Logically Fallacious Friday

20 Logical Fallacy Found in Agile and related topics

1. Appeal to ignorance – Thinking a claim is true (or false) because it can’t be proven true (or false).
2. Ad hominem – Making a personal attack against the person saying the argument, rather than directly addressing the issue.
3. Strawman fallacy – Misrepresenting or exaggerating another person’s argument to make it easier to attack.
4. Bandwagon fallacy – Thinking an argument must be true because it’s popular.
5. Naturalistic fallacy – Believing something is good or beneficial just because it’s natural.
6. Cherry picking – Only choosing a few examples that support your argument, rather than looking at the full picture.
7. False dilemma – Thinking there are only two possibilities when there may be other alternatives you haven’t considered.
8. Begging the question – Making an argument that something is true by repeating the same thing in different words.
9. Appeal to tradition – Believing something is right just because it’s been done around for a really long time.
10. Appeal to emotions – Trying to persuade someone by manipulating their emotions – such as fear, anger, or ridicule – rather than making a rational case.
11. Shifting the burden of proof – Thinking instead of proving your claim is true, the other person has to prove it’s false.
12. Appeal to authority – Believing just because an authority or “expert” believes something then it must be true.
13. Red herring – When you change the subject to a topic that’s easier to attack.
14. Slippery slope – Taking an argument to an exaggerated extreme. “If we let A happen, then Z will happen.”
15. Correlation proves causation – Believing that just because two things happen at the same time, that one must have caused the other.
16. Anecdotal evidence – Thinking that just because something applies to you that it must be true for most people.
17. Equivocation – Using two different meanings of a word to prove your argument.
18. Nonsequitur – Implying a logical connection between two things that doesn’t exist. “It doesn’t follow…”
19. Ecological fallacy – Making an assumption about a specific person based on general tendencies within a group they belong to.
20. Fallacy fallacy – Thinking just because a claim follows a logical fallacy that it must be false.