False balance (also called fake balance, the balance fallacy, and bothsidesism) occurs when multiple things (like theories) are presented as more equal to each other in some regard (like level of supporting evidence) than they really are. For example, false balance occurs when a journalist presents the baseless opinion of a random layperson as …
Hofstadter’s law is the adage that “It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law”. This means that people tend to underestimate how long things will take them to do, even when they try to account for their tendency to underestimate this. Hofstadter’s law has implications across many …
The appeal to authority (also known as the argument from authority, authority fallacy, appeal to expertise, appeal to expert opinion, and argumentum ad verecundiam) is a logical fallacy that occurs when a claim is assumed to be true because it was made by a perceived authority figure. In addition, the appeal to authority is …
The outcome bias (or outcome effect) is a cognitive bias that leads people to judge decisions mainly based on their outcomes, in a way that’s irrelevant to the true quality of those decisions. Accordingly, the outcome bias can cause people to judge good decisions as being bad if they lead to negative outcomes, and …
The Picard principle is the adage that “It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness; that is life.” This principle denotes that even if you follow the best course of action available to you, you can sometimes still end up with a negative outcome, such as failure …
The action bias is a cognitive bias that causes people to favor action over inaction, without properly considering the outcomes that this will bring. For example, the action bias can drive someone to make unnecessary changes to their investment portfolio, even if it would be better for them to do nothing. The action bias …
The platinum rule is a moral principle which denotes that you should treat others the way they want to be treated. For example, the platinum rule denotes that if someone wants you to leave them alone, then you should do that. The platinum rule can be useful in many situations, but it’s important to …
Begging the question (also called petitio principii or circular reasoning) is a logical fallacy that occurs when an argument’s premise depends on or is equivalent to the argument’s conclusion. In other words, an argument begs the question if one or more of its premises assume that the argument’s conclusion is necessarily true. For example, …
The Shirky principle is the adage that “institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution”. More broadly, it can also be characterized as the adage that “every entity tends to prolong the problem it is solving”. For example, the Shirky principle means that a government agency that’s meant to …
A snuck premise is a controversial and unsupported assumption that someone includes in their argument as if it’s necessarily true. For example, if someone says “the problem with this immoral law is that it will have negative consequences”, the premise that the law is immoral can be considered snuck, if it’s controversial and unsupported …