# False analogy

*Also called: Weak analogy, faulty comparison*

- **Cluster:** Values and premises — Hidden value claims doing the arguing
- **Page:** https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/false-analogy/
- **In Arabic:** https://fallacy.wiki/ar/fallacy/false-analogy.md
- **Licence:** CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

## What it is

Transferring a conclusion between two cases that differ in the respect that matters.

## In the wild

> A company is like a family, so no one should ever be let go.

## How to answer it

Name the feature the analogy depends on, then check whether both cases really share it.

## Origin and naming

The phrase 'false analogy' is credited to John Stuart Mill, one of the first to examine analogical reasoning in detail — his textbook case was inferring laziness from a lazy sibling. Analogy itself stays indispensable in argument; the fallacy begins where the cases diverge on the point carrying the conclusion.

## More places it shows up

- 'The brain is like a muscle — skip leg day and it atrophies' gets used to justify eight hours of mandatory trivia training, though memory and muscle differ in exactly the ways that matter here.
- A columnist argues a nation should run its budget like a household — no borrowing, ever — ignoring that governments print the currency households merely spend.
- In a meeting, a manager compares the ten-person startup to a Formula 1 pit crew and demands the same two-second release cycle.
- A viral post likens social-media moderation to burning books, though deleting a post removes nothing the author can keep elsewhere.

## How to spot it

- The analogy is vivid and the application instant; nobody pauses to name the shared feature.
- Ask 'in what respect exactly are they alike?' and the answer restates the metaphor in newer clothes.
- The comparison earns its warmth in one case and spends it in the other — check where the load bearing actually sits.

## Nearby

- [False equivalence](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/false-equivalence.md)
- [Fallacy of accident](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/accident.md)

## Read more

- [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_analogy#False_analogy)

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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.