Statement #172 Discussion
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2 comments (1 thead) All Discussions | Below is the statement as it appears with the fallacy marked as correct. You can see the totals of most frequent responses to this statement. And after reading the any discussion going on below, you can select your choice(s) for the correct answer. For now, whoever posts each statement can update corrections. |
Ignoring a Common Cause
AKA Questionable Cause Category: Fallacies of Presumption → Casual Fallacies This fallacy has the following general structure:
In many cases, the fallacy is quite evident. For example, if a person claimed that a person's sneezing was caused by her watery eyes and he simply ignored the fact that the woman was standing in a hay field, he would have fallen prey to the fallacy of ignoring a common cause. In this case, it would be reasonable to conclude that the woman's sneezing and watering eyes was caused by an allergic reaction of some kind. In other cases, it is not as evident that the fallacy is being committed. For example, a doctor might find a large amount of bacteria in one of her patients and conclude that the bacteria are the cause of the patient's illness. However, it might turn out that the bacteria are actually harmless and that a virus is weakening the person, Thus, the viruses would be the actual cause of the illness and growth of the bacteria (the viruses would weaken the ability of the person's body to resist the growth of the bacteria). As noted in the discussion of other causal fallacies, causality is a rather difficult matter. However, it is possible to avoid this fallacy by taking due care. In the case of Ignoring a Common Cause, the key to avoiding this fallacy is to be careful to check for other factors that might be the actual cause of both the suspected cause and the suspected effect. If a person fails to check for the possibility of a common cause, then they will commit this fallacy. Thus, it is always a good idea to always ask "could there be a third factor that is actually causing both A and B?" 
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840 Total Answer Attempts 33%
278 Correctly Popped Fallacies
562 Incorrectly Un/Popped
Most Common Responses56 - Hasty Generalization 53 - Post Hoc 47 - Confusing Cause and Effect 42 - Slippery Slope 29 - Guilt by Association 28 - Appeal to the Consequences of a Belief 26 - Red Herring 25 - False Dilemma 23 - Biased Generalization 22 - Circumstantial Ad Hominem 19 - Misleading Vividness 18 - Fallacy of Composition 17 - Burden of Proof 17 - Appeal to Fear 15 - Poisoning the Well 14 - Begging the Question 12 - Appeal to Emotion 11 - Appeal to Ridicule 10 - Genetic Fallacy 10 - Gambler's Fallacy 9 - Relativist Fallacy 8 - Appeal to Pity 6 - Appeal to Tradition 5 - Appeal to Common Practice 5 - Special Pleading 5 - Ad Hominem Tu Quoque 4 - Fallacy of Division 4 - Appeal to Spite 4 - Appeal to Popularity 4 - Ad Hominem 3 - Middle Ground 3 - Appeal to Novelty 2 - Appeal to Belief 2 - Personal Attack 2 - Appeal to Flattery 1 - Peer Pressure 1 - Appeal to Authority |
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Ignoring common cause is not...
The correct fallacy is:
post hoc
/ËŒpÅst ˈhäk/
adjective
occurring or done after the event, especially with reference to the fallacious assumption that the occurrence in question has a logical relationship with the event it follows.
"a post hoc justification for the changes"
adverb
after the event.
In statistics, the phrase "correlation does not imply causation" refers to the inability to legitimately deduce a cause-and-effect relationship between two variables solely on the basis of an observed association or correlation between them. [1][2] The complementary idea that "correlation implies causation" is an example of a questionable-cause logical fallacy, in which two events occurring together are taken to have established a cause-and-effect relationship. This fallacy is also known by the Latin phrase cum hoc ergo propter hoc ("with this, therefore because of this"). This differs from the fallacy known as post hoc ergo propter hoc ("after this, therefore because of this"), in which an event following another is seen as a necessary consequence of the former event.
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