Question 1

The American Tobacco Institute claims that e-cigarettes are perfectly safe. This source for the claim is

Accepted Answer

The American Tobacco Institute has a clear profit motive in promoting e-cigarettes as safe, making their claim inherently biased and not credible without further independent research to verify their claims.

Question 2

You claim that county supervisor Reynolds is corrupt, and you provide convincing evidence to support this claim. Reynolds, however, accuses you of being biased without providing any evidence. This illustrates

Accepted Answer

Reynolds' accusation is an ad hominem attack because it targets your character or motive instead of addressing the evidence you provided. This is also known as an ad hominem fallacy, where the argument is directed against the person rather than the position they are maintaining. Since an ad hominem attack is inherently personal, it qualifies as a personal attack as well. Therefore, all the options are correct.

Question 3

Your latest issue of Cosmopolitan includes a survey of readers on jealousy. You are asked to mail in your responses, and 19,000 responses are received. The results appear in the next issue. The results cannot validly be generalized to a population beyond the readership of Cosmo because

Accepted Answer

The sample is self-selected, meaning that only people who chose to respond to the survey were included. This creates a biased sample that cannot be generalized to the entire population. The sample size of 19,000 responses is actually quite large and should be adequate for making generalizations, but the self-selection issue overrides that consideration. Choice A is incorrect because the sample size is actually quite large. Choice C is incorrect because surveys can gather more than just testimonials, but this survey may have been designed primarily to gather personal stories rather than representative data. Choice D is not relevant to the issue of generalizability.

Question 4

You are asked by a speaker to accept her point of view because most people already do, as indicated on several national surveys using random samples of more than 1,000 subjects. She has committed a fallacy called

Accepted Answer

The speaker has committed the fallacy of ad populum or "bandwagon appeal," which argues that something is true or valid simply because a lot of people believe it. The fact that most people already hold the speaker's point of view does not necessarily make it true or reasonable.

Question 5

When three states reinstituted capital punishment, the number of murders went down. In two states where capital punishment was repealed, murder rates went up. "Capital punishment obviously deters murder" is a fallacious claim based on this evidence because

Accepted Answer

The claim that "Capital punishment obviously deters murder" is fallacious because the evidence provided only shows a correlation and is insufficient to assert causation. Additionally, the evidence is limited to a self-selected sample of states, which further weakens the argument. Therefore, both options A and B are correct.

Question 6

John Jacobs, astrophysicist, claims that earthquakes can be predicted. This is an example of

Accepted Answer

While John Jacobs may be an expert in astrophysics, his claim about predicting earthquakes is outside of his field and is therefore an example of an expert quoted out of his field.

Question 7

"The National Anthem is sung by more than 50 million people each year" is an example of

Accepted Answer

While this statistic may seem impressive, it is questionable because it does not provide any context or evidence to support its accuracy. There is no information on how this number was calculated or where the data came from. It is important to question statistics and ensure they are reliable before accepting them as true.

Question 8

Fallacies relate to persuasive speeches but are not relevant for informative speeches.

Accepted Answer

Fallacies can occur in both persuasive and informative speeches. While persuasive speeches aim to convince the audience to adopt a certain viewpoint or take action, informative speeches aim to educate and inform the audience about a topic. However, even in informative speeches, fallacies can still weaken the speaker's credibility and the audience's trust in the information presented.

Question 9

An argument is the thought process of drawing conclusions from evidence.

Accepted Answer

The answer of An argument is the thought process of...

Question 10

A syllogism is a form of informal logic.

Accepted Answer

A syllogism is a form of deductive reasoning or formal logic, where a conclusion is drawn from two given or assumed propositions (premises).

Question 11

Grounds in the Toulmin model of argument represent the backing for the warrant.

Accepted Answer

Grounds in the Toulmin model of argument represent the evidence or data that supports the claim, not the backing for the warrant. The backing in the Toulmin model provides support for the warrant.

Question 12

The basic structure of an argument in formal logic is called a syllogism.

Accepted Answer

This statement is true. A syllogism consists of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion. It is a deductive argument that uses reasoning to draw conclusions from given premises.

Question 13

The credibility of evidence refers to its believability as determined by consistency and accuracy.

Accepted Answer

The credibility of evidence is based on its consistency and accuracy, meaning that it is believable and reliable.

Question 14

Accuracy as an element of credibility of evidence means that what a source of information says and does are in agreement, and accuracy means that the evidence has no error.

Accepted Answer

Accuracy is indeed an element of credibility of evidence that refers to the consistency between what a source says and does and the absence of errors in the evidence presented.

Question 15

"Studies show" is a perfectly acceptable citation of evidence to support a claim.

Accepted Answer

A proper citation of evidence requires specific details about the studies, such as the authors, title, publication date, and where it was published, to allow verification and further exploration.

Question 16

An ad hominem attack and an ad hominem fallacy are really the same thing.

Accepted Answer

An ad hominem attack is an attack on a person instead of their argument or position. An ad hominem fallacy is specifically a type of logical fallacy where someone attacks the person making the argument rather than the argument itself. So while an ad hominem attack is a real thing, not all attacks on a person's character or reputation in an argument are necessarily logical fallacies.

Question 17

A margin of error of 4% means that the poll is never off by more than 4% from the actual results if the entire population were surveyed.

Accepted Answer

A margin of error of 4% means that there is a possibility that the poll results could be off by up to 4% in either direction. It does not guarantee that the poll will never be off by more than 4%.

Question 18

Research shows that ideologically leaning Internet news sources have a strong biasing effect that produces a distorted understanding of evidence and promotes inaccurate beliefs.

Accepted Answer

Several studies have shown that ideologically slanted news sources can lead to a biased understanding of information and promote inaccurate beliefs, particularly when compared to more neutral sources. This is often referred to as the "echo chamber" effect, where people are only exposed to information that confirms their pre-existing beliefs, leading to a reinforcing cycle of confirmation bias.

Question 19

The more people who support a belief, the stronger is the argument and its validity.

Accepted Answer

The number of people supporting a belief does not necessarily make it valid or true. Truth is not determined by the majority opinion.

Question 20

A survey's margin of error increases as the size of the sample surveyed increases.

Accepted Answer

The margin of error typically decreases as the size of the sample surveyed increases, because a larger sample size provides a more accurate representation of the population.

Quiz 13: Argument, Reasoning, and Evidence