Red herring is an informal fallacy and, more specifically, belongs to the relevance fallacies, which are a broad sub-category of informal fallacies. In this example, John uses a red herring in an attempt to distract Joanna from the real issue, which is the fact that he exceeded the budget that they had both agreed upon. Joanna: “Why did you buy that new fishing rod? It exceeds our monthly budget that we both agreed upon.” John: “Well, because it was on sale.Whether someone else would charge that rate or not is irrelevant to the real issue of it being unethical. It’s unethical.” Jonathan: “Well, if I didn’t charge them that rate, someone else would.” Kim: “You shouldn’t charge your clients 25% interest on their loans.We pay our taxes.” “Surely global meltdown is infinitely worse than a little inconvenience?” Example in Business “The police should stop environmental demonstrators from inconveniencing the general public. The following example involving politics was given by Madsen Pirie in his book How to Win Every Argument: The Use and Abuse of Logic: The politician in the example uses a red herring in order to avoid answering the real question. Politician: “I have been working hard ever since I came into office, and I’m happy to say that I met with many business leaders throughout the country, who all say that they are glad to see that our hard work is paying off.”.Reporter: “It’s been two years since your policies were implemented, and so far they have failed to reduce unemployment rates.”.Now, let’s look at some examples of red herrings in politics, media, and real life to better understand it. Johnson.Furthermore, this fallacy is also known as “ignoratio elenchi”, “irrelevant conclusion”, “beside the point”, “false emphasis” and the “Chewbacca defense”. The rest come from A Logic Book: Fundamentals of Reasoning, by Robert M. Ransom's Bestiary of Adorable Fallacies, by Doublas Wilson & N.D. These fallacies are compiled partially from The Amazing Dr. Red Herring (“Distraction by Reek”) - any fallacy of distraction that ultimately leads away from the truth of the matter. Straw Man (“Misrepresentation”, “Puppet beating”) - a fallacy of distraction that misrepresents or hyperbolizes an opponent's position to make it much easier to defeatġ7. Irrelevant Thesis (“Ignoring the Issue”, “Ignoratio Elenchi”) - a fallacy of distraction that addresses a tangentially related (and perhaps valid) point that is not the point under discussion.ġ6. Irrelevant Goals or Functions (“Argument from Consequences”) - a fallacy of distraction that irrelevantly critiques an idea for failing to do something it was never intended to do.ġ5. Ad Ignorantiam (“Proof by Lack of Evidence”, “The Gullible Dogmatic”) - a fallacy of distraction that argues for a proposition by pointing to absence of evidence to the contrary.ġ4. Chronological Snobbery (“Appeal to Tradition or Technology”, “Dinoshush”) - a fallacy of distraction that accepts or rejects an idea (or product, or book, etc.) solely based on its age.ġ3. Argument from Personal Incredulity (“Common Sense Fallacy”, “Divine Fallacy”) - a fallacy of distraction that denies a conclusion solely based on personal belief.ġ2. Ad Misericordiam (“Appeal to Pity”, “PitiPupping”) - a fallacy of distraction that attempts to distract from the truth or validity of an argument by appealing to pity.ġ1.
Ad Populum (“Bandwagon”, “Lemming Parade”) - a fallacy of distraction that attempts to show the truth of a proposition by means of the sheer number of people who already have accepted it.ġ0. Ad Baculum (“Appeal to Fear”, “Whooping”) - A fallacy of distraction that inappropriately attempts to persuade by means of threats.ĩ. Special Pleading (“Unjustified Exemption”) - A fallacy of distraction that argues for an exception to an accepted principle or standard without offering a justification.Ĩ. Genetic Fallacy (“Ancestral Stench”) - A fallacy of distraction that Rejects or accepts an argument solely because of the moral character of another, previous arguer.ħ. Bulverism (“The Becausery”) - A fallacy of distraction that assumes an opponent's position is wrong by focusing the argument on how the opponent personally came to believe that position.Ħ. Ipse Dixit (“Irrelevant Authority”) - A fallacy of distraction that appeals to an irrelevant authority as justification for a conclusion.ĥ. Transfer (“Honor by Association”, “Preening”) - A fallacy of distraction that equates positive characteristics of a spokesman with their conclusion.Ĥ. Tu Quoque (“Appeal to Hypocrisy”) - A fallacy of distraction that attempts to discredit an opponent's conclusion by irrelevantly appealing to supposed hypocrisy between argument and actions.ģ.
Ad Hominem (“Poisoning the Well”, “Pit Spitting”) - A fallacy of distraction that attacks an opponent's character when character is irrelevant to the argument.Ģ.
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