Appeal to flattery

Cogito ergo sum Logic and rhetoric

Key articles

Logical fallacy Syllogism Argument

General logic

Toupee fallacy Appeal to ancient wisdom Tu quoque Enthymeme Lying by omission Fallacy of accident

Bad logic

Infinite regress Appeal to money Word magic Rapoport's Rules PIDOOMA سفسطه‌ی حد وسط v - t - e

“”L'Oreal. Because you're worth it.

—One of the most well-known appeals to flattery in advertising.

An appeal to flattery is a logical fallacy that occurs when a debater tries to compliment people into an opinion.

The fallacy is an emotional appeal and an informal fallacy.

Alternate names

• appeal to vanity
• argumentum ad vanitatem
• apple polishing
• sucking up

Form

The argument takes this form:

• Person A tells a premise that person B doesn't like.
• To make person B more favorable towards this premise, person A attempts to flatter them by telling they are intelligent/attractive/otherwise desirable.
• If person B falls for this, they agree with A.

Explanation

Someone toadies someone else in order to appeal to them and make them more favorable towards a premise that they would not like otherwise. This kind of argumentation makes use of the Dunning-Kruger effect among other things if used successfully. It is virtually always fallacious, because it never looks into facts, but only exploits the basic human need for appreciation.

Examples

• You are a smart kid, you should know you shouldn't be smoking.
  • While this is an attempt of making a valid point (smoking is unhealthy, and smoking when underage is even worse, we know that!), this argument fails to mention why smoking is actually bad, instead saying "if you are smart, you don't smoke; if you smoke, you are stupid".
• Pretty women deserve the best, let's make out!
• Doctor, as you clearly are a sharp and intelligent person, you should know that the resonance cascade allowed us to to teleport those caprian aliens to Earth's ignosphere on quasi-quantum level through pores on cheese.

External links

• See the Wikipedia article on Appeal to flattery.
• Appeal to Flattery, Bruce Thompson
• Appeal to Flattery, Agnosticism/Atheism About.com
• Appeal to Flattery, Nizkor Project