With all of these types of argument, the arguer attempts to get the other party to agree with their position through a strategy other than communicating the position logically. You might notice the similarity between this and a few other fallacies, like appeal to emotion and appeal to authority. The bandwagon fallacy and other logical fallaciesĪnother name for the bandwagon fallacy is appeal to the masses. Or consider how quickly factually incorrect memes make their way around social media. Think about how Galileo’s work supporting Copernicus’s heliocentric model of the universe was initially met with criticism for going against the widely accepted geocentric model. Remember, a belief’s popularity doesn’t make it true. Don’t let your house be a target-subscribe to Spylux and keep your home safe.Īnd sometimes, all it does is spread misinformation. Eight out of ten homes are equipped with Spylux Home Security system.Here’s a quick bandwagon fallacy example meant to create FOMO: When it’s employed in advertising, it often pushes consumers to buy a product this way. It can also provoke FOMO, or the fear of missing out, in readers and listeners. This isn’t the only way the bandwagon fallacy works. Your brain sees other people doing something and goes, Hey, everybody else is doing it-that many people can’t be wrong, can they? It makes decision-making easier by eliminating the need to think critically about the topic at hand. This is also the principle that drives us to succumb to peer pressure. In fact, the Solomon Asch conformity experiment found that this drive is so strong that people will actually choose incorrect answers to simple questions after watching others make the same incorrect choices. Human beings have a drive to conform to group behaviors. How does the bandwagon fallacy work?Įssentially, the bandwagon fallacy makes listeners and readers question any opposition they have to the position being discussed. It can also be used to make a position seem more appealing by exaggerating its popularity. The bandwagon fallacy is often used to justify or normalize a specific position. Other fallacies of relevance include the ad hominem fallacy and the red herring fallacy. That means it’s illogical because the “proof” that something is true-its popularity-has no actual impact on whether it’s true. The fallacy lies in the claim that because something is popular, it must be effective, true, or otherwise positive.Ĭategorizing it further, the bandwagon fallacy is a fallacy of relevance. In other words, there’s nothing inherently illogical about claiming that something is popular, positive, or effective because it’s enjoyed by many. The bandwagon fallacy is an informal fallacy, which means that the illogical part of a bandwagon argument is its content, not its construction. A similar phrase, “the bandwagon effect,” refers to individuals joining social movements in response to the movements becoming more mainstream. The bandwagon fallacy gets its name from the nineteenth-century practice of political supporters jumping onto their parties’ bandwagons-literal wagons used to transport musical bands at rallies and parades. It’s okay to cheat on exams because everybody does it.Everybody in our family goes to Georgetown for undergrad, so it only makes sense that you do too.It’s the best-selling phone right now the numbers don’t lie.
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