An association fallacy is an informal inductive

fallacy A fallacy is the use of invalid or otherwise faulty reasoning, or "wrong moves," in the construction of an argument which may appear stronger than it really is if the fallacy is not spotted. The term in the Western intellectual tradition was intr ...

of the hasty-generalization or red-herring type and which asserts, by irrelevant association and often by appeal to emotion, that qualities of one thing are inherently qualities of another. Two types of association fallacies are sometimes referred to as guilt by association and honor by association.

Form

In notation of

first-order logic First-order logic—also known as predicate logic, quantificational logic, and first-order predicate calculus—is a collection of formal systems used in mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. First-order logic uses quantifie ...

, this type of fallacy can be expressed as (

∃ In predicate logic, an existential quantification is a type of quantifier, a logical constant which is interpreted as "there exists", "there is at least one", or "for some". It is usually denoted by the logical operator symbol ∃, which, whe ...

''x''

∈ In mathematics, an element (or member) of a Set (mathematics), set is any one of the Equality (mathematics), distinct Mathematical object, objects that belong to that set. Sets Writing A = \ means that the elements of the set are the numbers 1, ...

''S'' : ''φ''(''x'')) ⇒ ( ∀''x'' ∈ ''S'' : ''φ''(''x'')), meaning "if there exists any ''x'' in the set ''S'' so that a property ''φ'' is true for ''x'', then for all ''x'' in ''S'' the property ''φ'' must be true." :Premise: A is a B :Premise: A is also a C :Conclusion: Therefore, all Bs are Cs The fallacy in the argument can be illustrated through the use of an

Euler diagram An Euler diagram (, ) is a diagrammatic means of representing sets and their relationships. They are particularly useful for explaining complex hierarchies and overlapping definitions. They are similar to another set diagramming technique, Ven ...

: "A" satisfies the requirement that it is part of both sets "B" and "C", but if one represents this as an Euler diagram, it can clearly be seen that it is possible that a part of set "B" is ''not'' part of set "C", refuting the conclusion that "all Bs are Cs".

Guilt by association

Examples

Some

syllogistic A syllogism ( grc-gre, συλλογισμός, ''syllogismos'', 'conclusion, inference') is a kind of logical argument that applies deductive reasoning to arrive at a conclusion based on two propositions that are asserted or assumed to be true. ...

examples of guilt by association: * John is a con artist. John has black hair. Therefore, all people with black hair are con artists. * Lyle is a crooked salesman. Lyle proposes a monorail. Therefore, the proposed monorail is

folly In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings. Eighteenth-cent ...

. * Country X is a dangerous country. Country X has a national

postal service The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal syst ...

. Therefore, countries with national postal services are dangerous. * Simon and Karl live in

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and th ...

, and they are both petty criminals. Jill lives in Nashville; therefore, Jill is a petty criminal.

Guilt by association as an ''ad hominem'' fallacy

Guilt by association can sometimes also be a type of ''

ad hominem ''Ad hominem'' (), short for ''argumentum ad hominem'' (), refers to several types of arguments, most of which are fallacious. Typically, this term refers to a rhetorical strategy where the speaker attacks the character, motive, or some othe ...

'' fallacy, if the argument attacks a person because of the similarity between the views of someone making an argument and other proponents of the argument. This form of the argument is as follows: * Group A makes a particular claim. * Group B, which is currently viewed negatively by some, makes the same claim as Group A. * Therefore, Group A is viewed as associated with Group B, and is now also viewed negatively. An example of this fallacy would be "My opponent for office just received an endorsement from the Puppy Haters Association. Is that the sort of person you would want to vote for?"

Honor by association

The counterpart of "guilt by association" is honor by association, where one claims that someone or something must be reputable because of the people or organizations that are related to it or otherwise support it. Examples: * Citizens of Country X won more

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

s, gold medals, and literary awards than citizens of Country Y. Therefore, a citizen of Country X is superior to a citizen of Country Y. * Gary has a voice type and pronunciation which gives a trustworthy impression. Gary is a car salesman and says to customers that his cars are in good condition. Therefore, the cars are in good condition. * In many advertisements, businesses heavily use the principle of honor by association. For example, an attractive spokesperson will say that a specific product is good. The attractiveness of the spokesperson gives the product good associations.

Galileo gambit

A form of the association fallacy often used by those denying a well-established scientific or historical proposition is the so-called Galileo gambit. The argument runs thus:

Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...

was ridiculed in his time for his scientific observations, but was later acknowledged to be right; the proponent argues that since their non-mainstream views are provoking ridicule and rejection from other scientists, they will later be recognized as correct, like Galileo. The gambit is flawed in that being ridiculed does not necessarily correlate with being right and that many people who have been ridiculed in history were, in fact, wrong. Similarly,

Carl Sagan Carl Edward Sagan (; ; November 9, 1934December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on ex ...

has stated that people laughed at geniuses such as

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus * lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo * es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón * pt, Cristóvão Colombo * ca, Cristòfor (or ) * la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...

and the Wright brothers, but "they also laughed at

Bozo the Clown Bozo the Clown, sometimes billed as "Bozo, The World's Most Famous Clown", is a clown character created for children's entertainment, widely popular in the second half of the 20th century. He was introduced in the United States in 1946, and to te ...

Citations

General and cited references

* ''Fallacies: Classical and Contemporary Readings'', edited by Hans V. Hansen and Robert C. Pinto (1995).
Bibliography on Fallacies

External links

at Guilt by Association

at Propagandacritic.com

at Propagandacritic.com {{Fallacies Deception Genetic fallacies