Submitted by Dr. Anya on
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A lot of people believe X.
Therefore, X must be true.
The ad populum fallacy is the appeal to the popularity of a claim as a reason for accepting it.
The number of people who believe a claim is irrelevant to its truth. Fifty million people can be wrong. In fact, millions of people have been wrong about many things: that the Earth is flat and motionless, for example, and that the stars are lights shining through holes in the sky.
The ad populum fallacy is also referred to as the bandwagon fallacy, the appeal to the mob, the democratic fallacy, and the appeal to popularity.
The ad populum fallacy is seductive because it appeals to our desire to belong and to conform, to our desire for security and safety. It is a common appeal in advertising and politics. A clever manipulator of the masses will try to seduce those who blithely assume that the majority is always right. Also seduced by this appeal will be the insecure, who may be made to feel guilty if they oppose the majority or feel strong by joining forces with large numbers of other uncritical thinkers.
Example #1:
Up until the late 16th century, most people believed that the earth was the center of the universe. This was seen as enough of a reason back then to accept this as true.
Explanation: The geocentric model was an observation (limited) and faith-based, but most who accepted the model did so based on the common and accepted belief of the time, not on their own observations, calculations, and/or reasoning. It was people like Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler, who refused to appeal to the common belief and uncovered a truth not obvious to the rest of humanity.
Example #2:
Mark: Do you believe in virgin births?
Sue: You mean that babies are born virgins?
Mark: I mean birth without fertilization.
Sue: No.
Mark: How could you not believe in virgin births? Roughly two billion people believe in them, don’t you think you should reconsider your position?
Explanation: Anyone who believes in virgin births does not have empirical evidence for his or her belief. This is a claim accepted on faith, which is an individual and subjective form of accepting information, that should not have any effect on your beliefs. Don’t forget that there was a time that the common beliefs included a flat earth, earth-centered universe, and demon possession as the cause of most illness.
Exception: Sometimes there are good reasons to think that the common belief is held by people who do have good evidence for believing. For example, if virtually all of earth scientists accept that the universe is approximately 13.7 billion years old, it is wise to believe them because they will be able to present objective and empirical evidence as to why they believe.
Tip: History has shown that those who break away from the common beliefs are the ones who change the course of history. Be a leader, not a follower.
Sources:
http://skepdic.com/adpopulum.html
https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/logicalfallacies/Appeal-to-Common-Belief
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