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Spot the fallacy: speed round
Name the flaw in as many short arguments as you can in sixty seconds, or take twelve untimed. Twelve fallacies, original arguments, every answer explained.
In short
A fallacy is a flaw in an argument that makes it look stronger than it is. The speed round deals short, original arguments, each carrying one of twelve common flaws, and asks you to name it from four choices. A sprint lasts sixty seconds; the untimed round is twelve arguments at your own pace, and every answer is explained.
How the round works
Each argument is built from a sentence frame written for this page, with names and places filled in from the seed, so no two rounds are the same list. The four options are the right name and three others. In the sprint, the clock is text that updates once a second and pauses if you switch tabs; keys 1 to 4 choose an option. The untimed round exists for anyone who does not want to race, including keyboard and screen-reader users.
The twelve flaws
- Ad hominem, straw man, false dilemma and slippery slope.
- Appeal to popularity, appeal to irrelevant authority and appeal to ignorance.
- False cause, hasty generalization, begging the question, tu quoque and red herring.
The names follow the site's guide to logical fallacies, which explains each with an example and describes a three-question method for finding them in real sentences.
What it cannot tell you
Naming a flaw quickly is a narrow skill. Real arguments often mix several flaws, or are weak without being fallacious at all, and spotting a fallacy never shows that the conclusion is false, only that this argument does not support it.
Sources
- Hansen, Fallacies, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Dowden, Fallacies, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Text, questions and code on this page are original to MyTestAtlas. The cited studies describe the classic procedure; none of their items is reproduced.