It's Only Illogical Trivia Quiz

Answer: Appeal to fear

Appeal to fear (or fear mongering) is one of the most common and used logical fallacies. It is very common in political campaigning. The idea is to present an either/or situation in which one of the options is so terrifying the other option is automatically better and right.

In this situation, the speaker is clearly attempting to sway voters in his or her favor by making the other candidate so scary that the speaker is the better option. An appeal to fear is a logical fallacy because it has a tendency to exaggerate the actual truth and attempts to convince people that highly improbable (though not impossible) events will, for sure, occur if a certain option is selected over the other.

Appeal to fear can be similar to a slippery slope. The difference is that an appeal to fear provides an either/or option while a slippery slope does not.

Answer: McNamara fallacy

The McNamara fallacy is a logical fallacy in which someone only looks at certain quantitative data to come to a conclusion without looking at any other piece of data. In this instance, two Yankees struck out to four Mets. However, that does not mean the Yankees played a better game of baseball. The winner in a baseball game is determined by the number of runs a team scores, not by how many players struck out. It is often the case, the team with a better stats wins the game but that is not guaranteed.

This fallacy is named after Robert McNamara who served as U.S. Secretary of Defense during the 1960s. McNamara measured the success of the increasingly unpopular Vietnam War by how many enemies had been killed.

Answer: Fallacy of division

The fallacy of division is a logical fallacy that causes people to believe every part of an argument when they know the main point of the argument is true.

In this example, the speaker knows the Davis Family orders pepperoni pizza every night but that does not mean the daughter Jenny loves pepperoni pizza. Jenny might hate pepperoni pizza but every other member of her family might love pepperoni pizza and eat it all the time.

Answer: False authority

False authority is a logical fallacy people use to persuade other people of something by attributing evidence to someone who is not an authority in the field. For example, Oprah Winfrey is not an art expert, so she is a poor person to cite when attempting to persuade others of the portrait's worth.

Answer: Kettle logic

Kettle logic is a fallacy where a person tries to defend a point using contradictory arguments. In this example, the speaker is claiming that his or her dog did not dig up the rose bush because it hasn't left the house all day. However, the speaker also mentions that the dog did leave the house that day but went in a different direction.

Kettle logic is often used by people who incorrectly believe the more evidence they provide, the stronger their case gets. They often fail to realize that points of evidence they provide are contradictory which weakens their case, not strengthens it.

The name kettle logic comes from a story about a man who was blamed for breaking his neighbor's kettle. The man tried to claim both that the kettle was broken when he borrowed it and that he never actually borrowed it in the first place.

Answer: False dilemma

A false dilemma is a fallacy where people believe something must be one thing or another. It also called the either/or fallacy. In this situation, Michael does not have to be a Democrat solely because he does not like Donald Trump, a Republican. There are multiple other options besides Democrats or Republicans. Michael does not have to be either one.

He could be an independent or a member of any other party.

Answer: Poisoning the well

Poisoning the well is a technique in which one person attempts to poison another person's view of a third party. In this case, the speaker is trying to sully Jill's opinion of her new boyfriend Adam by only mentioning a negative thing about Adam and ignoring any positive aspect Adam might have. This is typically done by one competitor or rival to another.

Answer: Slippery slope

The slippery slope is a fallacy that if one (often small) action is taken, it will lead to a series of drastic events happening that often have little connection to the original event. Slippery slopes are often made by politicians. An example of that is opponents of same-sex marriage arguing that if same-sex marriage is legalized, it will lead people marrying their pets.

Answer: Middle ground

Middle ground is a very commonly seen logical fallacy. The idea is that when presented with two pieces of varying evidence, the actual truth is whatever is in the middle. In the example, the speaker is assuming that June ate three cookies because June says she ate two and Marty says she ate four.

In reality, either June or Marty could be correct. There is no logical basis for assuming the truth is the middle ground.

Answer: Gambler's fallacy

The Gambler's fallacy is a logical fallacy where people believe an outcome is less likely to occur because it has occurred many times in the past while other possible and equally likely outcomes have yet to occur.

A perfect example of this is the roulette wheel. On a roulette wheel, the ball is equally likely to land in a red square as it is in a black square and where the ball will land is essentially random. If the ball landed in a red square fourteen times in a row, it is not more likely to land in a black square on the next spin. This was a real life situation that occurred in Monte Carlo when the ball landed in a black square 26 times in a row. Gamblers were so convinced that red would be called on the next spin, they bet and (then lost) millions of dollars because they failed to reason the results of a spin are not determined by the past spins.