Faulty thinking is part of life. We’re not perfect, nor do we think perfectly. It is, however, helpful to identify faulty thinking in our own mental processes. Sometimes, merely being aware of how we think can help us stay away from potential pitfalls in our logic.

It also helps to be aware when people use logical fallacies, especially to ‘rationalize’ their thinking. Don’t be afraid to call it out for what it is. Getting people together to collaborate can be a challenge in itself, candor, honesty, and arriving at a shared understanding is crucial for any decision making process.

Be a head above. Bring people together when making decisions, just make sure we aren’t dealing with dissonance in irrational ways… 🙂

The 20 Most Common Logical Fallacies

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 than 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 toyou that it must be true for most people.
17. Equivocation – Using two different meanings of a word to prove your argument.
18. Non sequitur – 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.

[HT: TheMotionMachine]