Fallacy: Bandwagon
Also Known as: Peer Pressure.
The Bandwagon is a fallacy in which a threat of rejection by one's
peers (or peer pressure) is substituted for evidence in an "argument."
This line of "reasoning" has the following form:
This line of "reasoning" is fallacious because peer pressure and
threat of rejection do not constitute evidence for rejecting a claim.
This is expecially clear in the following example:
Joe: "Bill, I know you think that 1+1=2. But we don't accept that sort of thing in our group. "
It is clear that the pressure from Bill's group has no bearing on the
truth of the claim that 1+1=2.
It should be noted that loyalty to a group and the need to belong can
give people very strong reasons to conform to the views and positions of
those groups. Further, from a practical standpoint we must often
compromise our beliefs in order to belong to groups. However, this
feeling of loyalty or the need to belong simply do not constitute
evidence for a claim.
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Description of Bandwagon
Bill: "I was just joking. Of course I don't believe that."
Examples of Bandwagon
Jill: "That stuff is for old people."
Dave: "Yeah, only real woosies listen to that crap. Besides, Anthrax rules! It Rules!"
Bill: "Well, I don't really like it that much. Anthrax is much better."