Logic Exam Fallacies SIMPLIFIED

Appeal to Force

“Do it or else.” (Using threats.)

Appeal to Pity

“Feel bad for me!” (Using sadness instead of reason.)

Appeal to the People

“Everyone else thinks so.” (Just following the crowd.)

Ad Hominem (Generic)

“You’re wrong because you said it.” (Attacking the person.)

Ad Hominem - Abusive

“You’re dumb, so you’re wrong.”

Ad Hominem - Circumstantial

“You just say that because of your life.”

Ad Hominem - Tu Quoque

“You do it too!”

Accident

“That rule always applies!” (Even when it shouldn’t.)

Straw Man

“I’ll twist your words to beat them.”
(Changing their argument to something easier to attack)

irrelevant conclusion

“Answering a different question.”

Red Herring

“Changing the subject to win.”
(Distracting from the real issue)

Appeal to Unqualified Authority

“A random person said it, so it’s true.”
(Trusting someone who isn’t an expert)

Appeal to Ignorance 

“No proof it’s false = it’s true.”
(Saying something is true just because it hasn’t been disproved)

hasty generalization

“I saw one, so they’re all like that!”
(Jumping to a big conclusion from little evidence)

Begging the Question

“It’s true because it’s true.” (Using your claim as your proof)

Complex Question 

“Tricky question with a trap inside.”
(Asking something that unfairly assumes something else)

False Dichotomy

“Only two choices!”
(Pretending there are only two options when there are more)

Suppressed Evidence

“Leaving out stuff that doesn’t help me.”
(Ignoring facts that would change the conclusion)

Equivocation

“One word, two meanings.”
(Switching meanings of a word mid-argument)

Composition

“All the parts are small, so the whole is small too.”
(Assuming what’s true of parts is true of the whole)

Division

“The team is good, so every player must be.”
(Assuming what’s true of the whole is true of the parts)

Slippery Slope

“This small thing will lead to disaster.”
(Saying one step will lead to a big bad result without proof)

Weak Analogy

“These are kinda alike, so they must be the same.”
(Comparing two things that aren’t really similar enough)

False Cause

“A happened before B, so A caused B.”
(Thinking one thing caused another just because it came first