Logical Fallacies

Red Herring

Red Herring

Distracting the audience rather than focusing on the argument itself

Slippery Slope

Suggesting that an event or action will send the audience spiraling down a “slippery slope” to a serious consequence

Hasty Generalization

Drawing a conclusion to quickly without providing enough supporting evidence

Ad Hominem

Attacking the person rather than the argument, criticizing the opponern’s character, personal attack

Stacking the Evidence/Cherry Picking

Offering proof for only one side of the issue

Misuse of Ethos

Placing more emphasis on ethos rather than the actual validity of the evidence, appeal to false authority

Post hoc ergo propter hoc

Since Y event followed X, X must have caused Y

Strawman

Substituting a person’s actual position or argument with a distorted, or misrepresented version of the position or argument. Political smear campaigns

Bandwagon

An appeal to popularity. Suggest something is good because many people think so. Also plays on our desire to belong

Scare tactic

Preying on the fears of your audience to win an argument

False Dichotomy

Reducing an argument to a choice between two diametrically opposed choices, ignoring other possible scenarios