Philosophy 203: Scientific Reasoning
Appeal to the People
Abstract: The argument based upon what most
or all people think or believe is characterized and shown to be sometimes persuasive
but normally fallacious.
- Argumentum ad Populum (popular appeal or appeal to
the majority): The fallacy of attempting to win popular assent to
a conclusion by arousing the feeling and enthusiasms of the
multitude. There are several variations of this fallacy, but
we will emphasize two forms.
- "Snob Appeal": the fallacy of
attempting to prove a conclusion by appealing to what an elite
or a select few (but not necessarily an authority) in a society thinks or believes.
(There are many non-fallacious appeals in style, fashion, and
politics--since in these areas the appeal is not irrelevant.)
|Person L says
statement p or argument A.
Person L is in the elite.
Statement p is true or argument A is
- "Bandwagon": the fallacy of attempting to
prove a conclusion on the grounds that all or most people
think or believe it is true.
|Most, many, or all
persons believe statement p is true.
Statement p is true.
- Many advertising slogans are based on this fallacy:
Strictly speaking one statement, considered by itself, cannot be a fallacy because it's
not an argument. Nevertheless, the import seems to be in
some cases an implicit argument with conversational implicature.
I.e., the statement can easily be reconstructed from
context into an implicit argument.
"Coffee is the think drink." (withdrawn by FDA)
"Quick Kick is the National League thirst quencher."
"Four Roses Whiskey is for men of distinction."
"Sony. Ask anyone.."
- Occasionally, it is difficult to make a distinction between
the ad verecundiam (appeal to authority) and the ad
populum (appeal to the elite) fallacies.
- The basis of the ad populum appeal is the assumption that large numbers
of persons are more likely to be right than you are likely to
be right. Also, in light of of peer pressure, many
persons feel it's better to be
normal than to go against the crowd. Moreover, our desire to be
approved by others often results in our joining the
"bandwagon" of the probable winning side in a
- The main problem with this fallacy is the fact that many people
agree on something does not imply that what they agree on is true;
nevertheless, the fact that many people agree, can be relevant evidence for
the truth in some instances. The trick is to understand the
nature of the relevance of the premisses to the conclusion.
- Examples of the ad populum:
- "Man could alleviate his misery by
marriage. This close companionship enhances the
joys of one and mitigated the sorrow of the other, and
anyone knew God always provided for married
people." Lee Emily Pearson, Elizabethans at
Home, (Stanford Univ. Pr.), 289.
- "Shell was charged with misleading advertising
in its Platformate advertisements. A Shell
spokesman said: 'The same comment could be made about
most good advertising of most products.'"
S.S. Baker, The Permissible Lie (ASIN), 39.
- "To his dying day, Governor Marvin Mandel will
never understand what was wrong in accepting more that
$350,000 worth of gifts from wealthy friends who
happened to engage in business ventures that benefited
from his gubernatorial influence. The governor
has lots of company ... And to a man they have
cried in bewilderment that "everybody does it,'
that politics survives on back scratching."
New York Times, Aug. 5, 1977, 1-A.
- "But officer, I don't deserve a ticket;
everyone goes this speed. If I went any slower,
I wouldn't be going with the stream of traffic."
- It is well recognized by most persons that the
present technological revolution has affected the
ethical basis of the nation's institution of
education. Since this belief is so widely held,
there can be little doubt of its accuracy.
- St. Augustine wrote, "For with the exception of
a few in whom nature is excessively depraved, the
whole human race confesses God to be author of the
world." Note, as well, the ad hominem
implications of this argument.
- Non-fallacious examples of the ad populum: the
appeal is not irrelevant when what most persons believe or what
the select few believe does in fact determine what is true.
Conventional truth such as the definitions of words,
standard use of symbols, styles, or political elections are
typical examples where the appeal to the majority , the experts,
or the people-in-the-know would be relevant and so would not
- If an elite group of people are in a position to
know of what they speak, their authority is relevant and should not
automatically be discounted. E.g., to
remark that most physicians believe that a high fat diet is
unhealthy, so that it follows that persons who have a high fat diet
should change their eating habits, is to make a legitimate
- The number of persons who believe a claim can be
probable evidence for the truth of the conclusion.
But without further information about the case in
point, the number of
persons cannot be not directly related to the truth of the