A field guide to the ways reasoning breaks
Crowds and prestige
Also called Appeal to popularity, bandwagon
Treating the number of people who hold a belief as evidence that the belief is true.
Everyone knows organic food is healthier, so it must be.
Ask what the majority is basing its view on. Popularity is a fact about people, not about the claim.
Latin for 'argument to the people'. Logicians have catalogued it since the nineteenth century under many names — appeal to the masses, bandwagon, vox populi — all pointing at the same move: the size of the crowd is offered as proof.
Half the city switched banks this year; obviously that one is the better choice, or people would not be moving.
This neighbourhood voted overwhelmingly for the measure, which shows the rest of us were wrong to doubt it.
It is the most-watched series in the country right now — critics who pan it clearly just did not understand it.
Everyone in the group chat bought one, so anything holding you back must be your own stubbornness.