When I was young, I was transfixed by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! As I viewed and reviewed the drawings that appeared in the newspaper, I learned about a great many jaw-dropping oddities. But of all ...

In an era of “post-truth” and “truthiness,” it can be hard to defend the common-sense belief that reality exists independently of how people think about it. Skepticism about reality comes in many ...

So goes a fallacious argument from ignorance. The fallacy can occasionally be massaged slightly into a much more palatable and seemingly wise saying: "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." ...

To persuade you, people often try to use logical fallacies (Credit: Javier Hirschfeld) When people are trying to persuade you, they sometimes reach for underhand tricks like the 'appeal to ignorance' ...

Speak like an insider! Welcome to Snopes-tionary, where we’ll define a term or piece of fact-checking lingo that we use on the Snopes team. Have a term you want us to explain? Let us know. The "straw ...

Speak like an insider! Welcome to Snopes-tionary, where we'll define a term or piece of fact-checking lingo that we use on the Snopes team. Have a term you want us to explain? Let us know. Also known ...

During an intellectual battle, one's true colours are tested. The side losing ground, as a last resort to assert tenacity, turns argumentation into sophistry. Objectivity becomes the worst casualty ...

However, the human mind is the irrational elephant in the room, causing many thinkers to misidentify and abuse logical fallacies over the course of a debate. Steven Novella, president of the New ...