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A forward lands in the family group: a memory tonic that "every topper" drinks. Neither it nor the next app ad has to state a false fact to mislead you. The trick is usually in the step from the facts to the conclusion.
In 2024-25 the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) scrutinised 7,199 advertisements, and 56% of ads were found to be misleading, according to its annual complaints report press release. The same release says 94.4% of the ads it processed came from digital media.
What is a logical fallacy?
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy takes a fallacy to be "an argument that seems to be better than it really is" (SEP, Fallacies). So a fallacy is a broken link in reasoning, not a wrong fact.
What are the most common logical fallacies, with examples?
These examples are made up in the style of real ads and forwards. Each has one question that exposes it.
Ad hominem. Attacking the person instead of the claim. "Why listen to Ma'am about screen time? She is on her phone all day." Ask: would the claim be wrong if someone else said it?
Bandwagon (appeal to the people). Popularity used as proof. "10 lakh parents have already chosen this app." Ask: popular with whom, and does popular mean it teaches well?
False authority. Trusting someone who is not an expert on this question. A film star in a white coat recommending a cough syrup. Ask: is this person an authority on this exact topic?
False dilemma. Only two options are offered when there are more. "Either your child joins coaching in Class 8 or forgets about IIT." Ask: can I name a third option?
Post hoc. Assuming that because B came after A, A caused B. "My cousin started this tonic in January and cleared JEE Main in April." Ask: what else changed in those months?
Slippery slope. One small step is said to lead, step by step, to disaster. "Give a teenager a phone and next they fail their boards and ruin their life." Ask: how likely is each step, really?
Many study-habit claims are post hoc; our guide to correlation vs causation in study-habit news gives you five questions to test them.
Does learning to spot fallacies actually help?
Naming the trick does help. In a 2022 paper in Science Advances, Jon Roozenbeek, Sander van der Linden and colleagues made five short videos, each explaining one manipulation technique, including false dichotomies and ad hominem attacks. Across six randomised controlled studies with 6,464 participants and a YouTube field study with 22,632 participants, the videos improved people's ability to recognise the techniques and the quality of their decisions about what to share. The researchers call this approach psychological inoculation.
The exercise below is our home version of that idea, not something their study tested.
How do you use AI to practise finding fallacies?
Any AI chatbot will do.
Paste this prompt: "Write a 100-word WhatsApp-style forward about [topic] that contains exactly three of these fallacies: ad hominem, bandwagon, false authority, false dilemma, post hoc, slippery slope. Do not label them. Give me the answer key only when I ask for it."
Underline every sentence you think is broken.
For each, write the fallacy's name, a one-line reason and the question that exposes it.
Now ask: "Show the answer key, quoting the exact sentence for each fallacy."
Where you disagree, ask the AI to explain its label. AI can mislabel or plant more or fewer fallacies than you asked for, so judge its reason, not its confidence.
Swap roles: write your own argument with two fallacies and ask the AI to find them. It is good practice for debating in school.
Here is a practice forward we wrote to show what to expect: "Every topper in our colony drinks this memory tonic, and lakhs of families trust it. A famous actor who played a doctor on TV says it sharpens memory. My cousin started it in January and cleared JEE Main in April. Either you give your child this tonic or you accept average marks." Answer key: bandwagon (sentence one), false authority (two), post hoc (three), false dilemma (four).
The same habit of asking "does this step follow?" works on a physics solution. The Fermi Problem Library has worked problems with a step-by-step solver that explains the reasoning rather than printing an answer, so you can test each step the way you tested each sentence.
What should parents say when a forward like this arrives?
Try one calm question: "Which sentence is doing the work, and does it actually follow?" It turns a forward into a puzzle instead of a fight. For anything about medicines or health, ask a doctor rather than the group chat.
You can also report a misleading ad. ASCI looks into complaints across print, TV, the internet and other media, and processed 659 ads flagged by the general public in 2024-25, according to the same press release.
For habits beyond fallacies, see how to improve critical thinking skills, and run the AI exercise weekly with a new topic.
