Examples
This fallacy is sometimes committed while trying to convince a person that a widely popular thought is true.
- Nine out of ten of my constituents oppose the bill, therefore it is a bad idea.
- Nine out of ten of my fellow congressmen favor the bill, therefore it is a good idea.
Other examples:
- Fifty million Elvis fans can't be wrong.
- Everyone's doing it.
- In a court of law, the jury vote by majority; therefore they will always make the correct decision.
- Google gives more hits when this spelling is applied, therefore this has to be the correct spelling.
Read more about this topic: Argumentum Ad Populum
Famous quotes containing the word examples:
“In the examples that I here bring in of what I have [read], heard, done or said, I have refrained from daring to alter even the smallest and most indifferent circumstances. My conscience falsifies not an iota; for my knowledge I cannot answer.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“No rules exist, and examples are simply life-savers answering the appeals of rules making vain attempts to exist.”
—André Breton (1896–1966)
“It is hardly to be believed how spiritual reflections when mixed with a little physics can hold people’s attention and give them a livelier idea of God than do the often ill-applied examples of his wrath.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)