Red Herring

What is Red Herring?

• Changing the Topic

• Distracting Someone

• Making an excuse

• Teaching Life lessons

You promised me yesterday that you were going to take care of this task.

Oh yeah, that. Actually, I’m working on a really cool project now, want to see some screenshots?

This conversation is an example of a Red Herring Fallacy.

• True

• False

You've only ever lived in the city. The issues that matter to America's heartland are clearly beyond your comprehension. This is an example of a Red Herring Fallacy.

• True

• False

Which logical fallacy's definition is "something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important question?"

• Red Herring

• Circular Reasoning

• Loaded Question

irrelevant information is presented alongside relevant information, drawing attention from that relevant information.

• circular reasoning

• strawman

• red herring

• slippery slope

If you are answering a question by changing the subject, you are using ____.

• False Dilemma

• Genetic Fallacy

• Straw Man

• Red Herring “Smoke-

  screen”

What type of fallacy diverts the audience's attention with a false argument?

Sally is asking Sam why he decided to buy a bunch of junk food when they had agreed to try to save money. Sam’s response is that Sally bought a new video game last week so she shouldn’t be criticizing him.

• Red Herring

• Circular Reasoning

• False Analogy

• Straw Man

What is a Red Herring fallacy

• intentionally misrepresenting an opponent’s position or claim with a more easily deniable position and may involve oversimplifying, omitting, or distorting details

• inappropriately suggests one action will automatically lead to a chain of disastrous or undesirable action(s)/event(s)

•  the idea is to attack the character or the circumstances of the opposing side  to distract from the argument.

• misleads or distracts the reader's’ attention from the original topic with irrelevant information

Justin's mom gets his phone bill and he has gone over the limit. Justin begins talking to her about how hard his math class is and how well he did on a test today.

• False Premise

• Straw Man

• Red Herring

• Slippery Slope