# Appeal to common practice

*Also called: Everyone does it*

- **Cluster:** Crowds and prestige — Numbers, custom and status standing in for reasons
- **Page:** https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/common-practice/
- **In Arabic:** https://fallacy.wiki/ar/fallacy/common-practice.md
- **Licence:** CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

## What it is

Justifying an action because it is widely done, rather than because it is right.

## In the wild

> Everybody rounds up their hours on timesheets, so it is fine.

## How to answer it

Separate frequency from justification. Ask whether the practice would survive being stated openly.

## Origin and naming

The everyday version of ad populum aimed at conduct rather than belief: 'everyone does it' offered as a permit. Textbooks have listed it for decades, usually as a cousin of the bandwagon and of 'two wrongs make a right'.

## More places it shows up

- Every shop on this street leaves the excess packaging loose on the pavement, so our pile is nothing unusual.
- All the parents let their kids keep phones at the dinner table; being strict about it would only make you the outlier.
- Everyone in the league parks across two spaces on match day, so one more car makes no difference.
- Every freelancer I know inflates the estimate a bit to cover delays — it is simply how the work gets quoted.

## How to spot it

- Listen for the shift from 'is it right?' to 'how common is it?' — the second question quietly answers the first.
- Notice when the defence would embarrass its user if read aloud at a meeting: secrecy is doing the moral work.
- Notice when the defence collapses the moment one person in the room says they do not do it.

## Nearby

- [Argumentum ad populum](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/ad-populum.md)
- [Two wrongs make a right](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/two-wrongs.md)
- [Appeal to tradition](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/tradition.md)

## Read more

- [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy](https://iep.utm.edu/fallacy/)
- [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argumentum_ad_populum)

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From fallacy.wiki — a bilingual field guide to 91 logical fallacies, published by phi holdings. Licensed CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/): reuse freely with attribution to fallacy.wiki.