Bandwagon

Fallacy: Bandwagon

Latin name: Argumentum ad Populum

Other names: Appeal to Popularity, Argument by Consensus, Authority of the Many

Description:

“(logic) A fallacious argument that concludes a proposition to be true because many or all people believe it; it alleges that" If many believe so, it is so."
If something were to be popular, even if it was wrong others would believe it, or go with it because other people are.


Format:

Idea I is popular.
Therefore, I is correct.


Example 1

Jake hates soup, it tastes bad to him. Everyone around him likes soup, they are all eating it. Jake begins to eat soup because everyone else is.

Example 2

Karl knows that the capital of Canada is Ottawa. His group of friends all say that the capital of Canada is Toronto. Karl now says that the capital of Canada is Toronto, even though it isn’t right.

Example 3
In the media:
Online dating: Everyone’s doing it
A dot-com business that actually makes a profit

By Bob Sullivan
Technology correspondent
MSNBC


Sept. 19, 2002 - Selling love over the Internet seems like the perfect business model. Virtually all your content is donated for free. Your customers are motivated by the strongest urges mother nature can conjure up. And they think $20 a month is cheap compared to the price of a drink at a singles’ bar. Until recently, there had been a catch — the weird factor. But that’s a distant memory now, since it seems everyone’s doing it. Virtual matchmaking has become the Internet’s third killer app, behind e-mail and the Web. Can the “mad growth,” and genuine profits, continue?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3078729/


Sources:

1- Wiktionary, "argumentum ad populum." argumentum ad populum. 26 August 2006. Wiktionary. 2 Nov 2008 en.wiktionary.org/wiki/argumentum_ad_populum