Term:
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Definition:
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Quote(s):
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Explanation:
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Appeal to Misleading
Authority
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Using an authority to
affirm a conclusion
when the authority is
not expert enough, in
the context, to assure
the conclusion.
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“The deputy and I
found the witnesses
credible.”
“The deputy left the
scene convinced that
the witnesses
believed that they had
absolutely seen
something highly
unusual.”
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They say that this
must be true because
the deputy and guy
checking out the
story agree with the
witnesses, but how do
we know these
people are credible?
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Bandwagon
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A popular idea is
correct.
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“I always thought
things like this
weren't real but now I
know different. They
are very real. After
we saw what we saw,
the El Campo
newspaper had an
article about a similar
animal about 30
miles away in
Matagorda County.”
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They didn’t believe in
this stuff until now,
and now they’re
jumping on the
bandwagon.
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Hasty Generalization
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A conclusion is
drawn from too small
a sample of evidence.
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“...I could not see
anything because it
was so dark. That's
when I decided that it
must be someone
over there because it
sounded like a heavy
person had stepped
on the tin.”
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They literally
admitted they
couldn’t see what was
going on, so they just
“decided” that
bigfoot was over
there based on the
little evidence they
had.
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Anecdotal Fallacy /
Misleading Vividness
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A Hasty
Generalization that
relies on the
availability heuristic
(we generalize from
vivid stories more
readily).
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“Our son has heard a
sound like a sick cow.
Our nephew said he
saw an 8 ft monkey
digging in the
dumpster in the early
1990's. We did not
believe him. We do
now.”
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Two other people
they know saw/heard
similar things, so it
must be real.
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Cum Hoc
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Two things that
happened at the same
time must have a
causal relationship.
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“In addition, a while
back, the witnesses
had two dozen
chickens that had
been the prey of an
unknown predator …
The witnesses always
thought an opossum
had eaten their
chickens.”
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Their chickens got
mauled a little while
before they saw
bigfoot, so bigfoot
must have killed
them.
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