Appeal to ignorance is a logical fallacy which occurs when someone attempts to use a lack of evidence to support their claim.
This type of fallacy is usually used when someone is attempting to prove a point without any factual data to back it up.
How to calculate
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Make a claim without providing evidence to back it up.
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Assume that the lack of evidence to refute the claim means the claim is true.
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Dismiss any counter-evidence as irrelevant.
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Appeal to the ignorance of the listener, instead of logically proving the claim.
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Make a conclusion based on the lack of evidence, despite the fact that the claim remains unproven.
Examples
- Claiming that a correlation between two variables must be true because there is no evidence to the contrary.
- Suggesting that a hypothesis is true because it has not been proven false.
- Asserting that a claim is true because it has not been disproven.
- Arguing that a statement is valid due to a lack of evidence to the contrary.
- Assuming a conclusion is true because no evidence has been presented to the contrary.