Hey what’s up guys! Are you ready for another dose of good thinking? This week we’ll be wrapping up this mini-series we’ve been doing on the Emotional Appeals, but before we dive in, I wanted to share another podcast review. This one is from Rowena D., who just so happens to be one of my dearest friends! She says, …
Thank you so much for leaving reviews and for sharing the podcast - truly, it means the world to me, and it helps get the word out that you don’t have to be fooled by bad thinking!
Ok, let’s dive into today’s fallacy - the Appeal to Ignorance. The Appeal to Ignorance happens when someone insists that something must be true just b/c it can’t be or hasn’t been proven false, or b/c the other party doesn’t know that it’s false. The Appeal to Ignorance is when someone tries to convince you to accept a conclusion based on assumptions or guesses rather than providing real evidence for their conclusion.
Here’s a really simple example: “I believe in leprechauns b/c nobody has ever been able to prove they aren’t real.” Ok, well… Just b/c they haven’t been disproven doesn’t mean leprechauns are real. I would actually need to provide proof that leprechauns ARE real to make this a good argument.
Or how about this example: When parents tell their little kids not to get out of bed at night or the monster under their bed will get them. Aww..that’s kind of sad, but it’s appealing to their ignorance. They can’t prove that there is or isn’t a monster under their bed so they’re just forced to believe the parent. And actually, this one is also an Appeal to Fear. They’re trying to keep the child in bed by making them afraid of an imaginary monster. Now, hopefully this doesn’t really happen very much where parents are telling this to their kids, but you get the point of the example.
Here’s a really common phrase that we use commonly, but it’s actually an appeal to ignorance fallacy: “No news is good news” Is it really? Have you ever had a friend or family member that you haven’t been in touch with for a while and b/c you haven’t heard anything negative from them, you think everything their life is going great…only to find out later that they’re going through a really rough time and they’ve actually been struggling! The absence of evidence that something is happening doesn’t mean it’s not happening!
Or how about this one…if you haven’t heard this yet in your life, you will at some point! “You can’t prove that God exists, so therefore, He doesn’t.”
Or, “You can’t prove that there’s no such thing as aliens, so I think they’re real.”
What’s wrong with the thinking here: It lacks the real evidence that’s needed to be a real argument. When someone makes an Appeal to Ignorance, what they’re actually doing is shifting the responsibility onto the other person to prove whatever they’re saying is NOT true. The person isn’t actually proving something, they’re just pointing out that we don’t know something. The reality is this: just b/c we can’t disprove something neither means that it’s true NOR that it’s false. It’s nothing more than someone making an empty claim and expecting you to believe it. To be a good argument, it has to actually be backed up by solid evidence.
Another way we commit the Appeal to Ignorance fallacy to OURSELVES is when we make assumptions.
For example: “my wife must love country music, b/c she hasn’t asked me to turn it off yet”
Or how about this assumption: “They never say hi to me, so they must be rude & unfriendly.”
Or how about this one that’s super common, “They’re a Republican or they’re a Democrat, so they must ______ think that/believe that/hate this/love that '' Whether or not we’ve actually seen or heard them do or say that thing! So you see how we make assumptions based on ignorance?
Interestingly, the understanding of this fallacy is exactly why our justice system operates on the principle of “innocent until proven guilty”. It’s very difficult to prove you didn’t do something, so the burden of proof is on the other party to provide real evidence that you DID do something.
Question to ask yourself: “Is this thing true just b/c nobody has proven it isn’t?”… *repeat*
Ok, join me next episode when I’ll be talking about the Appeal to Possibility.
Remember: When you learn HOW to think, you will no longer fall prey to those who are trying to tell you what THEY want you to think and it all starts with asking one simple question: “Is that really true?”
