Q 01/05

Which error is expecting heads to be 'due' after a fair coin lands tails five times in a row?

A) Conjunction fallacy

B) Gambler's fallacy

C) Hot-hand fallacy

D) Planning fallacy

Answer · why

B) Gambler's fallacy

Gambler's fallacy is also called the Monte Carlo fallacy, after a 1913 night when a roulette wheel there landed on black 26 times running. Bettors los...

Q 02/05

Mike Godwin's internet 'law' says long online arguments eventually bring a comparison to which figure?

A) Joseph Stalin

B) Julius Caesar

C) Napoleon Bonaparte

D) Adolf Hitler

Answer · why

D) Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler comparisons were so common on Usenet newsgroups that Godwin coined his rule to make people think harder before trivialising the Holocaust...

Q 03/05

William Cobbett's tale of throwing hounds off a scent with a pungent lure popularised which fallacy's name?

A) Kettle logic

B) Poisoning the well

C) Red herring

D) Texas sharpshooter

Answer · why

C) Red herring

Red herring was the name of a strong-smelling smoked fish, which Cobbett claimed in 1807 he had dragged across a trail as a boy. In an argument it mea...

Q 04/05

Which fallacy turns 'we should trim military spending a little' into 'my opponent wants us defenceless'?

A) Straw man

B) Composition

C) Reification

D) Ad nauseam

Answer · why

A) Straw man

Straw man arguments swap the real position for a weaker one that is easy to knock down. In Britain the tactic is also called an Aunt Sally, after a pu...

Q 05/05

Which object did Bertrand Russell imagine orbiting the Sun to show where the burden of proof lies?

A) A silver spoon

B) A grandfather clock

C) A china teapot

D) A pocket watch

Answer · why

C) A china teapot

A china teapot too small for any telescope to spot was Russell's example: nobody can disprove it, yet nobody is obliged to believe it. He placed its o...