What is the
Straw Man Fallacy?
How to be sure it's the Straw Man Fallacy?
To spot it, compare the criticism with what was actually said and look for exaggerations or distortions. Examples include statements like “We should reduce traffic” becoming “So you want to ban all cars,” or turning a nuanced argument into an extreme position.
Project Description
Truth Labs for Education is a collaboration between Cambridge University, the University of Bristol, and Google Jigsaw. We created a series of short videos designed to help people resist unwanted persuasion online. The videos are rooted in a framework from social psychology called inoculation theory, which posits that by exposing people to a weakened dose of a persuasive argument or technique and pre-emptively refuting it, they develop psychological resistance against future manipulative persuasion attempts.
We created 5 videos, each of which “inoculates” people against a particular manipulation technique or misleading rhetorical device commonly encountered online: ad hominem attacks, using emotional language to evoke fear or outrage, false dichotomies, incoherence, and scapegoating.
