Seeking Truth Midterm

Accessibility bias/availability bias

A cognitive shortcut where people judge the likelihood or importance of an event based on how easily examples come to mind

ad hominem

Attacking the person and making an argument instead of adressing the argument itself

Argument from ignorance

Claiming something is true because it hasn’t been proven false (or vice versa)

Argument from popularity/bandwagon fallacy

the mistaken belief that a claim is true or justified simply because many people accept or follow it.

argument from tradition

Believing something is correct or better just because it has always been done that way.

bias blind spot

A cognitive bias where people recognize the impact of biases on others' judgment but fail to see the influence of their own biases.

causal fallacy/false cause

Assuming one event caused another just because they happened together or in sequence.

cherry picking

Selecting only evidence that supports your view while ignoring contradictory evidence.

circular reasoning

A form of argument where the conclusion is assumed within one of the premises. 

clustering illusion

cognitive bias where people see patterns or “clusters” in random data and assume they are meaningful, even though they are actually just expected results of randomness.

confirmation bias

The unconscious tendency to seek, interpret, and recall information that confirms one's pre-existing beliefs while ignoring contradictory evidence.

equivocation

Using a term differently from the standard meaning without explaining why you are doing so or shifting from one to another meaning of a term

expectancy effect

Our expectations influence how we perceive and interpret reality, often leading us to see what we anticipate rather than what is objectively present.

fallacy fallacy

rejecting a claim merely because the argument used to support it contains a fallacy, even though the conclusion itself could still be true.

false dichotomy/false dilemma/false choice

a logical fallacy in which a situation is oversimplified into only two options, one of which is often misrepresented or unreasonable, to push acceptance of the remaining option while ignoring other possible alternatives.

falsus ad hominem

when someone attacks a person's character, motive, or attributes rather than addressing the substance of their argument.

fundamental attribution error

In explaining why other people behave as they do we place too much weight on their personalities and not enough on the citations in which they find themselves 

gambler’s fallacy

the mistaken belief that past outcomes of a random process influence future independent outcomes, leading people to expect that short-term imbalances will “even out” immediately.

hindsight bias

After you know an outcome, you believe you expected it all along, even if you didn’t actually predict it beforehand.

hot hand fallacy

the belief that a person who has experienced repeated success is more likely to keep succeeding on future attempts, even when outcomes are actually random and independent.

is-ought fallacy

Claiming that because things are a certain way, they should be that way; or inferring a moral claim from an empirical observation

motivated reasoning

a cognitive bias where individuals use emotionally charged, pre-existing beliefs to shape their interpretation of information, rather than objectively evaluating evidence

motte and bailey fallacy

A text has multiple plausible interpretations a readers on background and biases invariably affect how they understand it. A text has infinite number of interpretations

moving the goalposts

Continually changing the standards of evidence so that they will never be met. As soon as one point gets refuted the person introduces another.

naturalistic fallacy

the incorrect assumption that because something is "natural" (exists in nature), it is inherently "good," moral, or desirable.

origin fallacy/genetic fallacy

Rejecting a claim based on its source or origin rather than its actual evidence or merit

overconfidence bias

We overestimate how much we know or how correct we are.

red herring

Distracting from the main issue by introducing an unrelated topic.

self-serving bias

the tendency to attribute positive outcomes to one’s own abilities or actions (like skill or effort), while attributing negative outcomes to external factors such as bad luck or other people.

slippery slope

assuming (without explaining) that something will initiate a disastrous sequence of events

spotlight effect

The tendency to overestimate how much other people notice or pay attention to us and our behavior.

straw man

Misrepresenting someone’s argument to make it easier to attack.

sunk cost fallacy

continuing an endeavor because of previously invested resources (time, money, effort), even when abandoning it would be the better choice.

Texas sharpshooter fallacy

An extension of the clustering illusion-A person finds a pattern or cluster within random data and then claims to have it expected it all along

wishful thinking

allowing what you want to be true to influence what you believe is actually true

Danah Boyd

Media literacy and fact-checking alone cannot solve misinformation because distrust of institutions, identity-based belief formation, and social trust networks shape how people decide what is “true,” often overriding expert or factual correction.

Julia Galef

Good judgment depends on adopting a “scout mindset,” where individuals aim to understand reality accurately rather than defend their beliefs, overcoming motivated reasoning and identity-driven bias.

Roland Barthes

Meaning is not determined by the author but created by the reader, since texts are open systems of language where interpretation depends on cultural context rather than authorial intent.

Lilliana Mason

Political polarization is driven less by policy disagreement and more by identity-based group loyalty, which increases emotional hostility, selective reasoning, and resistance to opposing views.

Jerry Taylor

Ideology distorts reasoning by forcing evidence to fit rigid beliefs, so politics should instead rely on pragmatic, context-based decision-making that accepts plural values and uncertainty.

Robert Kurzban

The human mind is made of multiple specialized systems rather than a single self, which explains why people often hold contradictory beliefs and behave inconsistently without realizing it.

Scott Lilienfeld

Intellectual humility—recognizing one’s cognitive limits and openness to being wrong—is essential for good skepticism and scientific thinking because it reduces bias and improves belief updating.