We are referring to faulty reasoning, also known as logical fallacies, erroneous or invalid arguments one uses to strengthen their position. There are dozens of articles and books explaining various types of these errors and teaching to avoid them. Together with that, many writers have used faulty reasoning to make a plot more captivating or to give more power to an advertisement – and for some reason, we tend to like it.
How does it work and where can logical fallacies (un)expectedly be found in real life?
“Do you really think it can be true?!”
An appeal to common sense would easily make you doubt what you believe. It is usually supported with generally logical statements which, meanwhile, oppose your own ideas. When this is the case, your main task is to double-check your belief or follow common rules, making no exceptions when something confuses you.
To get an idea of how it works, remember the following scene from one of the most popular Christmas films.
Kevin managed to book a room on his father’s name by using a pre-recorded audio and voice alterations. Who would think a usual 10-year-old is capable of that? And he is now at the reception.
Kevin: A reservation for MacCallister.
Receptionist: A reservation for yourself?
Kevin: My feet are hardly touching the ground. I can barely see over the counter. How can I make a reservation for a room? Think about it: a kid going into a hotel, making a reservation? I don't think so.
Receptionist: I’m confused.(from Home Alone 2: Lost in New York)
Everyone would be, but not everyone would just let this kid in.
The scene definitely assists the plot and gives space for entertaining adventures, but in real life, it’s worth being more careful when you hear a conversation sounds like this.
“There are two groups of people: You are either A or B”
False dilemma or black-and-white thinking presupposes there are only two possible choices when there are, in fact, more. It can be spiced with emotions, and it’s main aim is to wake up your desire to belong to one particular group. The other one in the pair is used just for contrast, even though the two can sound like an exhaustive list.
Some advertisers find the approach helpful to create an illusion that you definitely need their product or their product being the best:
"There are some people who say it’s the best yogurt they’ve ever tasted. And there are some people who haven’t tasted it yet."
You see, they say nothing about other people, who tasted the yogurt but did not find it the best on the market.
Similarly, the approach can be applied by politicians, for instance, to encourage more people to vote for them, join their party, or support their campaigns:
"You either support stricter immigration policies, or you don't care about national security."
Supporting stricter immigration policies would not necessarily mean caring about national security (one might have other reasons for that), while there are more than one ways to demonstrate caring about national security. Hence, there are more than two choices, the problem has more possible solutions, and the statement is false dilemma.
- When facing an "either … or …" dichotomy, ask yourself if the given options are mutually excluding and if there are any missing ones.
Wait, aren’t you tired yet? In case you are, get yourself a cup of…
Yes, it’s probably not what you have been looking for in the subtitle, but that’s how red herring fallacies work. Instead of providing a direct response to a query, a speaker deviates from the topic and distracts you from the question. They can do it by appealing to emotions, secondary factors and conditions, related (or not really) stories, but will never answer your question or at least, will make you spend more time on finding the answer.
Red herring can be a wonderful tool for a writer – Arthur Conan Doyle used it in his very first story about Sherlock Holmes A Study in Scarlet , directing the detective to a wrong hypothesis; J.K. Rowling and Dan Brown used it to present some of their characters without revealing key elements of their portraits. It can also be an instrument to train future policemen, judges or lawyers – for them, it is highly important to learn to filter out significant data from distractors. And it is also a tool many people come to in live debates – often to hide the absence of a well-thought answer.
"We want to see a report on how the money was spent."
"We have a lot of plans, and building a new school is one of them. What do you think we have to buy for the school library?"💡the discussion is redirected to future plans rather than making an analysis of what has been done already
"What are results of the research?"
"They have received additional funding, so everything must be fine."💡getting extra financial support can be a positive sign, but it has nothing to do with scientific results as such
and says nothing about how the research is going on and what has been done
"There are too many street dogs in the town, what should we do?"
"Why don’t you care about homeless cats?"💡a redirection to a similar problem without giving a proper response to the one previously raised
Red herring can take its place in almost any field, and it is up to participants of the conversation if to insist on the initial question and require a proper answer, or if to think about the speaker’s nature and the reasons a red herring is given.
The interesting thing is that it is relatively easy to recognise a fallacy when reading a dedicated book. However, in a real-life situation we seldom expect to be exposed to faulty reasoning and, as a result, our reactions are often controlled by emotions rather than logic. There are no efficient ways to ban or somehow eliminate reasoning errors – they are not even always conscious and can even be useful – but learning how to spot one and react appropriately is no doubt a handy skill!