I know I lie, but it's not my fault - Discovering Logical Fallacies

In class we started looking at some logical fallacies. To help us understand and find logical fallacies, we looked at an article titled ‘I know I lie, but it’s not my fault’. At first glance, the information in the article seems quite reliable as it is well presented and the language used is appropriate to the article’s claim that researchers have found a biological explanation for pathological lying. It also contained statistics and examples somewhat proving its reliability.

However, when I read the article again, this time applying critical thinking, I realized that there was a great deal of fallacies in it. The subtitle of the article states that researchers have found a biological explanation for pathological lying and yet the content of the article claims that researchers “may have provided a biological explanation for this kind of lying”, the keyword here being ‘may’.

Fallacies in the article include appeal to authority as throughout it, there are constant claims that scientists have found, or scientists have discovered etc. Taking a better look at the statistics I realized that they do not have much credibility and are rather a sort of hasty generalization as there were only 12 people with a history of lying, 16 with no signs of pathological lying, but who have suffered from anti-social personality disorder and 21 normal volunteers tested.  These numbers are far too little to act as evidence of such a major scientific discovery. I also false cause in the article as it states that “as the while matter expands with age, lying increases, so that by ages 10 to 12, kids become better at lying”.

The article also contains an example of a young 19 year old woman who is said to be a victim of pathological lying. This example was more of an appeal to pity as the woman is said to have a seven month old son with leukemia rather than supporting evidence to the topic of the article. The woman is said to be a pathological liar and yet there is no mention of how for example this is due to the increase of ‘”white matter” (as the article refers to it) in her brain.

The article got me to think a lot about logical fallacies and how they are a major part of our everyday lives. I have found myself constantly searching for a fallacy in almost everything I hear or read or am told is true. My developing skills in discovering fallacies have helped me develop better critical thinking skills which I have found to be very valuable in all my subjects in school.