Hey what’s up Thinkers! Kathy Gibbens here…
Let’s start off with a quick review of a fallacy we covered earlier this season, the Demonic Justification Fallacy. The Demonic Justification Fallacy happens when a particular person or group of people are vilified or made to look really bad so that any punitive action taken against them is justified. It often involves making exaggerated or selective claims about the person or group of people in order to demonize them in the eyes of the public.
So, the question to ask yourself when you’re hearing a person or group being demonized is simple: “Are those claims really true?”
If you want to review or hear more about this fallacy, go back & check out Episode 106.
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Alright, let’s dive into today’s new fallacy, the Notable Effort Fallacy, which is also sometimes called the ‘A for Effort’ Fallacy, or I’ve even seen it called the ‘E for Effort’ Fallacy. The Notable Effort fallacy happens when someone mistakes effort or intention for an actual argument or a real outcome. It involves evaluating or rewarding the person’s ideas or actions based on effort alone, rather than on the quality of the outcome or the effectiveness of the action.
A classic example of the Notable Effort Fallacy is the participation award. Whomp-whomp. Nobody likes a participation award. It’s basically saying, you didn’t do well enough to get the prize, but you tried, so here’s an award. Ugh. just no.
Or, here’s another simple example: Your best friend, bless her heart, did a terrible job on her most recent essay for Literature class, and justifiably, the teacher gave her a D. But your friend is really upset and complains, “Doesn’t he know how hard I worked on that paper? That should at least count for something!” You see the fallacy? She may have worked hard, but that wasn’t the assignment. She wasn’t being graded on the amount of time & energy she spent on the essay, she was being graded on producing a good result.
Or let’s say your feisty Grandma got pulled over for speeding through the mountains and she had to go to court for her speeding ticket. She prepared an elaborate defense to give the judge for why she was speeding and how she shouldn’t be charged, etc., etc. At the end of it all, the judge says, ‘Wow, I’ve never seen someone work so hard to get out of a speeding ticket before. Just for that effort, I’m going to let you off.” Ok, that one may sound like a funny, made-up example, but it’s actually a true one. My grandma used to speed through the mountains of West Virginia and yet she always had the knack of going before the judge and talking herself out of the tickets! So there are definitely some people who fall for this fallacy! Lol
The problem behind the Notable Effort fallacy is that effort doesn’t equal results. And a good effort at explaining something doesn’t make it true. A good effort at defending your speeding doesn’t make it right to speed or make you innocent of breaking the law. Making a good effort at proving your claim doesn’t mean you actually proved your claim. When we say that all effort should be rewarded, it devalues the efforts that actually lead to real results and outcomes.
I’ll give you a real-life example of how I committed & learned my lesson about this fallacy. When I was young, maybe about 8 or so, our family had a garden and to get it up & going we had a busy workday to get things cleaned up & ready to plant. So my dad offered to pay my brother & I for that day of working to get the garden area ready. Well, My brother actually got to work and I did too, sort of. I worked a little, then wandered off & explored the area around the garden, then came back and poked at a few things and wandered off again. At the end of the day, when it was time to get paid, my Dad gave my brother more money than he gave me. I instantly got defensive and said, “That’s not fair, I was out there the whole day just like Keith was. Why does he get more?!” And that’s when my Dad quickly schooled me on the fact that just being “out there” doesn’t mean I was productive doing the thing I had been asked to do. He wasn’t about to give me ‘participation trophy’ money and I learned that lesson once & for all.
Question to ask yourself if you think you’re facing (or committing!) The Notable Effort Fallacy is this: “They may have put in the effort, but did they produce a good result?” or “They may have put in a lot of effort, but did they actually make a good argument?” *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?”
