Logical Fallacies
What They Are and How to Spot Them

If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck... it still may not be a duck!
A logical fallacy is a statement that initially seems to be true but, after you've reasoned it through logically, turns out not to be so.

Logical fallacies are bad for everyone. If you use one, you can appear dishonest. If you fall victim to one, you can come to the wrong conclusion.

Let's look at some of the most common logical fallacies, and why they don't hold water.

Appeals to Authority
Just because a person in authority thinks something is true, it doesn't necessarily mean it is. Their position has no intrinsic bearing on whether the claims are true.

False Correlation
Even though there appears to be a causal relationship between two things, there may not be.

Ice cream sales have gone up by 50 percent this year. Meanwhile, local hospital sunstroke cases have also risen by 50 percent. Therefore, ice cream causes sunstroke. Or does it?

Reification
This is when someone takes a hypothesis and presents it as truth. For example, there's a high probability that extra-terrestrial life exists - but absolutely no evidence (as yet) that it does.

Bandwagon
Tending to believe in an idea simply because it's popular. At one time, millions of people believed the earth is flat - there's now pretty good evidence that it isn't!

False Dichotomy
Providing only two options and forcing someone to make a choice between them, often when neither may be the best way forward. For example, "If you're not with us, you're against us." What happened to being neutral?

Straw Man
Creating a false argument or exaggerated position for an opponent, opposing it, and thus making your own position seem more reasonable.

The Statistics of Small Numbers 
Taking one observation or incident and using it to draw a general conclusion. For example, one misplaced delivery in thousands doesn't make a courier service unreliable.


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