Bigfoot Fallacies

Term	Definition	Example	Analysis
Cum Hoc	Two things that happened at the same time must have a causal relationship.	“We both realized that if this was a human, these deer would not have been anywhere close to the commotion”	Because the deer were at the scene at the same time, the men concluded that the creature sighting, which happened at the same time, was not a human
Wishful Thinking	Something is true because I want it to be.	“I’m absolutely positive what we saw was authentic”	The author wants to believe what he saw as a Bigfoot sighting was real, and conveys to the audience that he has certainty, even though he doesn’t have much to go off of
Black or White	A false dilemma that asserts an untrue “either-or” or forced choice.	“The thought of someone playing games isn’t a viable conclusion to me”	The author believes that someone tricking them is not a possibility, and labels the option as something that is clearly false with no room for negotiation
Appeal to Authority	Using an authority to affirm a conclusion when the authority is not expert enough, in the context, to assure the conclusion.	“My friend and I are extreme outdoorsmen with many years of survival training” “Both men are business owners with excellent communication abilities”	The writers are trying to appeal to the authority that business owners and outdoorsmen have over others in the Bigfoot community, and why you should believe these people this time
Weak Analogy	The two terms in the analogy are weakly or unrelated.	“I had noticed a street sign close to the sighting that had a bigfoot sticker on it, as if someone had deemed it bigfoot territory”	The sighting and the sticker being present is a weak comparison as to why the two are related