Why We Argue Badly — Biases, Egos, and Ad Hominem Attacks
✍️ Inspired by Logically Fallacious by Bo Bennett, PhD
(Direct quotations reproduced from the Academic Edition, 2020)
🌍 The Human Brain: Brilliantly Biased
Your brain is the best tool evolution ever built — and also the most unreliable narrator you’ll ever meet.
As Bo Bennett explains:
“In the early 1970s, two behavioral researchers, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, pioneered the field of behavioral economics through their work with cognitive biases and heuristics, which like logical fallacies, can affect the reasoning process.”
Simply put — a bias is a built-in mental shortcut. It helps you make quick decisions but often steers you off the road of rationality.
🧩 Bias vs. Fallacy
Bo clarifies the difference:
“The main difference, however, is that logical fallacies require an argument whereas cognitive biases and heuristics refer to a problematic pattern of thinking.”
In other words:
- A bias is a faulty thought pattern.
- A fallacy is a faulty argument.
Your brain might fall for a bias — but you commit a fallacy when you try to justify it logically.
🎢 Example: The Bandwagon Effect
Bo gives a perfect example using the bandwagon effect, one of the most common biases:
“This cognitive bias demonstrates the tendency to believe things because many other people believe them. This cognitive bias can be found in the logical fallacy, appeal to popularity.”
He illustrates:
“Everybody is doing X. Therefore, X must be the right thing to do.”
When this bias turns into an argument, it becomes fallacious reasoning.
Believing something because it’s popular isn’t logic — it’s comfort.
💡 Cognitive Biases in Everyday Life
You don’t need a philosophy degree to see these in action:
| Bias | Everyday Example | Fallacy Form |
|---|---|---|
| Confirmation Bias | Reading only news that supports your political views | Cherry Picking or Appeal to Common Belief |
| Bandwagon Effect | “Everyone’s investing in this coin — it must be smart!” | Appeal to Popularity |
| Anchoring Bias | Trusting the first number you see in negotiations | False Comparison |
| Availability Heuristic | Fearing plane crashes more than car accidents | Appeal to Emotion or Anecdotal Fallacy |
Bo Bennett reminds us that biases don’t make you stupid — they make you human. The trick is learning to catch yourself before you turn them into arguments.
🧍♂️ On Reason, Ego, and “Being a Smart-Ass”
Once we start learning logic, it’s easy to become that person — the one who corrects everyone’s reasoning like it’s an Olympic sport.
Bo Bennett saw this coming. He devotes a section of his book to warn us — with humor and wisdom — about “being a smart-ass.”
“There are two general schools of thought on how to point out a fallacy to your interlocutor. On the one hand, you can tactfully explain why your interlocutor’s reasoning is erroneous (1 smart-ass point)… or you can tell him the Latin name of the fallacy, stretch his underwear over his head, and conclude with, ‘by the way, in Latin that fallacy is known as [insert Latin name here].’ (10 smart-ass points)!”
In short:
- Correct with kindness, not condescension.
- Focus on reasoning, not victory.
- And always, as Bo says, “Act in good faith. Apply the principle of charity.”
He further warns:
“When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”
Meaning — once you learn about fallacies, you might start seeing them everywhere, even where they don’t apply.
Good reasoning also requires generosity — assuming the best possible version of your opponent’s argument before refuting it.
⚡ The Ad Hominem Family: Attacking People, Not Ideas
If there’s one set of fallacies that shows how ego kills logic, it’s the Ad Hominem family — the ultimate “argument of the person.”
Bo defines it simply:
“Attacking the person making the argument, rather than the argument itself, when the attack on the person is completely irrelevant to the argument the person is making.”
🧱 1. Ad Hominem (Abusive)
“My opponent suggests that lowering taxes will be a good idea — this is coming from a woman who eats a pint of Ben and Jerry’s each night!”
Bennett’s explanation:
“The fact that the woman loves her ice cream has nothing to do with the lowering of taxes, and therefore, is irrelevant to the argument.”
In short: insulting someone doesn’t make you right — it just makes you rude and wrong.
⚖️ 2. Ad Hominem (Circumstantial)
“Of course your minister says he believes in God. He would be unemployed otherwise.”
Here, instead of attacking the person directly, you attack their motives.
Bo explains:
“Suggesting that the person who is making the argument is biased or predisposed to take a particular stance, and therefore, the argument is necessarily invalid.”
Just because someone benefits from their view doesn’t mean the view is false. Motive isn’t proof.
🧩 3. Ad Hominem (Guilt by Association)
“Delores supports equal pay — just like those radical feminist groups. Extremists like Delores shouldn’t be taken seriously.”
Bo’s take:
“Making the assumption that Delores is an extreme feminist simply because she supports a policy that virtually every man and woman also supports, is fallacious.”
Association doesn’t equal agreement.
🪞 4. Ad Hominem (Tu Quoque — “You Too”)
“You smoke, so how can you tell me smoking is bad?”
Bo explains this is the “appeal to hypocrisy”:
“Claiming the argument is flawed by pointing out that the one making the argument is not acting consistently with the claims of the argument.”
The truth of a claim doesn’t depend on who’s saying it — even a hypocrite can be right.
🎯 Bo’s Advice: Don’t Confuse Emotion with Reason
Bo Bennett’s entire philosophy of logical thinking is grounded in humility.
He reminds us that logic isn’t just a mental skill — it’s a moral choice.
“Those who are acting unreasonably and irrationally are either incapable or unwilling to accept that their arguments are fallacious… In these cases, you can come down to their level, appeal to their emotions, and exploit their cognitive biases — but this takes some manipulative talent, and I would argue that it is not very ethical.”
True critical thinking isn’t about winning — it’s about understanding.
The moment emotion or ego takes over, reasoning collapses into rhetoric.
💡 Quick Recap
| Concept | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Cognitive Bias | Mental shortcut that distorts judgment | “Everyone’s doing it, so it must be right.” |
| Fallacy | An error in reasoning (argument-based) | “Everyone’s doing it; therefore, it must be right.” |
| Smart-Ass Syndrome | Knowing fallacies but using them to humiliate others | Quoting Latin names mid-argument |
| Ad Hominem | Attacking a person instead of their argument | “You’re stupid, therefore you’re wrong.” |
🚀 Call to Action: Argue Smarter, Not Louder
- Pause before responding. Ask: “Am I reacting to a point — or a person?”
- Check your bias. Is your belief based on logic or comfort?
- Be charitable. Rephrase your opponent’s argument in its strongest form before countering.
- Be humble. As Bo says — knowing fallacies is a tool for truth, not a weapon for pride.
🔖 Reference:
Bo Bennett, PhD (2020). Logically Fallacious: The Ultimate Collection of Over 300 Logical Fallacies (Academic Edition). Archieboy Holdings LLC.
