Hello folks! Time for another installment of Logical Fallacies Bootcamp, wherein I explain a Logical Fallacy and provide a few examples in the hopes of arming readers with knowledge of these fallacies and thus are able to better spot them “in the wild” and to avoid committing them themselves.
Today’s fallacy du jour: The Appeal to Fear (imagine appropriately terrifying font for that, if you like).
Oh, my, but this is a common one in politics. In fact, a certain major US political party has distilled this one to a bit of an art form.
So what is it?
Well, to distill it down, a common form of this runs along these lines:
If we do X or if X is true, something terrible will happen. Therefore, we must avoid X, or do Y in order to avoid X.
The flaw, of course is that instead of relying upon facts or logic, the argument relies upon fears of negative consequences to persuade.
Consider some examples:
“If you don’t go to bed, the boogeyman will get you!”
TV Commercial <shows burglar breaking into house> “Buy XYZ Security Systems to keep your home safe!”
“Forward this chain email to ten friends! The last person to fail to do so suffered a severe case of ear warts!”
And of course any number of examples from politics, such as the “Build the Wall or else immigrants will take your jobs, rape your wives and sell drugs to your kids” arguments that are peddled, or “Them there libruls are coming for yer gunzes!”
or,
“Candidate X doesn’t know a thing about foreign policy, so if they’re elected, we’ll end up in a war!”
And similar such. Think of how common things like this are the meat and potatoes of negative campaign ads.
So, how to avoid this? As usual, critical thinking. Look for facts — does the statement give any actual facts or real logic, or is it just trying to scare you into a desired action? Stop and think, and if necessary, do a bit of research into the claim. Knowledge is power, and can do a lot to alleviate unreasoning fear.
Logical Fallacies Bootcamp is a twice weekly series with posts dropping on Wednesdays and Fridays. A companion series, Cognitive Bias Bootcamp, drops on Mondays. If you are new to the series and would like to catch up on past offerings of either, or just want to revisit them, the linked titles are listed below!
Logical Fallacies Bootcamp:
Logical Fallacies Bootcamp: The Strawman
Logical Fallacies Bootcamp: The Slippery Slope
Logical Fallacies Bootcamp: Begging the Question
Logical Fallacies Bootcamp: Poisoning the Well
Logical Fallacies Bootcamp: No True Scotsman!
Logical Fallacies Bootcamp: Ad Hominem
Logical Fallacies Bootcamp: False Dilemma
Logical Fallacies Bootcamp: Non Sequitur
Logical Fallacies Bootcamp: Red Herring
Logical Fallacies Bootcamp: Gamblers Fallacy
Logical Fallacies Bootcamp: Bandwagon Fallacy
Cognitive Bias Bootcamp:
Cognitive Bias Bootcamp: Bystander Effect
Cognitive Bias Bootcamp: Curse of Knowledge
Cognitive Bias Bootcamp: Barnum Effect