb | |
| Dunning-Kruger effect | A cognitive bias and logical fallacy in which "people of limited skills or knowledge mistakenly believe their abilities are greater than they actually are". Clarifying notes: "Dunning and Kruger themselves never claimed to show that the unskilled think they're better than the skilled." "Also, there is a positive correlation between actual performance and perceived performance." | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-05 | 079_cb_lf | |
| dread aversion | The tendency for dread to "double the emotional impact of savouring". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-09 | 160_cb | |
| draw your own conclusion fallacy | draw your own conclusion fallacy, let the facts speak for themselves, non-argument argument | A fallacy in which carefully selected (and perhaps shocking) facts are presented to an audience that is then asked immediately to come to their own conclusions, while people are more convinced when drawing a conclusion themselves rather than being presented with both an argument and the proposed conclusion together, and while the appropriate question would be "what has been allegedly proven and how?". A "fallacy of logos". See also: leading the witness fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 078_lf |
| drama queen or drama king fallacy | bleeding heart, drama queen or drama king fallacy, pathetic fallacy, playing on emotion, sob story | A fallacy in which, ignoring facts, emotion is evoked alone. A fallacy "of pure argument from pathos". The opposite is: apathetic fallacy, burnout, compassion fatigue, cynicism. An obverse is: refinement, real feelings. See also: othering. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 743_lf |
| domino theory | camel's nose fallacy, domino theory, slippery slope | A fallacy holding that "one thing inevitably leads to another" when this is not necessarily the case. A non sequitur. A component fallacy. | [1], [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-03 | 741_lf |
| domain neglect bias | A trendency "neglect relevant domain knowledge while solving interdisciplinary problems". An example of: framing effect. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-09 | 159_cb | |
| dogmatism | dogmatism, taboo | dogmatism, taboo | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 740_lf |
| dog-whistle politics | The use of a brief and popular phrase or slogan to reflexively send an audience into a frenzy, such that "any reasoned attempt to more clearly identify, deconstruct, or challenge" the opponent's usage of the inciting phrase results in confusion, irrationality, wildness, or anger. This means that "instead of addressing, refuting, or...listening to each other's arguments", an unreasoned exchange occurs. A form of: reductionism, sloganeering. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 522_lf | |
| division | A fallacy of ambiguity. The opposite of composition. | [1], [2] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-28 | 026_lf | |
| distraction | distraction, red herring | An attempt to change the subject or redirect argument from the issue at hand. A form of: arguing beside the point, ignorantio elenchi, ignoring the issue, irrelevant conclusion. Examples include: appeal to emotion, irrelevant conclusion, personal attack, straw man. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 739_lf |
| distinction bias | A tendency to "view two options as more dissimilar when evaluating them simultaneously than when evaluating them separately". An example of: framing effect. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-09 | 158_cb | |
| disproportionate response | broken windows policing, disproportionate response, even one is too many, judenrein, exemplary punishment, zero-risk bias, zero tolerance | A fallacy of "declaring an 'emergency' and promising to disregard justice and due process and devote unlimited resources (and occasionally, unlimited cruelty) to stamp out a limited, insignificant or even nonexistent problem". A "corrupt and cynical argument from pathos". "Almost always politically driven." A "sinister" form of dog whistle politics. An example of: we have to do something (placebo effect, political theater, security theater, we have to send a message). | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 738_lf |
| disposition effect | A tendency "sell an asset that has accumulated in value and resist selling an asset that has declined in value". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-09 | 157_cb | |
| disinformation | alt facts, alternate facts, alternative truth, counterknowledge, disinformation, information pollution | A fallacy holding that objective facts and truth cannot really exist, are not durable, or are really subjective. A "fallacy of logos rooted in postmodernism". Related to: big lie technique. See also: gaslighting, blind loyalty, big brain little brain fallacy, two truths. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 430_lf |
| discredit by association | guilt by association | A fallacy of trying to argue against a point by "evoking the negative ethos" (the negative charcteristics) of the associations of the opponent (e.g., by way of their professional or social relationships, political party, religion, ethnicity, or other group or institutional memberhip). An extreme case is: for my enemies nothing. | 2024-06-16 | 2024-06-21 | 915_lf | |
| disciplinary blinders | See also Star Power, Two Truths. Analogous to Denominational Blinders. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-11 | 076_lf | |
| diminished responsibility | Taking a specific judicial concept, that people with impaired judgement can receive less criminal punishment, and applying it to other general situations, thus arguing that one's impairment somehow ought to lessen the impact of their action or inaction in that scenario. Based on "the confusion of consequences with punishment". See also: panic, venting. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 521_lf | |
| differance | difference, sui generis fallacy | A rejection of "the validity of analogy and of inductive reasoning altogether" on the basis that " any given person, place, thing or idea under consideration is...different and unique, in a class unto itself". Literally, "sui generis" means "of its own kind". Opposite of: false analogy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 737_lf |
| die away ye old forms and logic | die away ye old forms and logic, identity fallacy, identity politics | A scenario in which the "validity of one's logic, evidence, experience or arguments depends not on their own strength but rather on whether the one arguing is a member of a given social class, generation, nationality, religious or ethnic group, color, gender or sexual orientation, profession, occupation or subgroup". See also: cultural appropriation. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 736_lf |
| dicto simpliciter | a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter, converse accident, destroying the exception, dicto simpliciter, hasty generalization, jumping to conclusions, reverse accident | Literally, "a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter" means "from a qualified statement to a simple statement"; the shorter "dictum simpliciter" means "simple statement". A fallacy in which "a rule that applies only to an exceptional case is wrongly applied to all cases in general". Also, "mistaken use of inductive reasoning when there are too few samples to prove a point." A common example is the misleading statistic, a statistic seems compelling the way it is presented, but a fuller picture would show otherwise. A component fallacy. See also: ignoring qualifications, secundum quid, secundum quid et simpliciter, sweeping generalization. | [1], [2], [31], [32] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-28 | 429_lf |
| devil quotes scripture | devil quotes scripture, faulty use of quotes | The use of quotations "out of context or against the clear intent of the original speaker or author". See also: eminence-based practice, falacia ad verecundiam, faulty use of authority, questionable authority, star power, testimonial. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 734_lf |
| Deus vult | American exceptionalism, appeal to heaven, argumentum ad coelum, Gott mit uns, manifest destiny, special covenant | A fallacy based on claiming to know God's mind and wishes, which cannot really be challenged. A "deluded argument from ethos". Opposite of: Job's comforter fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-27 | 428_lf |
| destroying the exception | a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter, converse accident, destroying the exception, dicto simpliciter, hasty generalization, jumping to conclusions, reverse accident | Literally, "a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter" means "from a qualified statement to a simple statement"; the shorter "dictum simpliciter" means "simple statement". A fallacy in which "a rule that applies only to an exceptional case is wrongly applied to all cases in general". Also, "mistaken use of inductive reasoning when there are too few samples to prove a point." A common example is the misleading statistic, a statistic seems compelling the way it is presented, but a fuller picture would show otherwise. A component fallacy. See also: ignoring qualifications, secundum quid, secundum quid et simpliciter, sweeping generalization. | [1], [2], [31], [32] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 533_lf |
| denominational blinders | The "arbitrarily ignoring or waving aside without serious consideration" of "any arguments or discussion about faith, morality, ethics, spirituality, the divine or the afterlife that come from outside one's own specific religious denomination or faith tradition". See also: disciplinary blinders. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 520_lf | |
| denomination effect | A tendency "to spend more money when it is denominated in small amounts (e.g., coins) rather than large amounts (e.g., bills)". An example of: framing effect. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 156_cb | |
| demagogy | campaign promises, demagogy, motivational truth | A fallacy of "deliberately lying to the people to gain their support or motivate" some action desired by the promoter of the lie. Related: self deception, whistling by the graveyard. See also: argument to the people, argumentum ad populum, dog-whistle politics, othering. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 518_lf |
| deliberate ignorance | closed-mindedness, deliberate ignorance, hear no evil see no evil speak no evil, I don't want to hear it, motivated ignorance, three monkeys' fallacy, tuning out | The action of "choosing not to listen", "turning off any information, evidence or arguments that challenge one's beliefs, ideology, standpoint, or peace of mind", perhaps saying "Don't try to confuse me with the facts; my mind is made up". See also: confirmation bias, obscurantism, obscurationism, positive thinking fallacy, simpleton's fallacy, third person effect, they're all crooks, trust your gut, willful ignorance. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 075_lf |
| dehumanization | dehumanised perception, dehumanization | As a cognitive bias: a phenomenon of "not attributing feelings or thoughts to another person"; a form of: objectification. As a logical fallacy: a "faulty analogy where opponents are dismissed as mere cockroaches, lice, apes, monkeys, rats, weasels or bloodsucking parasites who have no right to speak or to live at all, and probably should be squashed like bugs"; opposite of: Polyanna principle, projection bias, singing kumbay, they're just like us; see also: identity fallacy, name calling, olfactory rhetoric. | [3], [6] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-07 | 517_cb_lf |
| dehumanised perception | dehumanised perception, dehumanization | As a cognitive bias: a phenomenon of "not attributing feelings or thoughts to another person"; a form of: objectification. As a logical fallacy: a "faulty analogy where opponents are dismissed as mere cockroaches, lice, apes, monkeys, rats, weasels or bloodsucking parasites who have no right to speak or to live at all, and probably should be squashed like bugs"; opposite of: Polyanna principle, projection bias, singing kumbay, they're just like us; see also: identity fallacy, name calling, olfactory rhetoric. | [3], [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 151_cb |
| defensiveness | choice-support bias, choice-supportive bias, defensiveness, myside bias | A fallacy and bias in which "after one has taken a given decision, commitment or course of action, one automatically tends to defend that decision and to irrationally dismiss opposing options even when one's decision later on proves to be shaky or wrong". A "fallacy of ethos (one's own)". See also argument from inertia, confirmation bias. | [3], [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-05 | 074_lf |
| defensive attribution hypothesis | A tendency to "attribute more blame to a harm-doer as the outcome becomes more severe or as personal or situational similarity to the victim increases". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 155_cb | |
| default effect | A tendency "to favor the default option when given a choice between several options". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 154_cb | |
| default bias | acquiescence, better the devil you know than the devil you don't, deal with it, default bias, get used to it, if it ain't broke don't fix it, it is what it is, let it be let it be, making one's peace with the situation, normalization of evil, this is the best of all possible worlds, whatever is is right | The fallacy that just because something is the current state that is therefore the preferred state. Opposite of: nihilism. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 073_lf |
| decoy effect | A phenomenon in which "preferences for either option A or B change in favor of option B when option C is presented, which is completely dominated by option B (inferior in all respects) and partially dominated by option A". An example of: framing effect. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 153_cb | |
| declinism | A "predisposition to view the past favorably...and future negatively". See also: rosy retrospection. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 152_cb | |
| deal with it | acquiescence, better the devil you know than the devil you don't, deal with it, default bias, get used to it, if it ain't broke don't fix it, it is what it is, let it be let it be, making one's peace with the situation, normalization of evil, this is the best of all possible worlds, whatever is is right | The fallacy that just because something is the current state that is therefore the preferred state. Opposite of: nihilism. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 733_lf |
| dacoits fallacy | con artist's fallacy, dacoit's fallacy, profiteering, shearing the sheeple, vulture capitalism, wealth is the disease and I am the cure | Fallacy saying that those who are less capable therefore are less deserving and therefore can be justifiably victimized due to how nature is. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 427_lf |
| dacoit's fallacy | con artist's fallacy, dacoit's fallacy, shearing the sheeple, profiteering, vulture capitalism, wealth is the disease and I am the cure | Fallacy saying that those who are less capable therefore are less deserving and therefore can be justifiably victimized due to how nature is. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 732_lf |
| cynicism | apathetic fallacy, burnout, compassion fatigue | See also: pessimism bias. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-15 | 731_lf |
| cursing | cursing, F-bomb, obscenity, profanity | An attempt to "defend or strengthen one's argument with gratuitous, unrelated sexual, obscene, vulgar, crude or profane language when such language does nothing to make an argument stronger, other than perhaps to create a sense of identity with certain...audiences". A fallacy of pathos. Related to: salacious fallacy. See also: red herring. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 426_lf |
| curse of knowledge | A tendency in whcih "better-informed people find it extremely difficult to think about problems from the perspective of lesser-informed people". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 149_cb | |
| current moment bias | current moment bias, hyperbolic discounting, present bias | A tendency "for people to have a stronger preference for more immediate payoffs relative to later payoffs". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 150_cb |
| cum hoc ergo propter hoc | correlation implies causation, cum hoc ergo propter hoc | Claiming that "because two things occurr at the same time, one has caused the other". See also: coincidental correlation, false cause, false cause and effect, non causa pro causa, not the cause for the cause, after this therefore because of this, post hoc argument, post hoc propter hoc, post hoc ergo propter hoc. | [1], [2], [3], [4] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 425_lf |
| cultural appropriation | An argument in which "those who are not of the right identity are condemned" for adopting cultural elements of a maginalized group while "forgetting the old axiom that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery". See also: die away ye old forms and logic, identity fallacy, identity politics, othering. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 516_lf | |
| cryptomnesia | The tendency in which "a memory is mistaken for novel thought or imagination, because there is no subjective experience of it being a memory". An example of: misattribution of memory. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 148_cb | |
| crowdsourcing | crowdsourcing, magic of the market, wisdom of the crowd, Wikipedia fallacy | The idea that the market or the crowd is infallible, ignoring historical examples of the majority having been wrong about something. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 730_lf |
| cross-race effect | The tendency "for people of one race to have difficulty identifying members of a race other than their own". An example of: memory bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 147_cb | |
| courtesy bias | The tendency to "give an opinion that is more socially correct than one's true opinion, so as to avoid offending anyone". An example of: conformity. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 146_cb | |
| counterknowledge | alt facts, alternate facts, alternative truth, counterknowledge, disinformation, information pollution | A fallacy holding that objective facts and truth cannot really exist, are not durable, or are really subjective. A "fallacy of logos rooted in postmodernism". Related to: big lie technique. See also: gaslighting, blind loyalty, big brain little brain fallacy, two truths. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 424_lf |
| cost bias | A fallacy in which an expensive thing is regarded more highly than a free or inexpensive thing, "regardless of the item's real quality, utility, or true value to the purchaser". "A fallacy of ethos (that of a product)." | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-05 | 072_lf | |
| correlation implies causation | correlation implies causation, cum hoc ergo propter hoc | Claiming that "because two things occurr at the same time, one has caused the other". See also: coincidental correlation, false cause, false cause and effect, non causa pro causa, not the cause for the cause, after this therefore because of this, post hoc argument, post hoc propter hoc, post hoc ergo propter hoc. | [1], [2], [3], [4] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 035_lf |
| corporate tax dodge callacy | A mistaken belief that "corporations don't pay any tax". A fallacy surrounding: capitalism. | [27] | 2024-07-15 | 2024-08-28 | 873_lf | |
| converse accident | a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter, converse accident, destroying the exception, dicto simpliciter, hasty generalization, jumping to conclusions, reverse accident | Literally, "a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter" means "from a qualified statement to a simple statement"; the shorter "dictum simpliciter" means "simple statement". A fallacy in which "a rule that applies only to an exceptional case is wrongly applied to all cases in general". Also, "mistaken use of inductive reasoning when there are too few samples to prove a point." A common example is the misleading statistic, a statistic seems compelling the way it is presented, but a fuller picture would show otherwise. A component fallacy. See also: ignoring qualifications, secundum quid, secundum quid et simpliciter, sweeping generalization. | [1], [2], [31], [32] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-28 | 423_lf |
| control voice | control voice, muscular foreign policy, no discussion, no negotiation, peace through strength | The rejection of reasoned dialogue along with the offer of "either instant, unconditional compliance...or defeat as the only two options for settling even minor differences". A from of: appeal to force, argument from force, argument from strength, argument from the club (stick), argumentum ad baculum, bullying, fascism, hard power, might-makes-right, muscular leadership, non-negotiable demands, power-play, resolution by force of arms, shock and awe. See also: pout. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 728_lf |
| contrast effect | The "enhancement or reduction of a certain stimulus's perception when compared with a recently observed, contrasting object". An example of: framing effect. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 145_cb | |
| contradictory premises | Closely related to Special Pleading. A component fallacy. | [1] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-11 | 021_lf | |
| continued influence effect | A tendency for misinformation to "influence memory and reasoning about an event, despite the misinformation having been corrected". See also: misinformation effect. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 144_cb | |
| context neglect bias | A tendency to "neglect the human context of technological challenges". A framing effect bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 143_cb | |
| context effect | The tendency for "out-of-context memories" to be "mopre difficult to retrieve than in-context memories". A memory bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 142_cb | |
| conspiracy theories | brave heretic, conspiracy theories, iconoclastic fallacy, romantic rebel, truthout fallacy, truthdig fallacy | A fallacy of holding a claim as true just because that position "is supposedly standing up heroically to the dominant orthodoxy, the current standard model, conventional wisdom or political correctness, or whatever may be the bandwagon of the moment". A corrupt argument from ethos. The opposite of: bandwagon fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-03 | 727_lf |
| conservative bias | appeal to tradition, argumentum ad traditionem, argumentum ad antiquitatem, back in those good times, conservative bias, good old days | A fallacy of holding a position as correct or a thing (scenario or deed) as good because it has always been that way or was that way long ago (and might still "serve one particular group very well"). A fallacy of relevance. A "corrupted argument from ethos" (from the past). Often related in time to the audience's young years, but not prior. Opposite of: appeal to novelty, bad old days, early adopter's fallacy, pro-innovation bias, recency bias. | [1], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-26 | 422_lf |
| conservatism bias | conservatism bias, regressive bias | As an anchoring cognitive bias, the tendency "to insufficiently revise one's belief when presented with new evidence". As a memory cognitive bias, the tendency "to remember high values and high likelihoods/probabilities/frequencies as lower than they actually were and low ones as higher than they actually were" ("memories are not extreme enough") [in this sense also known as regressive bias]. See also, as a logical fallacy: conservative bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 141_cb |
| conjunction fallacy | A tendency to "assume that specific conditions are more probable than a more general version of those same conditions". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-06 | 140_cb | |
| congruence bias | A tendency "to test hypotheses exclusively through direct testing, instead of testing possible alternative hypotheses". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-06 | 139_cb | |
| conformity | A tendency to fit in regardless of logic. Forms of conformity bias include: availabilty cascade, bandwagon effect, courtesy bias, groupthink, groupshift, social desirabiltyy bias, truth bias/ | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-06 | 138_cb | |
| confirmation bias | homophily | The cognitive bias and logical fallacy of a tendency to "search for, interpret, focus on and remember information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions". Includes: backfire effect, congruence effect, experimenter's bias, expectation bias, observer-expectancy effect, selective perception, Semmelweis reflex. See also: defensiveness, half truth. | [3], [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-28 | 071_cb_lf |
| con artist's fallacy | con artist's fallacy, dacoit's fallacy, profiteering, shearing the sheeple, vulture capitalism, wealth is the disease and I am the cure | Fallacy saying that those who are less capable therefore are less deserving and therefore can be justifiably victimized due to how nature is. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 421_lf |
| con artist's fallacy | con artist's fallacy, dacoit's fallacy, shearing the sheeple, profiteering, vulture capitalism, wealth is the disease and I am the cure | Fallacy saying that those who are less capable therefore are less deserving and therefore can be justifiably victimized due to how nature is. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 726_lf |
| composition | A fallacy of ambiguity. The opposite of divison. | [1] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-03 | 025_lf | |
| complexity | complexity, ineffability, post-truth, truthiness | An arbitrary declaration tht "today's world is so complex that there is no truth" or that if truth does exist it is "unknowable excerpt perhaps by God". Opposite of: executive summary, keep it short and simple, keep it simple stupid, KISS principle, monocausal fallacy, plain truth fallacy, salience bias, simple truth fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 515_lf |
| complex question | complex question, loaded question | The phrasing of a question or statement to imply that an "unproven statement is true without evidence or discussion". A "fallacy of omission". Often overlaps with: begging the question. A counterpart of: either/or reasoning. | [1] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 032_lf |
| compassion fatigue | apathetic fallacy, burnout, cynicism | The fallacy in which legitimate arguments are ignored due claimed lack of caring. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-15 | 725_lf |
| compassion fade | A tendency to "behave more compassionately towards a small number of identifiable victims than to a large number of anonymous ones". A bias of extension neglect. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-05 | 136_cb | |
| compartmentalization | compartmentalization, epistemically closed systems, two truths | A position that "there exists one truth in one given environment (e.g., in science, work or school) and simultaneously a different, formally contradictory but equally true truth in a different epistemic system, context, environment, intended audience or discourse community (e.g., in one's religion or at home)". A "fallacy of logos and ethos". See also: alternative truth, disciplinary blinders. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 724_lf |
| compadrismo | compadrismo | Automatically regarding a claim or action as "true, correct, and above challenge" because "one is related to, knows and likes, or is on the same team or side, or belongs to the same religion, party, club or fraternity as the individual involved". A "corrupt argument from ethos". Reverse of: ad hominem. See also: identity fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 420_lf |
| common source bias | A tendency "to combine or compare research studies from the same source, or from sources that use the same methodologies or data". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-05 | 135_cb | |
| coincidental correlation | coincidental correlation, false cause, false cause and effect | Claiming or establishing "a cause/effect relationship that does not exist". A component fallacy. Examples include: correlation implies causation, cum hoc ergo propter hoc, non causa pro causa, not the cause for the cause, after this therefore because of this, post hoc argument, post hoc propter hoc, post hoc ergo propter hoc. | [1], [2], [4] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 419_lf |
| cognitive dissonance | Theoretically, bias results when "people continually reduce their" "mental disturbance...when...beliefs and actions are inconsistent and contradictory..." "in order to align their cognitions (perceptions of the world) with their actions". The concept is said to be comprised of 1) the bias of feeling one does not have baises, 2) the bias in which one feels better, smarter, or more moral than average, and 3) confirmation bias. | [6], [17] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-27 | 134_cb | |
| clustering illusion | after this therefore because of this, clustering illusion, post hoc argument, post hoc propter hoc, post hoc ergo propter hoc, too much of a coincidence | A mistaken conclusion that one event must have been caused by a specific earlier event. Example of: correlation implies causation, cum hoc ergo propter hoc, coincidental correlation, false cause, false cause and effect, non causa pro causa, not the cause for the cause. | [3], [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 133_cb_lf |
| closed-mindedness | closed-mindedness, deliberate ignorance, hear no evil see no evil speak no evil, I don't want to hear it, motivated ignorance, three monkeys' fallacy, tuning out | The action of "choosing not to listen", "turning off any information, evidence or arguments that challenge one's beliefs, ideology, standpoint, or peace of mind", perhaps saying "Don't try to confuse me with the facts; my mind is made up". See also: confirmation bias, obscurantism, obscurationism, positive thinking fallacy, simpleton's fallacy, third person effect, they're all crooks, trust your gut, willful ignorance. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 418_lf |
| circulus in probando | begging the question, catch 22, circular reasoning, circulus in probando, petitio principii, vicious circle | A fallacy in which the same proposition appears as a premise and as a conclusion (sometimes worded in two statements appearing differently enough to make this not very obvious); for example, "A, therefore B." and also "B, therefore A". Sometimes, begging the question and circular reasoning are used interchangeably and sometimes with a difference--begging the question or petitio principii more specifically assumes as evidence the conclusion they are trying to prove.) A fallacy of logos. A component fallacy. See also: complex question, big lie technique. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 417_lf |
| circular reasoning | begging the question, catch 22, circular reasoning, circulus in probando, petitio principii, vicious circle | A fallacy in which the same proposition appears as a premise and as a conclusion (sometimes worded in two statements appearing differently enough to make this not very obvious); for example, "A, therefore B." and also "B, therefore A". Sometimes, begging the question and circular reasoning are used interchangeably and sometimes with a difference--begging the question or petitio principii more specifically assumes as evidence the conclusion they are trying to prove.) A fallacy of logos. A component fallacy. See also: complex question, big lie technique. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 011_lf |
| chronological snobbery | A tendency to consider something (like an idea or argument) from an earlier time as less valid than newer concept on the (not necessarliy true) basis that people in the past were less intelligent. A from of appeal to novelty. | [6], [18] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-05 | 132_cb_lf | |
| chosen emotion fallacy | A fallacy in which "one falsely claims complete, or at least reliable prior voluntary control over one's own autonomic, gut level affective reactions". Related to but distinct from: angelism. Opposite to: affective fallacy, appeal to emotion, appeal to pity, argument from pity, argumentum ad misericordiam, emotion over reflection, follow your heart, playing to emotions, romantic fallacy. See also: mortification. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-05 | 044_lf | |
| choice-supportive bias | choice-support bias, choice-supportive bias, defensiveness, myside bias | A fallacy in which "after one has taken a given decision, commitment or course of action, one automatically tends to defend that decision and to irrationally dismiss opposing options even when one's decision later on proves to be shaky or wrong". A "fallacy of ethos (one's own)". See also argument from inertia, confirmation bias. | [3], [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-05 | 131_cb |
| choice-support bias | choice-support bias, choice-supportive bias, defensiveness, myside bias | A fallacy and bias in which "after one has taken a given decision, commitment or course of action, one automatically tends to defend that decision and to irrationally dismiss opposing options even when one's decision later on proves to be shaky or wrong". A "fallacy of ethos (one's own)". See also argument from inertia, confirmation bias. | [3], [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-05 | 416_cb_lf |
| childhood amnesia | The tendency to retain few memories from before the age of four. A memory bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-05 | 130_cb | |
| cheerleader effect | A tendency " for people to appear more attractive in a group than in isolation". A social bias. A form of association fallacy. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-05 | 129_cb | |
| changing the rules | all's fair in love and war, moving the goalposts, nuclear option, winning isn't everything it's the only thing | Starting with certain requirements for a decision, then, when, the criteria are met, requiring a higher bar. "A fallacy of logos". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-14 | 513_lf |
| catch 22 | begging the question, catch 22, circular reasoning, circulus in probando, petitio principii, vicious circle | A fallacy in which the same proposition appears as a premise and as a conclusion (sometimes worded in two statements appearing differently enough to make this not very obvious); for example, "A, therefore B." and also "B, therefore A". Sometimes, begging the question and circular reasoning are used interchangeably and sometimes with a difference--begging the question or petitio principii more specifically assumes as evidence the conclusion they are trying to prove.) A fallacy of logos. A component fallacy. See also: complex question, big lie technique. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-03 | 415_lf |
| card stacking | card stacking, half truth, incomplete information, stacking the deck | A fallacy of ignoring examples or evidence that disprove one's point and instead only listing examples or sharing evidence which would support one's point. A fallacy of omission. A "corrupt argument from logos". Different from: straw man. See also: confirmation bias, hasty generalization. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-03 | 414_lf |
| campaign promises | campaign promises, demagogy, motivational truth | A fallacy of "deliberately lying to the people to gain their support or motivate" some action desired by the promoter of the lie. Related: self deception, whistling by the graveyard. See also: argument to the people, argumentum ad populum, dog-whistle politics, othering. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 512_lf |
| camel's nose fallacy | camel's nose fallacy, domino theory, slippery slope | A fallacy holding that "one thing inevitably leads to another" when this is not necessarily the case. A non sequitur. | [1], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-03 | 413_lf |
| calling "cards" | A fallacy of "arbitrarily and falsely dismissing familiar or easily-anticipated but valid, reasoned objections to one's standpoint with a wave of the hand", as though such objections were mere "cards" in some sort of "game" of rhetoric. A fallacy of logos. See also: taboo, political correctness. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-03 | 511_lf | |
| by any means necessary | accomplish the mission, find a way, I don't care how you do it, just do it | An argumentum ad baculum (argument from force) that implies arriving at an outcome by setting aside morality. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-29 | 723_lf |
| burnout | apathetic fallacy, compassion fatigue, cynicism | The fallacy in which legitimate arguments are ignored due claimed lack of caring. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-15 | 722_lf |
| bureaucratic passive | bureaucratic passive, passive voice fallacy | An obverse is: be-verb fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 721_lf |
| bullying | appeal to force, argument from force, argument from strength, argument from the club (stick), argumentum ad baculum, bullying, fascism, hard power, might-makes-right, muscular leadership, non-negotiable demands, power-play, resolution by force of arms, shock and awe | A fallacy in which a conclusion is reached due to force, threat of force, or threat of unpleasantness. A fallacy of relevance, since reason for conclusion is not relevant to the argument at hand. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-03 | 720_lf |
| build a wall | build a wall, Gitmo solution, lock em up and throw away the key, NIMBY, not in my back yard, ostrich strategy | The idea that a problem ceases to exist for all practical purposes so long as it can be made to go away to somewhere that is out of sight, or censored, or ignored, perhaps with a focus on positive things instead. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 519_lf |
| broken windows policing | broken windows policing, disproportionate response, even one is too many, judenrein, exemplary punishment, zero-risk bias, zero tolerance | A fallacy of "declaring an 'emergency' and promising to disregard justice and due process and devote unlimited resources (and occasionally, unlimited cruelty) to stamp out a limited, insignificant or even nonexistent problem". A "corrupt and cynical argument from pathos". "Almost always politically driven." A "sinister" form of dog whistle politics. An example of: we have to do something (placebo effect, political theater, security theater, we have to send a message). | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 719_lf |
| bribery | bribery, financial incentive, material incentive, material persuasion | A fallacy of obtaining a position through "gifts or favors". Often does not stick unless bribes continue. The reverse of: argumentum ad baculum, appeal to force, argument from the club (stick), argument from force, might-makes-right. See also: appeasement, assertiveness, I know my rights, squeaky wheel gets the grease. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-26 | 510_lf |
| brave heretic | brave heretic, conspiracy theories, iconoclastic fallacy, romantic rebel, truthout fallacy, truthdig fallacy | A fallacy of holding a claim as true just because that position "is supposedly standing up heroically to the dominant orthodoxy, the current standard model, conventional wisdom or political correctness, or whatever may be the bandwagon of the moment". A corrupt argument from ethos. The opposite of: bandwagon fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-03 | 718_lf |
| brainwashing | brainwashing, propaganda, radicalization | The idea that "an enemy can instantly win over or radicalize an unsuspecting" individual with "vile but...persuasive propaganda" or by "beating an argument into" an a prisoner in coordination with techniques involving harsh treatment or drugs. Generally used in the sense that only the other side can brainwash, while one's own side does not. See also: bribery, love bombing, Stockholm syndrome. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-27 | 068_lf |
| boundary extension | A tendency to remember an image's background as "larger or more expansive" compared with the foreground. A memory bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-03 | 128_cb | |
| bold faced lie | big lie technique, bold faced lie, staying on message | A fallacy of "repeating a lie, fallacy, slogan, talking-point, nonsense-statement or deceptive half-truth over and over in different forms (particularly in the media) until it becomes part of daily discourse and people accept it without further proof or evidence". Notably, "the bolder and more outlandish the big lie becomes the more credible it seems". See also: alphabet soup, alternative truth; bandwagon fallacy, propaganda, straw man. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-03 | 412_lf |
| bogeyman fallacy | appeal to fear, bogeyman fallacy, paranoia, scare tactics, shockdoc, shock doctrine, rally 'round the flag, rally 'round the president | A fallacy in which one takes "advantage of a emergent or deliberately-created crisis and its associated public shock, panic and chaos in order to impose an argument, action or solution that would be clearly unacceptable if carefully considered". A "corrupted argument from pathos". A form of playing on emotions. See also: shopping hungry fallacy, dog-whistle politics, we have to do something, worst-case fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 716_lf |
| blood of the martyrs fallacy | blood of the martyrs fallacy, waving the bloody shirt | A fallacy holding that "a cause or argument, no matter how questionable or reprehensible, cannot be questioned without dishonoring the blood and sacrifice of those who died so nobly for that cause". An extreme example of: E for effort, I'm trying by best, lost cause. See also: appeal to pity, argument from inertia, cost bias, heroes all, sob story, soldiers' honor fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-03 | 509_lf |
| blood is thicker than water | blood is thicker than water, compadrismo, favoritism, for my friends anything | Automatically regarding a claim or action as "true, correct, and above challenge" because "one is related to, knows and likes, or is on the same team or side, or belongs to the same religion, party, club or fraternity as the individual involved". A "corrupt argument from ethos". Reverse of: ad hominem. See also: identity fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 067_lf |
| blind obedience | blind loyalty, blind obedience, Nuremberg defense, team player appeal, unthinking obedience | A fallacy which holds that "an argument or action is right simply and solely because a respected leader or source (a President, expert, one's parents, one's own side, team or country, one's boss or commanding officers) says it is right". A corrupted argument from ethos. See also: big brain little brain fallacy, soldiers' honor fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-03 | 411_lf |
| blind loyalty | blind loyalty, blind obedience, Nuremberg defense, team player appeal, unthinking obedience | A fallacy which holds that "an argument or action is right simply and solely because a respected leader or source (a President, expert, one's parents, one's own side, team or country, one's boss or commanding officers) says it is right". A corrupted argument from ethos. See also: big brain little brain fallacy, soldiers' honor fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-03 | 066_lf |
| bleeding heart | bleeding heart, drama queen or drama king fallacy, pathetic fallacy, playing on emotion, sob story | A fallacy in which, ignoring facts, emotion is evoked alone. A fallacy "of pure argument from pathos". The opposite is: apathetic fallacy, burnout, compassion fatigue, cynicism. An obverse is: refinement, real feelings. See also: othering. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 714_lf |
| blaming the victim | A fallacy in which one "casts the blame for one's own evil or questionable actions on those affected". A form of: scapegoating, blamecasting. See also: affective fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 508_lf | |
| blamecasting | blamecasting, scapegoating | A fallacy in which there is always someone else to blame than oneself when anything goes wrong. For scapegoating, the blamed entity is typically "other" or marginalized in some way already. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 713_lf |
| black/white fallacy | all or nothing thinking, bifurcation, black and white fallacy, either or fallacy, either/or reasoning, excluded middle, false binary, false dichotomy, false dilemma | A conclusion is reached based on there only being two possible options, when really the possibilities are not so limited. A component fallacy. | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-14 | 410_lf | |
| black and white fallacy | all or nothing thinking, bifurcation, black/white fallacy, either or fallacy, either/or reasoning, excluded middle, false binary, false dichotomy, false dilemma | A conclusion is reached based on there only being two possible options, when really the possibilities are not so limited. A component fallacy. | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-14 | 409_lf | |
| bizarreness effect | A bias in which "bizarre material is better remembered than common material". A form of memory bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 127_cb | |
| biologizing | appeal to nature, biologizing, green fallacy | A fallacy that just because something is natural, therefore "it has to be good, healthy, and beneficial". A "contemporary romantic fallacy of ethos". See also: argument from natural law. | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-23 | 408_lf | |
| big lie technique | big lie technique, bold faced lie, staying on message | A fallacy of "repeating a lie, fallacy, slogan, talking-point, nonsense-statement or deceptive half-truth over and over in different forms (particularly in the media) until it becomes part of daily discourse and people accept it without further proof or evidence". Notably, "the bolder and more outlandish the big lie becomes the more credible it seems". See also: alphabet soup, alternative truth; bandwagon fallacy, propaganda, straw man. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-03 | 065_lf |
| big but fallacy | big but fallacy, special pleading | A fallacy of stating "a generally-accepted principle and then directly negating it with a 'but'. Often detailed as a special case "supposedly exempt from the usual rules of law, logic, morality, ethics or even credibility". Closely related to: contradictory premises. A component fallacy. | [1], [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 506_lf |
| big brain little brain | big brain little brain, führerprinzip, mad leader disease | A fallacy in which a person in a leadership or authority position (a work boss, military commander, or some sort of religious, cult, or group leader) tells people to think not with their little brains (the brain in their head) but instead with their big brain (the leader's brain). An "extreme example of the blind loyalty fallacy". Sometimes expressed positively in that the leader takes (moral) responsibilty for decisions. The opposite is: plausible deniability. See also: just do it, gaslighting. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 063_lf |
| bifurcation | all or nothing thinking, black and white fallacy, black/white fallacy, either or fallacy, either/or reasoning, excluded middle, false binary, false dichotomy, false dilemma | A conclusion is reached based on there only being two possible options, when really the possibilities are not so limited. A component fallacy. | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-14 | 407_lf | |
| bias blind spot | A "tendency to see oneself as less biased than other people, or to be able to identify more cognitive biases in others than in oneself." A form of egocentric bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 126_cb | |
| better-than-average effect | better-than-average effect, illusory superiority, Lake Wobegon effect, superiority bias | A "tendency to overestimate one's desirable qualities, and underestimate undesirable qualities, relative to other people". A form of egocentric bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 125_cb |
| better to prevent than to lament | an abundance of caution, better safe than sorry, better to prevent than to lament, just in case, we can't afford to take chances, worst-case fallacy | A fallacy of pessimism with reasoning based on a far-fetched, unlikely, or even entirely imaginary worst-case scenario isntead of being based on reality. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 711_lf |
| better the devil you know than the devil you don't | acquiescence, better the devil you know than the devil you don't, deal with it, default bias, get used to it, if it ain't broke don't fix it, it is what it is, let it be let it be, making one's peace with the situation, normalization of evil, this is the best of all possible worlds, whatever is is right | The fallacy that just because something is the current state that is therefore the preferred state. Opposite of: nihilism. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 710_lf |
| better safe than sorry | an abundance of caution, better safe than sorry, better to prevent than to lament, just in case, we can't afford to take chances, worst-case fallacy | A fallacy of pessimism with reasoning based on a far-fetched, unlikely, or even entirely imaginary worst-case scenario isntead of being based on reality. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 709_lf |
| Berkson's paradox | A "tendency to misinterpret statistical experiments involving conditional probabilities". Categorized as a cognitive bias and a logical fallacy. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 124_cb_lf | |
| Ben Franklin effect | An bias in which "a person who has performed a favor for someone is more likely to do another favor for that person than they would be if they had received a favor from that person". Bias category: cognitive dissonance. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-11 | 123_cb | |
| belief bias | An "effect where someone's evaluation of the logical strength of an argument is biased by the believability of the conclusion". Categorized as a truth judgement bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 122_cb | |
| begging the question | begging the question, catch 22, circular reasoning, circulus in probando, petitio principii, vicious circle | A fallacy in which the same proposition appears as a premise and as a conclusion (sometimes worded in two statements appearing differently enough to make this not very obvious); for example, "A, therefore B." and also "B, therefore A". Sometimes, begging the question and circular reasoning are used interchangeably and sometimes with a difference--begging the question or petitio principii more specifically assumes as evidence the conclusion they are trying to prove.) A fallacy of logos. A component fallacy. See also: complex question, big lie technique. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-03 | 010_lf |
| be-verb fallacy | A fallacy holding that "an extraordinary degree of clarity, sanity, or textual liveliness can be reached by...eliminating all passive verb forms and all forms of the verb 'to be' from English-language writing." A "cultish linguistic theory". An obverse of: passive voice fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 505_lf | |
| be grateful for what you've got | be grateful for what you've got, worst negates the bad | A fallacy in which it is claimed that "an objectively bad situation somehow isn't so bad simply because it could have been far worse, or because someone, somewhere has it even worse". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 707_lf |
| base rate neglect | base rate fallacy, base rate neglect | A "tendency to ignore general information and focus on information only pertaining to the specific case, even when the general information is more important". A form of extension neglect. | [6] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 686_cb |
| base rate fallacy | base rate fallacy, base rate neglect | A tendency "to ignore general information and focus on information only pertaining to the specific case, even when the general information is more important". A form of extension neglect. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 121_cb |
| Barnum effect | Barnum effect, Forer effect | A tendency "for individuals to give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for them, but are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people". A form of egocentric bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 120_cb |
| bandwagon fallacy | argument from common sense, argument to the people, argumentum ad populum, appeal to popular opinion, bandwagon, bandwagon fallacy | A fallacy claiming that something is true because it is believed by most people (or by "everyone," "the people," "the majority" or "someone in power who has widespread backing"). A fallacy of relevance. Sub-approaches can include bandwagon ("everyone's doing it"); patriotic ("it is patriotic"); snob "the best people are doing it"; and covering oneself with the cross ("it's Christian"). Can include: lying with statistics. A modern form is: information cascade. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 406_lf |
| bandwagon effect | A cognitive bias in which people tend "do (or believe) things because many other people do (or believe) the same". See also: groupthink and herd behavior as concepts in social psychology. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 119_cb | |
| bandwagon | argument from common sense, argument to the people, argumentum ad populum, appeal to popular opinion, bandwagon, bandwagon fallacy | A fallacy claiming that something is true because it is believed by most people (or by "everyone," "the people," "the majority" or "someone in power who has widespread backing"). A fallacy of relevance. Sub-approaches can include bandwagon ("everyone's doing it"); patriotic ("it is patriotic"); snob "the best people are doing it"; and covering oneself with the cross ("it's Christian"). Can include: lying with statistics. A modern form is: information cascade. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 706_lf |
| bad-boy talk | alpha-male talk, locker-room talk | A form of "frank, unguarded or uninhibited offensive expression". A fallacy that holds that some words are excempt from criticism because they are simply the true expression of some perspective having merit due to their representing the uncensored expression of true feelings. See also: venting. See also: affective fallacy. Opposite to this are political correctness and scripted message. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-14 | 504_lf |
| bad old days | appeal to novelty, bad old days, early adopter's fallacy, pro-innovation bias, recency bias | A fallacy that a view or other thing must be correct or better because it is new or recent. | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-21 | 405_lf | |
| backfire effect | A cognitive bias in which one strengthens a prior (e.g., current) belief when coming across evidence to the contrary. (The "disconfirming evidence" has the opposite of its logical effect on the belief-holder.) A form of confirmation bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 118_cb | |
| back in those good times | appeal to tradition, argumentum ad traditionem, argumentum ad antiquitatem, back in those good times, conservative bias, good old days | A fallacy of holding a position as correct or a thing (scenario or deed) as good because it has always been that way or was that way long ago (and might still "serve one particular group very well"). A fallacy of relevance. A "corrupted argument from ethos" (from the past). Often related in time to the audience's young years, but not prior. Opposite of: appeal to novelty, bad old days, early adopter's fallacy, pro-innovation bias, recency bias. | [1], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-26 | 404_lf |
| Baader–Meinhof phenomenon | Baader–Meinhof phenomenon, frequency illusion | A cognitive bias in which "once something has been noticed, then every instance of that thing is noticed, leading to the belief it has a high frequency of occurrence". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 117_cb |
| availability heuristic | availability bias, availability heuristic | A cognitive bias in which one has a greater chance of "recalling recent, nearby, or otherwise immediately available examples", and the assigning of "importance to those examples" over others. Also, "the natural tendency to give undue attention and importance to information that is immediately available at hand, particularly the first or last information received". A fallacy of logos. A memory bias. Related: hyperbole, magnification, catastrophizing. See also: anchoring bias, attention bias, attentional bias, focalism. | [3], [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 116_cb |
| availability cascade | A cognitive bias consisting of "a self-reinforcing process in which a collective belief gains more and more plausibility through its increasing repetition in public discourse". A conformity bias. A social bias. See also: availability heuristic. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 115_cb | |
| availability bias | availability bias, availability heuristic | Related: hyperbole, magnification, catastrophizing. See also: anchoring bias, attention bias, attentional bias, availability bias, focalism. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 062_lf |
| availability bias | availability bias, availability heuristic | A cognitive bias in which one has a greater chance of "recalling recent, nearby, or otherwise immediately available examples", and the assigning of "importance to those examples" over others. Also, "the natural tendency to give undue attention and importance to information that is immediately available at hand, particularly the first or last information received". A fallacy of logos. A memory bias. Related: hyperbole, magnification, catastrophizing. See also: anchoring bias, attention bias, attentional bias, focalism. | [3], [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 114_cb |
| automation bias | A bias in which ones depends too much on automated systems that "can lead to erroneous automated information overriding correct decisions". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 113_cb | |
| autist's fallacy | autist's fallacy, mind blindness | A fallacy in which normal human capacity for "theory of mind" is entirely denied in which it is held that no one can truly understand or know "another's thoughts, emotions, motivations or intents". The opposite of: mind-reading. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 503_lf |
| authority bias | A tendency to "attribute greater accuracy to the opinion of an authority figure (unrelated to its content) and be more influenced by that opinion". A social bias. A form of association fallacy. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 112_cb | |
| attribution error | attribution error, fundamental attribution error, self justification | A tendency to assume that others' (poor) behavior results from character defects (personality) while under-emphasizing the influence of the situation on others' behavior, while, at the same time, one's own behavior is held to be due to environmental factors (situtation). A "corrupt argument from ethos". Obverse is: self debasement, self deprecation. See also: group attribution error, ultimate attribution error. | [3], [6] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-10 | 705_lf |
| attribute substitution | A cognitive bias in which "a judgment has to be made (of a target attribute) that is computationally complex, and instead a more easily calculated heuristic attribute is substituted" in which the substitution is thought to take place automatically instead of with self-awarene reflection. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 111_cb | |
| attentional bias | attention bias | A tendency for perception to be influenced by thought repetition. See also: anchoring bias, availability bias, availability heuristic, focalism. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 403_lf |
| attention bias | attentional bias | A tendency for perception to be influenced by thought repetition. See also: anchoring bias, availability bias, availability heuristic, focalism. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 110_cb |
| attacking the person | ad hominem argument, argumentum ad hominem, argument toward the man, attacking the person, personal attack, poisoning the well | Arguing against the opposing party instead of the reasoning given by the opposing party. This might question the intelligence, credentials, or character of the opposition. A "corrupted negative argument from ethos". Subcategories include abusive and circumstantial types. A fallacy of relevance. The opposite of star power. An obverse is token endorsement. See also: guilt by association. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 402_lf |
| attacking the evidence | attacking the evidence, missing link fallacy, whataboutery, whataboutism | Incorrectly claiming that "some or all of the key evidence is missing, incomplete, or faked"; or, asking "what about" some false assertion about the veracity or completeness of the evidence or claim presented. See also: appeal to a lack of evidence, appeal to ignorance, argument from ignorance, argumentum ad ignorantiam. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-28 | 054_lf |
| assumed similarity bias | A cognitive bias in which one "assumes that others have more traits in common with them than those others actually do". A social bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 109_cb | |
| association fallacy | A cognitive bias and formal logical fallacy in which it is asserted that "properties of one thing must also be properties of another thing, if both things belong to the same group". A social bias. Includes: authority bias, cheerleader effect, halo effect. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 108_cb_lf | |
| assertiveness | appeasement, assertiveness, I know my rights, squeaky wheel gets the grease | A fallacy of obtaining a result not through argument but through the audience's willingness to give in so that the opposition will simply be satisfied, quieter, or no longer a nuisance. Common in public agencies, education, and retail. Sometimes promoted as a practical, nonviolent way for groups to promote change. See also: bribery. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-26 | 401_lf |
| argumentum ex silentio | argument from silence | A fallacy in which it is claimed that, just because the currently available knowledge or evidence cannot prove anything about a claim, therefore this in itself proves that status of the claim as true or false (whereas, really, additional evidence or facts could be sought). | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 061_lf |
| argumentum ad verecundium | argument from modesty, appeal to authority, appeal to improper authority, argumentum ad verecundium, argument from that which is improper | A fallacy of not "evaluating the...argument on its own merits" and instead simply accepting the conclusion of an individual who may be an expert in a field but whose expertise is unrelated to the argument. A specific form of appeal to improper authority. A subcategory is appeal to biased authority. A fallacy of relevance. | [1], [2] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-21 | 400_lf |
| argumentum ad traditionem | appeal to tradition, argumentum ad traditionem, argumentum ad antiquitatem, back in those good times, conservative bias, good old days | A fallacy of holding a position as correct or a thing (scenario or deed) as good because it has always been that way or was that way long ago (and might still "serve one particular group very well"). A fallacy of relevance. A "corrupted argument from ethos" (from the past). Often related in time to the audience's young years, but not prior. Opposite of: appeal to novelty, bad old days, early adopter's fallacy, pro-innovation bias, recency bias. | [1], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-26 | 399_lf |
| argumentum ad populum | argument from common sense, argument to the people, argumentum ad populum, appeal to popular opinion, bandwagon, bandwagon fallacy | A fallacy claiming that something is true because it is believed by most people (or by "everyone," "the people," "the majority" or "someone in power who has widespread backing"). A fallacy of relevance. Sub-approaches can include bandwagon ("everyone's doing it"); patriotic ("it is patriotic"); snob "the best people are doing it"; and covering oneself with the cross ("it's Christian"). Can include: lying with statistics. A modern form is: information cascade. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 003_lf |
| argumentum ad personam | Often, synonymous with argumentum ad hominem (arguing against a person holding a claim instead of arguing against the claim itself).Sometimes, "appealing to the personal interests of someone in order persuade someone to accept an argumentative claim" ("rather than directing an argument towards the issue at hand").See also: ad hominem argument, argumentum ad hominem, argument toward the man, attacking the person, poisoning the well. | [8], [9], [11], [15] | 2024-06-14 | 2024-07-02 | 914_lf | |
| argumentum ad odium | See also: argumentum ad personam, ad hominem. | [15] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 382_lf | |
| argumentum ad mysteriam | argument from mystery, argumentum ad mysteriam, mystagogy | A fallacy in which some "facts, evidence, practices or arguments" gain weight due to a "quasi-hypnotic effect" that "can often persuade more strongly than any logical argument" derived from special sounds, postures, clothing, rituals, recitations, chants, ancient languages, or other effects introducing a sense of the unknown. Example: long ago and far away. See also: esoteric knowledge. An obverse: standard version fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 060_lf |
| argumentum ad misericordiam | affective fallacy, appeal to emotion, appeal to pity, argument from pity, argumentum ad misericordiam, emotion over reflection, follow your heart, playing to emotions, romantic | "An emotional appeal to what should be a logical issue". "Opposite to this is...chosen emotion fallacy. Often, "a fallacy of encouragement to root of the underdog regardless of the issues at hand". "A corrupt argument from pathos." A fallacy of relevance. Closely related to angelism. "Opposite to this is...chosen emotion fallacy." Opposite of: appeal to rigor. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-24 | 398_lf |
| argumentum ad ignorantiam | appeal to a lack of evidence, appeal to ignorance, argument from ignorance, argumentum ad ignorantiam | A fallacy using lack of knowledge to arrive at a conclusion. One might might say that because a claim cannot be disproven, therefore the opposite must be true. Or, since we do not know (or cannot know, or cannot prove) something, then it must be true (or false). A fallacy of omission. Includes attacking the evidence, whataboutism, and missing link. See also: a priori argument, appealing to closure, deliberate ignorance, simpleton's fallacy, argumentum ex silentio. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 397_lf |
| argumentum ad hominem | ad hominem argument, argumentum ad hominem, argument toward the man, attacking the person, personal attack, poisoning the well | Arguing against the opposing party instead of the reasoning given by the opposing party. This might question the intelligence, credentials, or character of the opposition. A "corrupted negative argument from ethos". Subcategories include abusive and circumstantial types. A fallacy of relevance. The opposite of star power. An obverse is token endorsement. See also: guilt by association. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 396_lf |
| argumentum ad coelum | American exceptionalism, appeal to heaven, Deus vult, Gott mit uns, manifest destiny, special covenant | A fallacy based on claiming to know God's mind and wishes, which cannot really be challenged. A "deluded argument from ethos". Opposite of: Job's comforter fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-27 | 395_lf |
| argumentum ad baculum | appeal to force, argument from force, argument from strength, argument from the club (stick), argumentum ad baculum, bullying, fascism, hard power, might-makes-right, muscular leadership, non-negotiable demands, power-play, resolution by force of arms, shock and awe | A fallacy in which a conclusion is reached due to force, threat of force, or threat of unpleasantness. A fallacy of relevance, since reason for conclusion is not relevant to the argument at hand. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-03 | 059_lf |
| argumentum ad antiquitatem | appeal to tradition, argumentum ad traditionem, argumentum ad antiquitatem, back in those good times, conservative bias, good old days | A fallacy of holding a position as correct or a thing (scenario or deed) as good because it has always been that way or was that way long ago (and might still "serve one particular group very well"). A fallacy of relevance. A "corrupted argument from ethos" (from the past). Often related in time to the audience's young years, but not prior. Opposite of: appeal to novelty, bad old days, early adopter's fallacy, pro-innovation bias, recency bias. | [1], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-26 | 394_lf |
| argument toward the man | ad hominem argument, argumentum ad hominem, argument toward the man, attacking the person, personal attack, poisoning the well | Arguing against the opposing party instead of the reasoning given by the opposing party. This might question the intelligence, credentials, or character of the opposition. A "corrupted negative argument from ethos". Subcategories include abusive and circumstantial types. A fallacy of relevance. The opposite of star power. An obverse is token endorsement. See also: guilt by association. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 393_lf |
| argument to the people | argument from common sense, argument to the people, argumentum ad populum, appeal to popular opinion, bandwagon, bandwagon fallacy | A fallacy claiming that something is true because it is believed by most people (or by "everyone," "the people," "the majority" or "someone in power who has widespread backing"). A fallacy of relevance. Sub-approaches can include bandwagon ("everyone's doing it"); patriotic ("it is patriotic"); snob "the best people are doing it"; and covering oneself with the cross ("it's Christian"). Can include: lying with statistics. A modern form is: information cascade. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 392_lf |
| argument from the negative | argumentum ad ignorantiam | Often interchangeable with Argumentum Ad ignorantiam. A fallacy of omission. | [1] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 030_lf |
| argument from the club (stick) | appeal to force, argument from force, argument from strength, argument from the club (stick), argumentum ad baculum, bullying, fascism, hard power, might-makes-right, muscular leadership, non-negotiable demands, power-play, resolution by force of arms, shock and awe | A fallacy in which a conclusion is reached due to force, threat of force, or threat of unpleasantness. A fallacy of relevance, since reason for conclusion is not relevant to the argument at hand. | [1], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-03 | 391_lf |
| argument from that which is improper | argument from modesty, appeal to authority, appeal to improper authority, argumentum ad verecundium, argument from that which is improper | A fallacy of not "evaluating the...argument on its own merits" and instead simply accepting the conclusion of an individual who may be an expert in a field but whose expertise is unrelated to the argument. A specific form of appeal to improper authority. A subcategory is appeal to biased authority. A fallacy of relevance. | [1], [2] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 390_lf |
| argument from strength | appeal to force, argument from force, argument from strength, argument from the club (stick), argumentum ad baculum, bullying, fascism, hard power, might-makes-right, muscular leadership, non-negotiable demands, power-play, resolution by force of arms, shock and awe | A fallacy in which a conclusion is reached due to force, threat of force, or threat of unpleasantness. A fallacy of relevance, since reason for conclusion is not relevant to the argument at hand. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-03 | 702_lf |
| argument from silence | argument from silence, argumentum ex silentio | A fallacy in which it is claimed that, just because the currently available knowledge or evidence cannot prove anything about a claim, therefore this in itself proves that status of the claim as true or false (whereas, really, additional evidence or facts could be sought). | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 389_lf |
| argument from pity | affective fallacy, appeal to emotion, appeal to pity, argument from pity, argumentum ad misericordiam, emotion over reflection, follow your heart, playing to emotions, romantic fallacy | "An emotional appeal to what should be a logical issue". "Opposite to this is...chosen emotion fallacy. Often, "a fallacy of encouragement to root of the underdog regardless of the issues at hand". "A corrupt argument from pathos." A fallacy of relevance. Closely related to angelism. "Opposite to this is...chosen emotion fallacy." Opposite of: appeal to rigor. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-24 | 388_lf |
| argument from personal incredulity | argument from incredulity, argument from personal incredulity | A fallacy of asserting that an argument must not be true just because one personally does not understand it or cannot grasp its technical aspects. A fallacy of relevance. | [1], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-28 | 009_lf |
| argument from natural law | A fallacy in which something is deemed to be true or untrue, or good or bad, as a result of being natural or unnatural (or "against nature") as judged by one's own authority to determine what is natural or unnatural. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 502_lf | |
| argument from mystery | argument from mystery, argumentum ad mysteriam, mystagogy | A fallacy in which some "facts, evidence, practices or arguments" gain weight due to a "quasi-hypnotic effect" that "can often persuade more strongly than any logical argument" derived from special sounds, postures, clothing, rituals, recitations, chants, ancient languages, or other effects introducing a sense of the unknown. Example: long ago and far away. See also: esoteric knowledge. An obverse: standard version fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 387_lf |
| argument from motives | argument from motives, questioning motives | A fallacy of claiming a point to be false simply on account of improper or evil motives of the person making the claim. See also: moral licensing. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-28 | 501_lf |
| argument from modesty | argument from modesty, appeal to authority, appeal to improper authority, argumentum ad verecundium, argument from that which is improper | A fallacy of not "evaluating the...argument on its own merits" and instead simply accepting the conclusion of an individual who may be an expert in a field but whose expertise is unrelated to the argument. A specific form of appeal to improper authority. A subcategory is appeal to biased authority. A fallacy of relevance. | [1], [2] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-21 | 386_lf |
| argument from inertia | argument from inertia, stay the course | A believe that "it is necessary to continue on a mistaken course of action regardless of pain and sacrifice involved and even after discovering it is mistaken, because changing course would mean admitting that one's decision (or one's leader, or one's country, or one's faith) was wrong, and all one's effort, expense, sacrifice and even bloodshed was for nothing, and that's unthinkable". A form of: argument from consequences, E for effort, or appeal to tradition. See also: throwing good money after bad. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 057_lf |
| argument from incredulity | argument from incredulity, argument from personal incredulity | A fallacy of asserting that an argument must not be true just because one personally does not understand it or cannot grasp its technical aspects. | [1], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-28 | 385_lf |
| argument from ignorance | appeal to a lack of evidence, appeal to ignorance, argument from ignorance, argumentum ad ignorantiam | A fallacy using lack of knowledge to arrive at a conclusion. One might might say that because a claim cannot be disproven, therefore the opposite must be true. Or, since we do not know (or cannot know, or cannot prove) something, then it must be true (or false). A fallacy of omission. Includes attacking the evidence, whataboutism, and missing link. See also: a priori argument, appealing to closure, deliberate ignorance, simpleton's fallacy, argumentum ex silentio. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 384_lf |
| argument from force | appeal to force, argument from force, argument from strength, argument from the club (stick), argumentum ad baculum, bullying, fascism, hard power, might-makes-right, muscular leadership, non-negotiable demands, power-play, resolution by force of arms, shock and awe | A fallacy in which a conclusion is reached due to force, threat of force, or threat of unpleasantness. A fallacy of relevance, since reason for conclusion is not relevant to the argument at hand. | [1]. [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-03 | 701_lf |
| argument from consequences | argument from adverse consequences, argument from consequences, outcome bias | A fallacy of claiming that something cannot be true because, if it were true, that would be bad or have a negative effect (while in reality the validity of the claim does not actually depend on the positive or negative impact of the claims). A fallacy of relevance. (See also: outcome bias. Do not confuse with: actions have consequences. | [1], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-28 | 053_lf |
| argument from common sense | argument from common sense, argument to the people, argumentum ad populum, appeal to popular opinion, bandwagon, bandwagon fallacy | A fallacy claiming that something is true because it is believed by most people (or by "everyone," "the people," "the majority" or "someone in power who has widespread backing"). A fallacy of relevance. Sub-approaches can include bandwagon ("everyone's doing it"); patriotic ("it is patriotic"); snob "the best people are doing it"; and covering oneself with the cross ("it's Christian"). Can include: lying with statistics. A modern form is: information cascade. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 383_lf |
| argument from adverse consequences | argument from adverse consequences, argument from consequences, outcome bias | A fallacy of claiming that something cannot be true because, if it were true, that would be bad or have a negative effect (while in reality the validity of the claim does not actually depend on the positive or negative impact of the claims). A fallacy of relevance. (See also: outcome bias. Do not confuse with: actions have consequences. | [1], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-28 | 008_lf |
| arguing in bad faith | arguing in bad faith, mala fides, sophism | A fallacy of putting forth an argument that the argue knows is invalid. Includes: motivational truth, demagogy, campaign promises, self deception, whistling by the graveyward. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-26 | 700_lf |
| arguing beside the point | arguing beside the point, ignorantio elenchi, ignoring the issue, irrelevant conclusion | A fallacy of switching attention to a different issue (which might be a valid issue but is unrelated to the topic at hand). A component fallacy. Similar to: begging the question. A common form: the red herring. Another example: tu quoque, and you too. | [1], [2] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-26 | 381_lf |
| appeasement | appeasement, assertiveness, I know my rights, squeaky wheel gets the grease | A fallacy of obtaining a result not through argument but through the audience's willingness to give in so that the opposition will simply be satisfied, quieter, or no longer a nuisance. Common in public agencies, education, and retail. Sometimes promoted as a practical, nonviolent way for groups to promote change. See also: bribery. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-26 | 052_lf |
| appeal to tradition | appeal to tradition, argumentum ad traditionem, argumentum ad antiquitatem, back in those good times, conservative bias, good old days | A fallacy of holding a position as correct or a thing (scenario or deed) as good because it has always been that way or was that way long ago (and might still "serve one particular group very well"). A fallacy of relevance. A "corrupted argument from ethos" (from the past). Often related in time to the audience's young years, but not prior. Opposite of: appeal to novelty, bad old days, early adopter's fallacy, pro-innovation bias, recency bias. | [1], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-26 | 005_lf |
| appeal to rigor | A fallacy arguing based on mercilessness (showing no fear or pity). "Often based on machismo or on manipulating an audience's fear." Can apply to "politically-motivated or elitist calls for academic rigor". Can apply to criticism of developmental or remedial classes, open admissions, dumbing down, and grade inflation. Opposite of: affective fallacy, appeal to emotion, appeal to pity, argument from pity, argumentum ad misericordiam, emotion over reflection, follow your heart, playing to emotions, romantic fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-26 | 500_lf | |
| appeal to privacy | appeal to privacy, mind your own business, MYOB, none of yer beeswax, so what, you're not the boss of me | A fallacy of preventing discussion of one's point by "drawing a phony curtian of privacy around oneself and one's actions". A counterpart is: heart of darkness syndrome, I think we're alone now, nobody will ever know, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-26 | 699_lf |
| appeal to popular opinion | argument from common sense, argument to the people, argumentum ad populum, appeal to popular opinion, bandwagon, bandwagon fallacy | A fallacy claiming that something is true because it is believed by most people (or by "everyone," "the people," "the majority" or "someone in power who has widespread backing"). A fallacy of relevance. Sub-approaches can include bandwagon ("everyone's doing it"); patriotic ("it is patriotic"); snob "the best people are doing it"; and covering oneself with the cross ("it's Christian"). Can include: lying with statistics. A modern form is: information cascade. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 380_lf |
| appeal to pity | affective fallacy, appeal to emotion, appeal to pity, argument from pity, argumentum ad misericordiam, emotion over reflection, follow your heart, playing to emotions, romantic fallacy | "An emotional appeal to what should be a logical issue". "Opposite to this is...chosen emotion fallacy. Often, "a fallacy of encouragement to root of the underdog regardless of the issues at hand". "A corrupt argument from pathos." A fallacy of relevance. Closely related to angelism. "Opposite to this is...chosen emotion fallacy." Opposite of: appeal to rigor. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-24 | 050_lf |
| appeal to novelty | appeal to novelty, bad old days, early adopter's fallacy, pro-innovation bias, recency bias | A fallacy that a view or other thing must be correct or better because it is new or recent. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-21 | 051_lf |
| appeal to nature | appeal to nature, biologizing, green fallacy | A fallacy that just because something is natural, therefore "it has to be good, healthy, and beneficial". A "contemporary romantic fallacy of ethos". See also: argument from natural law. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-23 | 049_lf |
| appeal to improper authority | argument from modesty, appeal to authority, appeal to improper authority, argumentum ad verecundium, argument from that which is improper | A fallacy of not "evaluating the...argument on its own merits" and instead simply accepting the conclusion of an individual who may be an expert in a field but whose expertise is unrelated to the argument. A specific form of appeal to improper authority. A subcategory is appeal to biased authority. A fallacy of relevance. | [1], [2] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-21 | 006_lf |
| appeal to ignorance | appeal to a lack of evidence, appeal to ignorance, argument from ignorance, argumentum ad ignorantiam | A fallacy using lack of knowledge to arrive at a conclusion. One might might say that because a claim cannot be disproven, therefore the opposite must be true. Or, since we do not know (or cannot know, or cannot prove) something, then it must be true (or false). A fallacy of omission. Includes attacking the evidence, whataboutism, and missing link. See also: a priori argument, appealing to closure, deliberate ignorance, simpleton's fallacy, argumentum ex silentio. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 379_lf |
| appeal to hypocrisy | and you too, appeal to hypocrisy, tu quoque, two wrongs make a right, you also, you do it too | An argument that something is acceptable because the opposition has also done it or an argument that an offered position must be false because the party putting it forth has not always acted in accordance with the position that they put forth. A "corrupt argument form ethos". A form of ad hominem. See also: ego quoque, nos quoque. | [1], [2], [3], [4] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-27 | 033_lf |
| appeal to heaven | American exceptionalism, argumentum ad coelum, Deus vult, Gott mit uns, manifest destiny, special covenant | A fallacy based on claiming to know God's mind and wishes, which cannot really be challenged. A "deluded argument from ethos". Opposite of: Job's comforter fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-27 | 048_lf |
| appeal to force | appeal to force, argument from force, argument from strength, argument from the club (stick), argumentum ad baculum, bullying, fascism, hard power, might-makes-right, muscular leadership, non-negotiable demands, power-play, resolution by force of arms, shock and awe | A fallacy in which a conclusion is reached due to force, threat of force, or threat of unpleasantness. A fallacy of relevance, since reason for conclusion is not relevant to the argument at hand. | [1], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-03 | 001_lf |
| appeal to fear | appeal to fear, bogeyman fallacy, paranoia, scare tactics, shockdoc, shock doctrine, rally 'round the flag, rally 'round the president | A fallacy in which one takes "advantage of a emergent or deliberately-created crisis and its associated public shock, panic and chaos in order to impose an argument, action or solution that would be clearly unacceptable if carefully considered". A "corrupted argument from pathos". A form of playing on emotions. See also: shopping hungry fallacy, dog-whistle politics, we have to do something, worst-case fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 698_lf |
| appeal to emotion | affective fallacy, appeal to emotion, appeal to pity, argument from pity, argumentum ad misericordiam, emotion over reflection, follow your heart, playing to emotions, romantic fallacy | "An emotional appeal to what should be a logical issue". "Opposite to this is...chosen emotion fallacy. Often, "a fallacy of encouragement to root of the underdog regardless of the issues at hand". "A corrupt argument from pathos." A fallacy of relevance. Closely related to angelism. "Opposite to this is...chosen emotion fallacy." Opposite of: appeal to rigor. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-24 | 007_lf |
| appeal to closure | See also Appeal to a Lack of Evidence, Argument From Adverse Consequences. Opposite of Paralysis of Analysis. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-11 | 047_lf | |
| appeal to biased authority | A fallacy of simply accepting the conclusion of an individual who may be an expert in a field but "who may have professional or personal motivations that render his professional judgement suspect". A specific form of appeal to improper authority. | [1] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-21 | 038_lf | |
| appeal to authority | argument from modesty, appeal to authority, appeal to improper authority, argumentum ad verecundium, argument from that which is improper | A fallacy of not "evaluating the...argument on its own merits" and instead simply accepting the conclusion of an individual who may be an expert in a field but whose expertise is unrelated to the argument. A specific form of appeal to improper authority. A subcategory is appeal to biased authority. A fallacy of relevance. | [1], [2] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-21 | 378_lf |
| appeal to a lack of evidence | appeal to a lack of evidence, appeal to ignorance, argument from ignorance, argumentum ad ignorantiam | A fallacy using lack of knowledge to arrive at a conclusion. One might might say that because a claim cannot be disproven, therefore the opposite must be true. Or, since we do not know (or cannot know, or cannot prove) something, then it must be true (or false). A fallacy of omission. Includes attacking the evidence, whataboutism, and missing link. See also: a priori argument, appealing to closure, deliberate ignorance, simpleton's fallacy, argumentum ex silentio. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 031_lf |
| apophenia | A "tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things". | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-21 | 107_cb | |
| apathetic fallacy | burnout, compassion fatigue, cynicism | The fallacy in which legitimate arguments are ignored due claimed lack of caring. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-15 | 498_lf |
| anthropomorphism | A tendency to describe non-human things as having human traits. An availability bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-14 | 105_cb | |
| anthropocentric thinking | A tendency to use analogies about humans when describing other systems. An availability bias. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-14 | 104_cb | |
| anthropic selection effect | anthropic bias, anthropic principle, anthropic selection effect | Any bias introduced by the fact of observing from the perspective of an intelligence that has come into existence (for example, ruling out observations that hypothetically might occur but would not be observable by people). Not simply the bias of having only observed some things (e.g., observation selection effects), but the bias only having the opportunity to possibly observe some things by the very nature of the observer's existence itself. | [19] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 514_cb |
| anthropic principle | anthropic bias, anthropic principle, anthropic selection effect, observation selection effect | The tendency for observations about the universe to only be made when there is someone to observe the data or to do the study. Subforms include: weak anthropic principle (universe fine tuning being the result of survivorship bias), strong anthropic principle (the universe being compleled to have conscious, sapient life), participatory anthropic principle (the universe must be observed to exist), final anthropic principle (informational processing as inherent to universe existence). An example of: selection effect. | [19], [20] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-07 | 507_ |
| anthropic bias | anthropic bias, anthropic principle, anthropic selection effect, observation selection effect | The tendency for observations about the universe to only be made when there is someone to observe the data or to do the study. Subforms include: weak anthropic principle (universe fine tuning being the result of survivorship bias), strong anthropic principle (the universe being compleled to have conscious, sapient life), participatory anthropic principle (the universe must be observed to exist), final anthropic principle (informational processing as inherent to universe existence). An example of: selection effect. | [19], [20] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-07 | 069_ |
| angelism | A fallacy of "falsely claiming that one is capable of objective reasoning and judgment without emotion". In other words, "falsely claiming for oneself a viewpoint of...disinterested objectivity or pretending to place onself far above all...bias." Related to affective fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-21 | 043_lf | |
| and you too | and you too, appeal to hypocrisy, tu quoque, two wrongs make a right, you also, you do it too | An argument that something is acceptable because the opposition has also done it or an argument that an offered position must be false because the party putting it forth has not always acted in accordance with the position that they put forth. A "corrupt argument form ethos". A form of ad hominem. See also: ego quoque, nos quoque. | [1], [2], [3], [4] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-27 | 536_lf |
| anchoring bias | focalism | A tendency to rely too much on one particular thing (often the first available thing) when considering a decision. See also: common source bias, conservatism bias, functional fixedness, law of the instrument. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-14 | 103_cb |
| analysis paralysis | analysis paralysis, nirvana fallacy, paralysis of analysis, procrastination | An argument that since all data is never available, therefore no decision can ever be made and action should always be delayed. A "corruption of...argument from logos". See also: law of unintended consequences. | [3] | 2024-08-28 | 2024-08-28 | 729_lf |
| an abundance of caution | an abundance of caution, better safe than sorry, better to prevent than to lament, just in case, we can't afford to take chances, worst-case fallacy | A fallacy of pessimism with reasoning based on a far-fetched, unlikely, or even entirely imaginary worst-case scenario isntead of being based on reality. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-28 | 697_lf |
| amphiboly | Literally, "indeterminate". A fallacy in which a conclusion relies on interpreting a sentence to mean one thing, when the inclusion of that sentence as a premise was intended to mean something else. Possible because some sentences can be read multiple ways with different meanings depending on word usage. A fallacy of ambiguity. Compare with: equivocation. | [1] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-05 | 024_lf | |
| American exceptionalism | appeal to heaven, argumentum ad coelum, Deus vult, Gott mit uns, manifest destiny, special covenant | A fallacy based on claiming to know God's mind and wishes, which cannot really be challenged. A "deluded argument from ethos". Opposite of: Job's comforter fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-27 | 377_lf |
| ambiguity effect | A tendency to avoid options with outcomes that have unknown probabilities. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-14 | 102_cb | |
| alternative truth | alt facts, alternate facts, alternative truth, counterknowledge, disinformation, information pollution | A fallacy holding that objective facts and truth cannot really exist, are not durable, or are really subjective. A "fallacy of logos rooted in postmodernism". Related to: big lie technique. See also: gaslighting, blind loyalty, big brain little brain fallacy, two truths. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-07-02 | 046_lf |
| alternate facts | alt facts, alternate facts, alternative truth, counterknowledge, disinformation, information pollution | A fallacy holding that objective facts and truth cannot really exist, are not durable, or are really subjective. A "fallacy of logos rooted in postmodernism". Related to: big lie technique. See also: gaslighting, blind loyalty, big brain little brain fallacy, two truths. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 376_lf |
| alt facts | alt facts, alternate facts, alternative truth, counterknowledge, disinformation, information pollution | A fallacy holding that objective facts and truth cannot really exist, are not durable, or are really subjective. A "fallacy of logos rooted in postmodernism". Related to: big lie technique. See also: gaslighting, blind loyalty, big brain little brain fallacy, two truths. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-26 | 375_lf |
| alphabet soup | The use of jargon such as acronyms, initialisms, and abbreviations consisting of letters (and possibly numbers) to impress, to build rapport, to confuse, or to obfuscate, ultimately resulting in loss of communication regarding what is being said or why an argument would be valid, and instead relying on potentially invalid shortcuts to reach a conclusion. See also: name calling. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-14 | 045_lf | |
| alpha-male speech | locker-room talk, bad-boy talk | A form of "frank, unguarded or uninhibited offensive expression". A fallacy that holds that some words are excempt from criticism because they are simply the true expression of some perspective having merit due to their representing the uncensored expression of true feelings. See also: venting. See also: affective fallacy. Opposite to this are political correctness and scripted message. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-14 | 497_lf |
| all's fair in love and war | changing the rules, moving the goalposts, nuclear option, winning isn't everything it's the only thing | Starting with certain requirements for a decision, then, when, the criteria are met, requiring a higher bar. "A fallacy of logos". | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-14 | 496_lf |
| all or nothing thinking | bifurcation, black/white fallacy, black and white fallacy, either or fallacy, either/or reasoning, excluded middle, false binary, false dichotomy, false dilemma | A conclusion is reached based on there only being two possible options, when really the possibilities are not so limited. A component fallacy. | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-14 | 374_lf | |
| agent detection bias | A tendency to assume that an actor is intentionally intervening in a scenario. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-13 | 101_cb | |
| after this therefore because of this | after this therefore because of this, clustering illusion, post hoc argument, post hoc propter hoc, post hoc ergo propter hoc, too much of a coincidence | A mistaken conclusion that one event must have been caused by a specific earlier event. Example of: correlation implies causation, cum hoc ergo propter hoc, coincidental correlation, false cause, false cause and effect, non causa pro causa, not the cause for the cause. | [1], [2], [4] | 2024-08-26 | 2024-08-28 | 790_lf |
| affordable units fallacy | A mistaken belief that "building luxury apartments doesn't improve the affordabilty of existing apartments, or even that it increases their prices". A fallacy surrounding: capitalism. | [27] | 2024-07-15 | 2024-10-28 | 850_lf | |
| affective fallacy | affective fallacy, appeal to emotion, appeal to pity, argument from pity, argumentum ad misericordiam, emotion over reflection, follow your heart, playing to emotions, romantic fallacy | "An emotional appeal to what should be a logical issue". "Opposite to this is...chosen emotion fallacy. Often, "a fallacy of encouragement to root of the underdog regardless of the issues at hand". "A corrupt argument from pathos." A fallacy of relevance. Closely related to angelism. "Opposite to this is...chosen emotion fallacy." Opposite of: appeal to rigor. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-24 | 373_lf |
| additive bias | A tendency to solve problems by adding things (for example, instead of by removing things). | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-13 | 100_cb | |
| ad hominem argument | ad hominem argument, argumentum ad hominem, argument toward the man, attacking the person, personal attack, poisoning the well | Arguing against the opposing party instead of the reasoning given by the opposing party. This might question the intelligence, credentials, or character of the opposition. A "corrupted negative argument from ethos". Subcategories include abusive and circumstantial types. A fallacy of relevance. The opposite of star power. An obverse is token endorsement. See also: guilt by association. | [1], [2], [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-26 | 495_lf |
| ad Hitleram | reductio ad Hitlerum | An example of ad hominem or guilt by association that invokes a specific extreme persona from history. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-13 | 696_lf |
| actor-observer bias | A tendency for the description of an actor's behavior to over-emphasize the observer's personality (while under-emphasizing the actor's scenario). Also, the opposite--a tendency for an actor's description of their own behavior to have the reverse pattern: over-emphasizing their own scenario while under-emphasizing the effect of their own personality. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-13 | 099_cb | |
| actions have consequences | An incorrect assertion (based on some kind of rules) that a punishment for an occurrance is instead a consequence." A corrupt argument from ethos." (Procedures invoked by a third party may result in eventual punishment, but that outcome is not accurately a direct or necessary consequence of the initial event.) See also: blaming the victim. Opposite of: moral licensing. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-08-27 | 041_lf | |
| action bias | A tendency to act even when there is no problem or when no action would be more effective for the given problem. | [6] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-13 | 098_cb | |
| acquiescence | better the devil you know than the devil you don't, deal with it, default bias, get used to it, if it ain't broke don't fix it, it is what it is, let it be let it be, making one's peace with the situation, normalization of evil, this is the best of all possible worlds, this is the only possible world, whatever is is right | The fallacy that just because something is the current state that is therefore the preferred state. Opposite of: nihilism. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-07-02 | 695_lf |
| accomplish the mission | by any means necessary, find a way, I don't care how you do it, just do it | An argumentum ad baculum (argument from force) that implies arriving at an outcome by setting aside morality. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-08-29 | 694_lf |
| accident | accident, a dicto simpliciter ad dictum secundum quid | A fallacy in which "an acceptable exception is ignored". A form of: secundum quid, secundum quid et simpliciter. | [32] | 2024-08-26 | 2024-08-28 | 761_lf |
| ableism | con artist's fallacy, dacoit's fallacy, shearing the sheeple, profiteering, vulture capitalism, wealth is the disease and I am the cure | Fallacy saying that those who are less capable therefore are less deserving and therefore can be justifiably victimized due to how nature is. | [3] | 2024-06-11 | 2024-06-12 | 040_lf |
| a woman's got to do what a woman's got to do | a person's got to do what a person's got to do, a woman's got to do what a woman's got to do, I've got to do what I've got to do | This fallacy draws a conclusion based on (potentially prejudiced identity or gender-based) feelings or emotion not necessarily having a foundation in logical reasoning (e.g., it is possible that they do not really have to arrive at that outcome). A form of the affective fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-14 | 2024-07-02 | 911_lf |
| a priori argument | A given pre-conceived conclusion is determined from the start, then any argument is sought to support it. Reasoning "from what is before" without observation or experience. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-12 | 494_lf | |
| a person's got to do what a person's got to do | a person's got to do what a person's got to do, a man's got to do what a man's got to do, a woman's got to do what a woman's got to do, I've got to do what I've got to do | This fallacy draws a conclusion based on (potentially prejudiced identity or gender-based) feelings or emotion not necessarily having a foundation in logical reasoning (e.g., it is possible that they do not really have to arrive at that outcome). A form of the affective fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-14 | 2024-07-02 | 910_lf |
| a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do | a person's got to do what a person's got to do, a woman's got to do what a woman's got to do, I've got to do what I've got to do | This fallacy draws a conclusion based on (potentially prejudiced identity or gender-based) feelings or emotion not necessarily having a foundation in logical reasoning (e.g., it is possible that they do not really have to arrive at that outcome). A form of the affective fallacy. | [3] | 2024-06-12 | 2024-06-14 | 693_lf |
| a dicto simpliciter ad dictum secundum quid | accident, a dicto simpliciter ad dictum secundum quid | A fallacy in which "an acceptable exception is ignored". A form of: secundum quid, secundum quid et simpliciter | [32] | 2024-08-26 | 2024-08-28 | 779_lf |
| a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter | a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter, converse accident, destroying the exception, dicto simpliciter, hasty generalization, jumping to conclusions, reverse accident | Literally, "a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter" means "from a qualified statement to a simple statement"; the shorter "dictum simpliciter" means "simple statement". A fallacy in which "a rule that applies only to an exceptional case is wrongly applied to all cases in general". Also, "mistaken use of inductive reasoning when there are too few samples to prove a point." A common example is the misleading statistic, a statistic seems compelling the way it is presented, but a fuller picture would show otherwise. A component fallacy. See also: ignoring qualifications, secundum quid, secundum quid et simpliciter, sweeping generalization. | [1], [2], [31], [32] | 2024-08-26 | 2024-08-28 | 735_lf |
References
- [1] Dr. L. Kip Wheeler, Logical Fallacies Handlist, (2023 archive, 2024 retrieved).
- [2] UVU Writing Center, Logical Fallacies, Utah Valley University, (2024 retrieved).
- [3] Oren M. Williamson, Master List of Logical Fallacies, The University of Texas at El Paso, (2024 retrieved).
- [4] Mathew, Constructing a Logical Argument, School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, (2002 archive, 2024 retrieved).
- [5] Motte-and-bailey fallacy, Wikipedia.
- [6] List of cognitive biases, Wikipedia.
- [7] Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Chase B. Wrenn, ISSN 2161-0002.
- [8] logical-fallacy.com, List of Logical Fallacies.
- [9] logical-fallacy.com, List of Informal Logical Fallacies.
- [10] logical-fallacy.com, List of Formal Logical Fallacies.
- [11] logical-fallacy.com, Name Calling - Definition and Examples.
- [12] Introduction to Informal Fallacies, Dr. Naugle, Phil 3304 Logic, (dbu.edu).
- [13] Fallacies of Relevance, Dr. Naugle, Phil 2303 Logic, (dbu.edu).
- [14] Fallacies of Relevance Continued, Dr. Naugle, Phil 2303 Logic, (dbu.edu).
- [15] Ad Hominem and Related Fallacies, Introduction to Logic, (philosophy.lander.edu).
- [16] Chronological snobbery, Wikipedia.
- [17] Cognitive dissonance, Wikipedia.
- [18] Misinformation effect, Wikipedia.
- [19] Anthropic principle, Wikipedia.
- [20] Selection bias, Wikipedia.
- [21] Dynamic inconsistency, Wikipedia.
- [22] Texas sharpshooter fallacy, Wikipedia.
- [23] In-group favoritism, Wikipedia.
- [24] Herd behavior, Wikipedia.
- [25] Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), (plato.stanford.edu).
- [26] Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), (iep.utm.edu).
- [27] Alex McCraw, Common Logical Fallacies surrounding capitallism, (2024, blog.alexmaccaw.com).
- [28] Positive outcome bias, Wikipedia.
- [29] Optimisim bias, Wikipedia.
- [30] Wishful thinking, Wikipedia.
- [31] Converse accident, Wikipedia.
- [32] Secundum quid, Wikipedia.
Clarification
Conceptually, cognitive biases are considered distinct from logical fallacies. The cb and lf suffixes in the id column roughly distinguish these categories. Logical fallacies represent argumentation errors, whereas cognitive biases describe mental tendencies that could result in processing errors. Both phenomenon types could result in errors in thought or decision. The list is combined for convenient lookups.