Hey what’s up Thinkers! Kathy Gibbens here…
I thought I’d share a message a listener recently sent me on Instagram, and by the way, if you’re not following me on Instagram, please find me there: @filteritthroughabraincell! Anyways, Natalie said this: “I am loving the podcast…I’m binging today and it’s honestly blowing my mind and totally changing my life already. It’s been eye opening to see how prevalent these fallacies are! I mean, I definitely was aware of it in advertising and politics, but it’s EVERYWHERE!” Oh my goodness, Natalie, YES! I continue to be amazed at how many different fallacies there are and how often they’re committed! And if you’re like me, I didn’t learn this stuff in school. I had to learn it in my forties when my daughter read a book about it in 7th grade. I love it because it gave her such a good foundation for really learning HOW to think! And along those lines,
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Alright, let’s dive into today’s new fallacy, the Appeal to Intuition. The Appeal to Intuition fallacy happens when bases their argument solely on their intuition, or what we sometimes call a gut feeling, rather than on objective evidence or reasoning.
Here’s a simple example of what this fallacy sounds like: “A vegan diet is the ideal diet for humans because it just feels right to me.” Ok, you can probably see the fallacy here. This person is trying to convince others of the merits of a vegan diet without actually providing any real evidence other than ‘it feels right to me’.
This fallacy is kind of like the appeal to personal incredulity where someone denies a claim because they just can’t imagine it could be true. I talked about that fallacy back in episode 39.
Here’s another example of what the Appeal to Intuition fallacy can sound like: Let’s say I tell my sister, “Can you believe Pikes Peak is over 14,000 feet high?” And she says, “There’s no way it’s that high, it feels so much shorter than that!” Just because it ‘feels’ shorter to her doesn’t mean it actually is. We could easily look up the stats for how high Pikes Peak is and the facts of its height would need to override her subjective gut feeling about it.
The problem with the thinking behind the Appeal to Intuition is that intuition isn’t typically justifiable. It’s a feeling, not evidence. Now, I’m not claiming that our intuition isn’t valid and doesn’t serve us well sometimes…it certainly does sometimes! I believe God gave us intuition to help us discern unsafe situations, dangerous people and untruths. And, while it may behoove us to listen to our intuition, we need to be honest with ourselves and others that it’s just that: a ‘gut feeling’ and that we don’t have any actual data to back it up. It may not be wise to try to convince other people of a ‘truth’ that’s really just a gut feeling.
Another example of the Appeal to Intuition is someone playing the Lottery. They just lost 13 times in a row, but justify buying another ticket by saying, “I just have a really good feeling about this one!” You see the fallacy? They have no data to back up why they think it’s a good idea to buy another ticket, but are just basing it off intuition, or a gut feeling.
So the question to ask yourself if you think you’re facing or committing the Appeal to Intuition Fallacy is this: “Is it a feeling or a fact?” *repeat*
Remember: When you learn HOW to think, you will no longer fall prey to those who are trying to tell you what THEY want you to think and it all starts with asking one simple question: “Is that really true?”
