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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. Either you worship God or you worship Satan.
Ad hominem Example
Either/Or. Example
Sentimental Appeals Example
Straw Man

2. The conclusion that the writer should prove is validated within the claim. The author assumes as true they very claim that is disputed - in a circular argument.
Begging the Question
Non sequitur Example
Ad hominem Example
Either/Or. Example

3. This argumentative fallacy in which the rhetor frames an issue in terms of exaggerated threats or dangers.
Non sequitur Example
Scare Tatics
Faulty Analogy Example
Scare Tatics Example

4. The level of mercury in seafood may be unsafe - but what will fishers do to support their families?
Equivocation Example
Red herring Example
Appeals to False Authority
Straw Man

5. This is an attack on the character of a person rather than her/his opinions or arguments.
Faulty Causality Example
Equivocation
Ad hominem
Dogmatism Example

6. I drank bottled water and now I am sick - so the water must have made me sick.
Appeals to False Authority Example
Scare Tatics Example
Faulty Causality Example
Equivocation

7. 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)
Equivocation Example
Faulty Analogy Example
Scare Tatics Example
Faulty Analogy

8. 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.
Straw Man Example
Equivocation Example
Red herring Example
Either/Or. Example

9. Filthy and polluting coal should be banned.
Dogmatism Example
Non sequitur Example
Bandwagon appeal
Begging the Question Example

10. Either you support the president in everything he says and does or you are not a patriotic American
Dogmatism Example
Hasty Generalization
Either/Or. Example
Non sequitur Example

11. If you restrict my right to say whatever I want however I want this is the beginning of totalitarianism in America.
Slippery Slope
Sentimental Appeals Example
Bandwagon Appeal Example
Slippery Slope Example

12. 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.
Bandwagon Appeal Example
Begging the Question
Scare Tatics
Non sequitur

13. Everyone else is going out and getting drunk tonight - so you should too.
Non sequitur Example
Bandwagon Appeal Example
Straw Man
Red herring Example

14. 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.
Equivocation Example
Sentimental Appeals Example
Hasty Generalization Example
Faulty Causality

15. Even though it's only the first day - I can tell this is going to be a boring course.
Hasty Generalization Example
Begging the Question Example
Faulty Analogy
Ad hominem Example

16. 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.
Appeals to False Authority Example
Sentimental Appeals Example
Red Herring
Non sequitur Example

17. 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.
Bandwagon Appeal Example
Straw Man
Scare Tatics
Equivocation

18. 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.
Equivocation Example
Faulty Analogy Example
Hasty Generalization Example
Scare Tatics Example

19. This argument gives a lie an honest appearance - by insisting on What is only partially or formally true.
Equivocation
Equivocation Example
Bandwagon Appeal Example
Begging the Question Example

20. 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.
Non sequitur Example
Red Herring
Hasty Generalization Example
Dogmatism

21. She is feminist; she must hate men.
Faulty Analogy
Non sequitur Example
Either/Or. Example
Slippery Slope

22. If we can Hummers because they are bad for the environment eventually the government will ban all cars - so we should not ban hummers.
Scare Tatics Example
Equivocation Example
Ad hominem Example
Slipper Slop Example

23. You can't give me a C - I'm an A student.
Dogmatism Example
Begging the Question EX.
Hasty Generalization Example
Red Herring

24. 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.
Sentimental Appeals Example
Sentimental Appeals. Ex
Bandwagon appeal
Red Herring Example

25. Because of the possibility of a terrorist hijacking or mechanical failure - flying on a plane is too dangerous and should be avoided altogether.
Slipper Slop Example
Sentimental Appeals
Appeals to False Authority Example
Scare Tatics Example

26. This is a conclusion based on insufficient evidence. In other words - you are rushing to a conclusion before you have all the relevant facts.
Ad hominem Example
Straw Man Example
Hasty Generalization
Appeals to False Authority Example

27. I don't support the President's foreign policy; look at the disastrous way he has taken care of our domestic economy.
Equivocation Example
Begging the Question
Red herring Example
Faulty Causality Example

28. 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
Faulty Analogy
Bandwagon Appeal Example
Slippery Slope Example
Sentimental Appeals Example

29. 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
Red herring Example
Hasty Generalization
Straw Man Example

30. 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.
Ad hominem
Dogmatism
Sentimental Appeals. Ex
Appeals to False Authority

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

32. 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.
Either/Or. Example
Hasty Generalization Example
Sentimental Appeals. Ex
Begging the Question

33. 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.
Appeals to False Authority Example
Red Herring
Non sequitur Example
Slipper Slop Example

34. This is a diversionary tactic that avoid key issues - often by avoiding opposing arguments rather than addressing them.
Ad hominem Example
Ad hominem Example
Red Herring
Begging the Question EX.

35. 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.
Either/Or. Example
Ad hominem Example
Bandwagon appeal
Equivocation

36. 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.
Bandwagon Appeal Example
Slippery Slope
Appeals to False Authority Example
Non sequitur Example

37. 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.
Appeals to False Authority Example
Non sequitur Example
Slippery Slope
Scare Tatics

38. Green Peace's strategies aren't effective because they are all dirty - lazy hippies.
Equivocation Example
Ad hominem Example
Faulty Causality
Non sequitur

39. I can't be guilty of embezzlement; I'm an honest person.
Red herring Example
Scare Tatics
Red Herring Example
Begging the Question Example

40. I gave you everything i had to give to you(right then and there when you asked me - but of course everything I could have given you if I took into account what I maintain elsewhere.)
Either/Or. Example
Red herring Example
Equivocation Example
Bandwagon Appeal Example

41. This sort of argument relies on the faulty assumption that because one event follows another - the second necessarily causes the first
Faulty Causality
Equivocation Example
Faulty Analogy Example
Red Herring Example

42. Everyone else is displaying a flag - or a support our troops sticker on their car - therefore - you should too.
Ad hominem Example
Red Herring Example
Straw Man Example
Bandwagon Appeal Example

43. Relying on manipulatively heart-warming or heart-wrenching appeals to emotion to win support for what has not been otherwise rationally justified.
Sentimental Appeals
Scare Tatics Example
Non sequitur Example
Scare Tatics

44. 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.
Either/Or. Example
Begging the Question
Slippery Slope Example
Hasty Generalization Example

45. There's no way that anyone can argue that abortion is anything other than murder.
Equivocation Example
Slipper Slop Example
Bandwagon Appeal Example
Dogmatism Example

46. 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.
Sentimental Appeals Example
Appeals to False Authority Example
Faulty Analogy Example
Non sequitur Example

47. This fallacy of argument recommends a course of action on the grounds that everyone else is following the same path.
Slippery Slope Example
Bandwagon appeal
Non sequitur
Non sequitur Example

48. 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.
Red Herring
Faulty Analogy
Equivocation
Ad hominem Example

49. 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.
Appeals to False Authority Example
Non sequitur
Faulty Causality Example
Sentimental Appeals Example

50. This is a conclusion that oversimplifies the argument by reducing it only to two sides or choices.
Either/Or. Example
Either/Or.
Appeals to False Authority Example
Slippery Slope