Illogically Thinking Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jim must be an atheist because he doesn't attend a Christian church.

A false dilemma is a logical fallacy that pits a situation as an "either/or" situation when there are multiple other options available. The sentence "Jim must be an atheist because he doesn't attend a Christian church" is an example of a false dilemma. Jim not attending a Christian church does not mean he is an atheist. Alternatively, Jim could be a Christian who does not attend church. He could be Jewish, Muslim or a member of any other faith.

The false dilemma is also sometimes called black-and-white logic or fuzzy logic.

Answer: Lower my work quota during my shift

Moving the goalposts is a logical fallacy that changes the goal in the middle of the activity you are performing, usually to give yourself an advantage. Let's say I set my work quota at 10,000 units made per day. Halfway through the day, I realize I cannot reach that 10,000 unit goal so I lower it to 8,000. At the end of the day if I reached 8,000 units and say I achieved my goal, that is shifting the goalposts.

Depending on the situation and perspective, shifting the goalposts can also work the opposite way. A boss can set a work quota at 10,000 units but raise it to 15,000 units throughout the day so the employee fails to meet the goal. A similar situation is the titular problem in the novel "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller.

Answer: Robert McNamara

Robert McNamara was the U.S. Secretary of Defense during part of the Vietnam War and was a noted war hawk. McNamara measured the success of the U.S. during the war by the number of enemies who were killed. This logical fallacy became known as the McNamara fallacy. War is complicated and there are many ways to measure its success. Body count is generally not considered a useful measure of a side's success as opposed to other goals met, such as capturing strategic bases.

The high body count of the enemy side does not equate to overall success.

Answer: I hate people who play loud music... except for Jenny who is always playing loud music.

An ad hoc rescue is a logical fallacy that adds something to the original idea in order to stop it from being proved false. In the correct answer, by adding "except for Jenny who is always playing loud music" I am rescuing my original statement of "I hate people who play loud music" from being proved false by adding another aspect after the claim has been made.

The ad hoc rescue is sometimes called the True Scotsman fallacy.

Answer: Gun control laws should be repealed because they didn't stop that mass shooting last week.

The Nirvana fallacy is a logical fallacy that occurs when someone argues against something because the result was not perfect or argues for a result that is not achievable. In this case, the sentence "Gun control laws don't work because they didn't stop that mass shooting last week" is an example of the Nirvana fallacy because the speaker is arguing gun control laws don't work because they did not prevent every single possible shooting. Logically speaking, the aim of gun control laws is to reduce gun violence, not eliminate it entirely, which would be an unrealistic goal in most circumstances.

Answer: Kettle logic

Kettle logic is a logical fallacy where someone adds a lot of so-called evidence to prove their point but often wind up contradicting themselves. Kettle logic comes from the misbelief that one can be more persuasive by providing more evidence rather than better evidence.

In the example, the speaker has contradicted herself by providing too much evidence. She claims she never went in the drawer but then claims the necklace was already missing when she went in there. By providing too much evidence, the speaker has possibly incriminated herself and certainly did not help her case.

Answer: Oh, that's just ridiculous.

Appealing to the stone is a logical fallacy that simply dismisses a claim as ridiculous or false but provides no evidence to the contrary. The person who said it is ridiculous that aliens are real but provided no further information to prove his or her point is appealing to the stone.

Answer: Thomas Watson must have been an idiot because he said, in 1943, the world only has a market for five computers.

The Historian's fallacy is a logical fallacy that assumes people who lived in eras past had access to the same knowledge and information we have today. It is incorrect to say Thomas Watson was an idiot because he didn't see the market for computers because Watson did not know and could not have known what the future would be like and how computers play a significant role in our daily lives today.

Answer: Retrospective determinism

Retrospective determinism is a logical fallacy that assumes that something will happen if something else unrelated also happens because such an occurrence has happened in the past. Retrospective determinism is closely related to superstitions. One common example is sports fans wearing the same clothes (specifically not changing their underwear) to help their team win.

The Yankees winning is not dependent on their fans wearing lucky underwear and the lucky underwear did not help the Yankees win the World Series even if they were worn the last time the Yankees won.

Answer: This defendant's DNA matched DNA found at the crime scene and since there is only a 0.1% chance of error, the defendant must be guilty.

The prosecutor's fallacy is a logical fallacy that equates a very small chance for error as the same thing as there being no chance for error. Just because a DNA match is correct 99.9% of the time (according to the correct answer) it does not mean that DNA matches are always correct.

A match will be wrong 0.1% of the time and that should be taken into consideration even though it is a very minuscule number.