Author: kristinjackvony

The Appeal to Ignorance Fallacy is an interesting one: it states that something must be true because it hasn’t been proven false. This fallacy is often used by people who believe in entities like Bigfoot, the Yeti, or the Loch Ness Monster: they will say that no one has proven that Bigfoot doesn’t exist, therefore […]

Equivocation is a technique used to mislead others through the use of imprecise language. There are many words in the English language that have more than one meaning, such as the word “light”, which could mean “bright”, or it could mean “not heavy”. It’s also possible to use equivocation by being deliberately ambiguous about time […]

You may have heard of the term “red herring” if you have ever read a mystery story. When a mystery author wants to keep their readers guessing about who the murderer is, they may throw in clues that point to another suspect. These clues are called red herrings. The Red Herring Fallacy is similar; rather […]

This month we continue our journey into logical fallacies with Circular Reasoning. Circular Reasoning can be explained in these two statements: • X is true because Y is true• Y is true because X is true A quick examination of these assertions shows that they aren’t proving anything. It’s possible that neither X nor Y […]

The Hasty Generalization Fallacy is a common one in software testing. But before we look at its impact on testing, let’s learn what it is. This fallacy occurs when someone draws a conclusion based on just one example, or a few examples. You may have fallen for the Hasty Generalization Fallacy as a child when […]

This month, I’m taking a look at the Bandwagon Fallacy. This fallacy happens when someone makes a choice because “everyone else is doing it”. When you were a child, you may have tried to convince your mother that you should be allowed to do something because all of your friends were allowed to do it. […]

In this installment of my Logical Fallacies series, I’m taking a look at the False Dichotomy fallacy. The False Dichotomy fallacy is used when someone presents two opposing options as if they are the only possibilities; that no middle way exists. This is detrimental to progress because it limits people’s thinking; they feel that they […]

This month I’m continuing my look at logical fallacies with the Straw Man Fallacy. The Straw Man Fallacy occurs when someone takes another person’s position and exaggerates it in an extreme way, or makes a counter-assertion that is not relevant to the first person’s position. This is easier to explain with examples, so let’s take […]

As you can no doubt guess from the title, this is the third post on my series about logical fallacies. (You can find the first two posts here and here.) Logical fallacies are important for testers to learn about because it can help keep them from making mistakes in judgment that will impact their testing […]

In last month’s post, I introduced a new theme for my blog posts in 2023! Each month, I’ll be examining a different type of logical fallacy, and how the fallacy relates to software testing. This month we’ll be learning about the Sunk-Cost Fallacy. The Sunk-Cost Fallacy happens when someone has made a decision that turns […]