Fallacies
Errors in reasoning that undermine the logic of an argument.
"A fallacy is a wrong answer that looks right."
What is Fallacies? Errors in reasoning that undermine the logic of an argument. Reasoning quality is the cheapest, highest-leverage improvement available.
Strawman, ad hominem, false dilemma — alive in every leadership meeting.
Reasoning quality is the cheapest, highest-leverage improvement available.
Train teams to name fallacies in real time without punishment.
Use the model. Pick the move.
Errors in reasoning that undermine the logic of an argument. You've just seen this: Strawman, ad hominem, false dilemma — alive in every leadership meeting. Which lever does the model recommend?
Pick a lever. There are no neutral ones — every incentive funds a behavior somewhere.
Pick a reaction to Fallacies
One tap. We'll point you at the most useful next surface based on how this hits.
The full taxonomy entry
Every concept in the Atlas uses the same structure — so Fallacies can be compared, recombined, and cited like an element on a periodic table.
- Business
- Leadership
- Government
- Healthcare
- Education
- Sales
- Marketing
- AI
- Negotiation
- Media
- Public Policy
- Relationships
- Where in our org would Fallacies most often show up unnoticed?
- Which metric, ritual, or contract clause quietly rewards Fallacies?
- If we removed every payoff for Fallacies, what behavior would replace it?
- Who benefits when Fallacies persists — and who pays the cost?
- People defend the status quo using the language of fallacies.
- Decisions cluster around the easiest narrative rather than the strongest evidence.
- New data changes the slide deck but not the decision.
- Anyone naming the pattern is treated as the problem.
Every Atlas entry is a node in a knowledge graph. See the related rail below to follow the connections.
See Fallacies through 6 lenses
Each layer of the Incentives OS reframes this concept with its own thinkers, vocabulary, and diagnostic question.
- Layer 2Behavioral Economics
Which biases are most likely operating right now?
- Layer 8Organizational Psychology
What is the org actually rewarding — versus claiming to reward?
- Layer 10Negotiation
Where is the real leverage — and what interests sit behind the stated positions?
- Layer 13Leadership
What kind of leadership move does this situation actually require?
- Layer 15AI & Alignment
What proxy reward is the AI optimizing — and what is it ignoring?
- Layer 18Temporal Models
What happens if this incentive compounds for ten years?
Do you actually know Fallacies?
Three quick questions. Result is saved into your review streak — come back when the term is due to lock it in.
Which best describes Fallacies?
Worked example, counter-example & concept map
On-demand AI analysis grounded in the Lab's research. Cached on your device after first run.
When you encounter Fallacies, your prefrontal cortex has to do extra work to override the automatic response — and that override budget is finite.
Executive control, planning, impulse override, working memory, System 2. First thing to go offline under stress, fatigue, or low blood sugar. Why your 4pm decisions are worse than your 9am ones.
See Prefrontal in the Brain Atlas →Picked for you, from the Atlas
Ranked by shared learning paths, overlapping chips, and what you've saved.
Deriving general rules from specific examples; the leap from instance to concept.
The brain evolved to reason adaptively, not always truthfully, to reduce the cost of errors.
We solve problems by adding, even when subtracting would be better.
Assuming that if one option is true, another must be false, when both can be true.
Presuming a purposeful actor behind events that may have no actor at all.
What cannot be settled by experiment is not worth debating.
Send the card, not just the link
A pre-rendered social card with the title, eyebrow, and URL. Copy the link, post it anywhere, or download the SVG for slides.
More definitions to follow
Every term in the Atlas connects to a dozen others. Pick any of these and see where it takes you.
Drug companies optimize for high-margin chronic conditions, not cures.
People preferentially process experience visually, auditorily, or kinesthetically. Match the channel; match the mind.
We assume others notice us more than they do.
Actions have effects that were not planned or anticipated.
What cannot be settled by experiment is not worth debating.
We see bias in others more easily than in ourselves.
Individually rational choices that produce a collectively bad outcome.
Adding a clearly worse option steers people toward the option you wanted.
Using a word with two meanings as if it meant one.
What people expect of themselves shapes what they achieve.
Distaste for unequal payoffs — including when we'd benefit.
Contrast vivid future success with concrete present obstacles to drive action.