The Appeal to Force

Adults use the fallacy more subtly.

"If you don't support the spending bill to develop better airplanes, our enemies will think we are weak and will attack us at some point, killing millions." The person offering this argument is using psychological pressure to get agreement. Ther...

Adults use three tools to decide what to believe:

• The context in which you are introduced to new information will guide your judgment to accept it.
• The tendency to measure new information against existing knowledge.

There was a study in 2009 by the psychiatrists Friese and Hoffman on the topic. They discovered that people with little ability to self-regulate end up looking for “everything or nothing” relationships.

That is, their impulsiveness, their hunger to be “fed,” doesn’t accept excuses