Logical fallacies are like hidden traps in thinking and debating. They sneak into arguments and discussions, often unnoticed, leading us astray from clear and rational thinking.

Understanding these fallacies is like having a secret decoder ring for conversations. It helps you navigate through tricky discussions and make better decisions. Plus, it’s not just about spotting mistakes in others; knowing about these common errors can help improve your own reasoning too. So, learning about logical fallacies isn’t just smart—it’s a superpower for your everyday conversations and decisions.

Here are some examples of logical fallacies. It is not an exhaustive list, but are common ones people can encounter.

1. Strawman: Misrepresenting someone’s argument to make it easier to attack or refute.
2. False Cause: Assuming that because two events occurred together, one must be the cause of the other.
3. Appeal to Emotion: Manipulating an emotional response in place of a valid or compelling argument.
4. Fallacy Fallacy: Assuming that because an argument contains a fallacy, its conclusion must be false.
5. Slippery Slope: Asserting that a relatively small first step leads to a chain of related events culminating in some significant effect.
6. Ad Hominem: Attacking the person making the argument rather than the argument itself.
7. Tu Quoque: Dismissing someone’s viewpoint on an issue because they themselves are inconsistent in that very thing.
8. Personal Incredulity: Because one finds something difficult to understand, or are unaware of how it works, they conclude it’s probably not true.
9. Special Pleading: Moving the goalposts to create exceptions when a claim is shown to be false.
10. Loaded Question: Asking a question that has an assumption built into it so that it can’t be answered without appearing guilty.
11. Burden of Proof: Saying that the burden of proof lies not with the person making the claim, but with someone else to disprove.
12. Ambiguity: Using double meanings or ambiguities of language to mislead or misrepresent the truth.
13. Gambler’s Fallacy: Believing that ‘runs’ occur to statistically independent phenomena such as roulette wheel spins.
14. Bandwagon: Assuming that because something is popular, it is therefore good, correct, or desirable.
15. Appeal to Authority: Saying that because an authority thinks something, it must therefore be true.
16. Composition or Division Fallacy: Assuming that what’s true about one part of something has to be applied to all, or other, parts of it.
17. No True Scotsman: Making what could be called an appeal to purity as a way to dismiss relevant criticisms or flaws of an argument.
18. Genetic Fallacy: Judging something good or bad on the basis of where it comes from, or from whom it comes.
19. Black-or-White: Where two alternative states are presented as the only possibilities when in fact more possibilities exist.
20. Begging the Question: A circular argument in which the conclusion is included in the premise.
21. Appeal to Nature: Making the argument that because something is ‘natural’ it is therefore valid, justified, inevitable, or ideal.
22. Anecdotal: Using personal experience or an isolated example instead of a valid argument, especially to dismiss statistics.
23. Texas Sharpshooter: Cherry-picking data clusters to suit an argument, or finding a pattern to fit a presumption.
24. Middle Ground: Claiming that a compromise, or middle point, between two extremes is the truth.

Find more about those logical fallacies on this website: https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/

Additional Resources:

• Wikipedia List of Fallacies
• YouTube – The Paint Explainer: “Every Logical Fallacy Explained in 11 Minutes”