Logical Fallacies Quiz

You can’t believe what she says about recycling; she drives a gas-guzzling truck.

• Ad Hominem

• Appeal to Doubtful Authority

• False Dilemma

• Slippery Slope

• Hasty Generalization

Answer explanation

Explanation:

An Ad Hominem fallacy occurs when someone attacks the person making an argument instead of addressing the argument itself.

How It Applies Here:

“You can’t believe what she says about recycling; she drives a gas-guzzling truck.”

• Instead of responding to what she says about recycling (the argument), the speaker attacks her personal behavior—driving a gas-guzzling truck.

• The speaker implies that her actions make her argument invalid, which is a personal attack rather than a logical rebuttal.

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Drinking coffee once made me anxious, so coffee is dangerous for everyone.

• Ad Hominem

• Appeal to Doubtful Authority

• False Dilemma

• Slippery Slope

• Hasty Generalization

Answer explanation

A Hasty Generalization fallacy happens when someone makes a broad conclusion based on insufficient or limited evidence.

How It Applies Here:

“Drinking coffee once made me anxious, so coffee is dangerous for everyone.”

• The speaker uses one personal experience (“coffee once made me anxious”) to draw a universal conclusion (“coffee is dangerous for everyone”).

• This leap from one example to an entire population lacks sufficient evidence, making it a hasty or sweeping generalization.

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If we let one student use their phone, soon the whole school will be on TikTok all day.

• Ad Hominem

• Appeal to Doubtful Authority

• False Dilemma

• Slippery Slope

• Hasty Generalization

Answer explanation

A Slippery Slope fallacy occurs when someone argues that a relatively small first step will inevitably lead to a chain of increasingly extreme consequences, without solid evidence that those outcomes will actually happen.

How It Applies Here:

“If we let one student use their phone, soon the whole school will be on TikTok all day.”

• The statement assumes that allowing one small action (one student using a phone) will inevitably escalate into an extreme scenario (everyone being distracted on TikTok all day).

• There’s no logical proof or causal link between the small event and the exaggerated conclusion — just fear of a “slippery” downward slide.

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You should try this diet—my favorite influencer swears by it!

• Ad Hominem

• Appeal to Doubtful Authority

• False Dilemma

• Slippery Slope

• Hasty Generalization

Answer explanation

Explanation:

An Appeal to Doubtful Authority fallacy happens when someone uses the opinion of a person who is not an expert in a relevant field to support their argument.

How It Applies Here:

“You should try this diet—my favorite influencer swears by it!”

• The speaker is relying on the opinion of a social media influencer, not a nutrition or medical expert, to justify a diet’s effectiveness.

• While the influencer might be popular, fame does not equal expertise, making this an appeal to an unqualified authority.

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Either you’re part of the solution, or you’re part of the problem.

• Ad Hominem

• Appeal to Doubtful Authority

• False Dilemma

• Slippery Slope

• Hasty Generalization

Answer explanation

A False Dilemma (also called a False Dichotomy) occurs when someone presents only two options as if they are the only possible choices, even though other reasonable alternatives exist.

How It Applies Here:

“Either you’re part of the solution, or you’re part of the problem.”

• The statement suggests there are only two sides: you either completely agree and take action (“part of the solution”) or you are against the cause (“part of the problem”).

• In reality, many other possibilities exist — someone could be neutral, uninformed, partially supportive, or simply uninvolved.

• By forcing a black-and-white choice, the speaker oversimplifies a complex issue.

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My horoscope said I’d have a bad day, and then I got a flat tire, so it must be true.

• Ad Hominem

• Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

• False Dilemma

• Slippery Slope

• Hasty Generalization

Answer explanation

Explanation:

A Post Hoc fallacy occurs when someone assumes that because one event happened after another, the first event must have caused the second — even though there’s no real evidence of a causal connection.

How It Applies Here:

“My horoscope said I’d have a bad day, and then I got a flat tire, so it must be true.”

• The person assumes that the flat tire happened because of the horoscope prediction.

• The two events are coincidental, not causally related — the flat tire didn’t happen because of the horoscope; it just happened after reading it.

• This reasoning mistakes correlation for causation.

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No one has proved ghosts don’t exist, so they must be real.

• Ad Hominem

• Appeal to Doubtful Authority

• Circular Reasoning

• Slippery Slope

• Hasty Generalization

Answer explanation

Explanation:

“No one has proved ghosts don’t exist, so they must be real.”

This statement assumes the conclusion (ghosts are real) is true because the speaker believes it hasn’t been disproved.

In other words, it uses its own claim as proof — a circular argument — rather than providing actual evidence.

Why It Fits “Circular Reasoning”:

• The reasoning goes in a loop:

  • Premise: Ghosts must be real because no one has proved they aren’t.

  • Conclusion: Therefore, ghosts are real.

• There’s no new evidence introduced — the conclusion merely restates the premise in different words.

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I saw two kids from that school misbehave, so the whole school must be terrible.

• Ad Hominem

• Appeal to Doubtful Authority

• False Dilemma

• Slippery Slope

• Hasty Generalization

Answer explanation

Explanation:

A Hasty Generalization occurs when someone makes a broad or sweeping conclusion based on too little evidence or a small sample size.

How It Applies Here:

“I saw two kids from that school misbehave, so the whole school must be terrible.”

• The speaker uses the behavior of just two students to judge an entire school.

• This reasoning jumps to a general conclusion without sufficient evidence — it assumes that what’s true of a few individuals applies to everyone in the group.

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I got a bad grade because the teacher hates me.

• Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc

• Appeal to Doubtful Authority

• False Dilemma

• Slippery Slope

• Hasty Generalization

Answer explanation

How It Applies Here:

“I got a bad grade because the teacher hates me.”

• The speaker assumes the reason for the bad grade is personal dislike, not their actual performance on the assignment.

• There’s no evidence that the teacher’s feelings caused the low grade — the student is confusing correlation (the teacher gave a bad grade) with causation (the teacher’s supposed hatred).

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We must ban all video games because some kids become violent after playing them.

• Ad Hominem

• Appeal to Doubtful Authority

• False Dilemma

• Post Hoc

• Hasty Generalization

Answer explanation

Explanation:

A Hasty Generalization occurs when someone makes a broad conclusion based on limited or unrepresentative evidence — assuming that what is true for a few cases is true for everyone.

How It Applies Here:

“We must ban all video games because some kids become violent after playing them.”

• The speaker takes the behavior of “some kids” and uses it to justify banning all video games for everyone.

• This leap from a small or isolated sample to a sweeping rule for all people is exactly what makes this reasoning hasty and illogical.

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