AP Seminar - Logical Fallacies

An intentional illogical step to support an argument

Hasty Generalization

Rushing to conclusions based on incomplete information

Faulty Causality

Claiming one thing causes another when it hasn’t been proven

False Dilemma

Claiming there are only two options to choose from

Slippery Slope

Claiming that one things will inevitably lead to another, worse thing

Straw Man

Exaggerating an opponent’s argument to make it easier to attack

Ad Hominem

Attacking the person instead of the position they are taking

Appeal to Authority

Claiming something is true just because an authority figure or celebrity says it

False Analogy

Claiming that just because two things are similar in one way, they must be similar in other ways

Red Herring

An irrelevant topic is brought up to distract from the main issue

Appeal to Emotion

A person uses fear, pity, or anger to persuade instead of logic

Bandwagon

Assumes something is correct or good just because it is popular