Analyze several news articles for logical fallacies. Identify the types of logical fallacies you find
What will be an ideal response?
ANS: Students' answers will vary. Many statements—even those expressed by professionals, professors, and other
authorities—reflect flawed logic or faulty reasoning and contain readily identifiable logical fallacies. Moore and
Parker suggest that a "fallacy is mistake in reasoning" (2012, p. 110). Pine (1996) suggests that a logical fallacy "is
an argument that is usually psychologically persuasive but logically weak." Logical fallacies commonly appear in
the "everyday exchanges of ideas, . . . newspaper editorials, letters to the editor, political speeches, advertisements,
disagreements between people, and so on" (pp. 113–114).
Perhaps the two most common logical fallacies are confirmation bias (CB) and attribution bias (AB). In
confirmation bias, someone seeks, finds, or perceives only those reasons or evidence to support a currently held
belief; and fails to look for, notice, comprehend, or integrate reasons and evidence that challenge the validity of that
belief. Indeed, confirmation bias is commonly reflected in many college papers as students conduct literature
reviews limited to books and articles that support their theses while ignoring resources that refute them.
Manifestations of confirmation bias are apparent throughout contemporary society and, perhaps especially, in the
political, economic, and religious arenas where simplistic ideology dominates public discussion.
"An attribution bias occurs when someone systematically over- or underuses the available information
when explaining behavior" (Turner & Hewstone, 2009, p. 42). Social workers, obviously, regularly seek to explain
the causes of troubling human behavior and various social issues such as poverty, inequality, discrimination,
oppression, and genocide. We also attempt to formulate hypotheses about how best to help people resolve problems
and address issues. Although social workers encourage clients and others to participate in generating explanations
and creating hypotheses, we bring scientific knowledge and research findings into the process. In so doing, we
remain aware of our human tendencies to confirm our biases and to attribute causality based on those biases.
You might also like to view...
To President Bush's credit, he is the first United States President to:
A) ?have women in major roles in his Cabinet B) ?have an extremely diverse group of advisors C) ?commit major resources towards combating AIDS in Africa, though most of these resources are channeled to abstinence-only programming D) ?support prayer in the public school system
Nixon's reform strategy was best defined as:
A) ?supporting radical reform issues B) ?traditional conservatism C) ?expanding resources to the poor and service D) ?similar to Lyndon Johnson
Answer the following statement(s) true (T) or false (F)
The first component of the opening statement is about the agency mission.
Conceptual and theories regarding the study, which is important in
understanding the concept, is located in what part of the report? A. Results B. Methodology C. Literature review D. Discussion