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Logical Fallacies

Instructions:

Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
Match each statement with the correct term.
Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.

1. This is a conclusion that oversimplifies the argument by reducing it only to two sides or choices.
Either/Or.
Dogmatism Example
Hasty Generalization Example
Faulty Causality Example

2. The writer suggest that readers should listen and follow what someone has to say about something that he or she is in fact not a credible - reliable authority on.
Hasty Generalization Example
Appeals to False Authority
Ad hominem Example
Sentimental Appeals

3. Because of the possibility of a terrorist hijacking or mechanical failure - flying on a plane is too dangerous and should be avoided altogether.
Red Herring
Bandwagon Appeal Example
Non sequitur Example
Scare Tatics Example

4. That boy scout made an old lady's day by visiting and entertaining her in her nursing home; we should give generously to the boy scouts as a result.
Equivocation
Faulty Causality Example
Bandwagon appeal
Sentimental Appeals. Ex

5. In this case the writer forms an argument which leaves out a necessary portion in a logical sequence - seeming to suggest a logical connection when in fact one does not exist.
Non sequitur Example
Faulty Causality
Sentimental Appeals Example
Non sequitur

6. This fallacy of argument recommends a course of action on the grounds that everyone else is following the same path.
Red Herring Example
Faulty Analogy
Bandwagon appeal
Non sequitur Example

7. Britney Spears says that George W. Bush has got a great plan for the economy - and so therefore I am supporting him because I trust what she has to say.
Either/Or. Example
Appeals to False Authority
Non sequitur Example
Appeals to False Authority Example

8. This argumentative fallacy in which the rhetor frames an issue in terms of exaggerated threats or dangers.
Hasty Generalization Example
Sentimental Appeals
Begging the Question EX.
Scare Tatics

9. She is feminist; she must hate men.
Either/Or.
Non sequitur Example
Appeals to False Authority Example
Slippery Slope Example

10. Here's what I think about what you have written: anyone who opposes the death penalty for murder is a criminal at heart.
Hasty Generalization Example
Ad hominem Example
Hasty Generalization Example
Either/Or.

11. This move oversimplifies an opponents' view point and then attacks that hollow argument. This opponents position is misrepresented as being more extreme than it actually is - so it becomes easier to refute.
Appeals to False Authority Example
Straw Man
Equivocation
Bandwagon Appeal Example

12. If we let homosexual couple live on our street before you know it our neighborhood will start to become like Greenwich Village in New York or the Castro District in San Francisco.
Slipper Slop Example
Faulty Analogy Example
Slippery Slope Example
Sentimental Appeals Example

13. Relying on manipulatively heart-warming or heart-wrenching appeals to emotion to win support for what has not been otherwise rationally justified.
Sentimental Appeals
Faulty Causality
Bandwagon appeal
Non sequitur Example

14. Everyone else is going out and getting drunk tonight - so you should too.
Non sequitur Example
Bandwagon Appeal Example
Begging the Question EX.
Ad hominem Example

15. There's no way a man could love a man or a woman love a woman as much as a man and woman love each other.
Non sequitur Example
Either/Or. Example
Sentimental Appeals. Ex
Dogmatism Example

16. This is a conclusion based on insufficient evidence. In other words - you are rushing to a conclusion before you have all the relevant facts.
Red Herring
Begging the Question Example
Hasty Generalization
Equivocation

17. I drank bottled water and now I am sick - so the water must have made me sick.
Hasty Generalization Example
Faulty Causality Example
Begging the Question Example
Scare Tatics

18. Either you support the president in everything he says and does or you are not a patriotic American
Either/Or. Example
Scare Tatics Example
Faulty Analogy Example
Hasty Generalization Example

19. Either you worship God or you worship Satan.
Red Herring Example
Ad hominem Example
Appeals to False Authority
Either/Or. Example

20. If we can Hummers because they are bad for the environment eventually the government will ban all cars - so we should not ban hummers.
Bandwagon Appeal Example
Slipper Slop Example
Either/Or. Example
Red herring Example

21. Green Peace's strategies aren't effective because they are all dirty - lazy hippies.
Appeals to False Authority
Ad hominem Example
Red herring Example
Either/Or. Example

22. Even though it's only the first day - I can tell this is going to be a boring course.
Hasty Generalization Example
Slippery Slope Example
Bandwagon Appeal Example
Equivocation

23. I don't support the President's foreign policy; look at the disastrous way he has taken care of our domestic economy.
Slippery Slope Example
Slippery Slope
Slipper Slop Example
Red herring Example

24. This is a diversionary tactic that avoid key issues - often by avoiding opposing arguments rather than addressing them.
Faulty Causality
Appeals to False Authority Example
Red Herring
Sentimental Appeals Example

25. This logical fallacy proposes that there are simply cannot be another possible way of making sense of and engaging with an issue but the one you represent.
Slippery Slope
Bandwagon Appeal Example
Dogmatism
Hasty Generalization Example

26. My friend - who is serving in infantry in Iraq - tells me that the government has a secret plan for how to win the war that they won't release until after the election - and because he is my friend and I like and respect him - this must be true.
Non sequitur
Appeals to False Authority Example
Red herring Example
Slipper Slop Example

27. Person: A we should liberalize the laws one beer B: No any society with unrestricted access to intoxicants loses its work ethic and goes only for immediate gratification.
Dogmatism Example
Straw Man Example
Either/Or. Example
Ad hominem Example

28. We can either stop using cars or destroy the earth.
Begging the Question Example
Ad hominem
Either/Or. Example
Slippery Slope

29. The level of mercury in seafood may be unsafe - but what will fishers do to support their families?
Slippery Slope Example
Red herring Example
Straw Man Example
Either/Or. Example

30. This is an attack on the character of a person rather than her/his opinions or arguments.
Equivocation
Faulty Analogy Example
Either/Or. Example
Ad hominem

31. You can't give me a C - I'm an A student.
Begging the Question EX.
Ad hominem Example
Faulty Causality
Ad hominem Example

32. You can't trust jim to do a good job as student body president; he doesn't dress with an up-to-date sense of style.
Ad hominem Example
Slippery Slope
Dogmatism
Red Herring Example

33. In listening to what you have to say I have this to say in reply: only an idiot would argue for pursuing a peaceful solution to this conflict.
Ad hominem Example
Appeals to False Authority Example
Straw Man Example
Sentimental Appeals Example

34. This sort of argument relies on the faulty assumption that because one event follows another - the second necessarily causes the first
Faulty Analogy
Dogmatism Example
Ad hominem Example
Faulty Causality

35. I knew a gay guy who was not very masculine; this just goes to show that gay guys are more effeminate than straight men.
Hasty Generalization Example
Either/Or. Example
Faulty Analogy
Faulty Causality

36. The administration closed the smoking court in our school at the end of the last year - and fights among students have gone down his year; therefore - closing the smoking court caused the reaction in fights among students.
Slipper Slop Example
Bandwagon Appeal Example
Dogmatism Example
Faulty Causality Example

37. This involves drawing an analogy that is based upon faulty equations or identifications of terms. The writer makes a comparisons between two objects which is either inaccurate or inconsequential.
Scare Tatics
Non sequitur
Red herring Example
Faulty Analogy

38. I can't be guilty of embezzlement; I'm an honest person.
Begging the Question Example
Red Herring
Sentimental Appeals
Equivocation Example

39. Filthy and polluting coal should be banned.
Sentimental Appeals. Ex
Dogmatism Example
Begging the Question Example
Faulty Analogy

40. That celebrity is suffering a lot of pain and aguish after breaking p with his girlfriend and coming through drug and alcohol rehabilitation treatment; he is a role model for all of us - and needs us to support him by his albums and going to his movi
Hasty Generalization Example
Begging the Question Example
Appeals to False Authority
Sentimental Appeals Example

41. There's no way that anyone can argue that abortion is anything other than murder.
Red Herring Example
Ad hominem Example
Bandwagon Appeal Example
Dogmatism Example

42. Everyone else is displaying a flag - or a support our troops sticker on their car - therefore - you should too.
Hasty Generalization Example
Dogmatism Example
Bandwagon Appeal Example
Begging the Question EX.

43. This argument gives a lie an honest appearance - by insisting on What is only partially or formally true.
Faulty Causality Example
Dogmatism
Non sequitur
Equivocation

44. This is a conclusion based on the premise that if A happens - then eventually through a series of small steps - through B -C -...X -Y -Z will happen - too basically equating A and Z.
Straw Man Example
Slippery Slope
Non sequitur Example
Red Herring

45. A black family move into my neighborhood once - and they were financially quite well-off - better than we were; this proves that black people actually are economically equal to whites.
Hasty Generalization Example
Scare Tatics Example
Ad hominem Example
Appeals to False Authority

46. Because of the possibility of poisoning of Halloween candy by some people who give it out to trick or treaters - communities should ban trick-or-treating.
Dogmatism Example
Scare Tatics Example
Ad hominem
Non sequitur

47. I did not have sex with that woman(if by sex you mean penile-vaginal intercourse). (from bill clinton in relation of the nature of his relationship with monica lewinsky)
Scare Tatics Example
Equivocation Example
Ad hominem Example
Either/Or. Example

48. Students in kindergarten at Jefferson Elementary school did better when given milk and cookies than when not; therefore students at UWEC will do better too if they are given milk and cookies in class.
Hasty Generalization Example
Dogmatism Example
Faulty Analogy Example
Slippery Slope Example

49. American students' relatively poor performance in foreign language and geography examinations means that they should be subjected to regular standardized tests in these two areas each year throughout their mandatory period of schooling.
Equivocation Example
Hasty Generalization Example
Faulty Analogy Example
Non sequitur Example

50. If you restrict my right to say whatever I want however I want this is the beginning of totalitarianism in America.
Ad hominem
Non sequitur
Slippery Slope Example
Ad hominem Example