In Rhetoric, rhetorical devices are linguistic tools that use a particular style or method to communicate or persuade. Rhetorical devices can be manipulated and misused to give the appearance of sound logic to persuade an audience of a particular Argument—this is called a rhetorical fallacy, and it results in faulty beliefs.
For example, let's say someone told you that reading Oscar Wilde's work is a waste of time because he ultimately died in disgrace. What is wrong with this Argument? The first part is their opinion, and the second part does not impact the main idea in the discussion (i.e., whether Oscar Wilde is a good writer).
Sometimes rhetorical fallacies pass unnoticed in discussions, which is why it’s important to stay aware of them. Inaccurate connections, also called false connections, are a branch of rhetorical fallacy that can be especially difficult to identify.
False Connection Definition
Inaccurate connections are a division of rhetorical fallacies, which rely on a faulty connection between the premises and the conclusion.
Rhetorical fallacies, also called fallacies of argument or logical fallacies, are a type of deceptive argument that have misleading reasoning at its foundation. People use rhetorical fallacies when the facts and evidence don’t support their stance in an argument. People also sometimes fall into these fallacies unconsciously without realizing or meaning to. Regardless of intention, rhetorical fallacies are a threat to sound logic and dependable argumentation.
False connections can happen in several ways, but the foundation of The Argument is always defective because of the false connection between the premise and the conclusion.
A premise is a statement that provides reason or support for the main claim, also called the conclusion, of an argument.
If a premise does not truly support the conclusion someone is arguing for, there is a false connection somewhere in The Argument. Remember the Oscar Wilde example? The premise of his poor social standing does not support the conclusion that his novels, plays, and poems are less valuable. These things are not connected.
Effects of False Connections
There are so many variations of inaccurate connections, but many of them appear to have the same issue: misplaced causation. One highly common mistake is identifying a correlation and believing it to be causation.
Correlation means there is a noticeable pattern between two variables, but they are not connected.
VS.
Causation means one event caused another to occur.
A cause-and-effect relationship is defined by the principle of causation
The effect of confusing correlation for causation is misunderstanding the world around us. For example, if you believe that increased use of a heater causes winter, for example, you might think it’s better to leave your heater off to ward off the winter weather.
Not only do you misunderstand things, but there can be real consequences for those beliefs. If you thought the heaters cause winter, you would suffer through an icy winter and wonder why it is so cold when you haven’t turned a single heater on.
Sound logic would dictate that the cause and effect relationship between heaters and cold weather is rather silly. But false connections are not always as easy to identify, especially when used in arguments surrounding complex issues. This is where rhetorical fallacies can easily enter the discussion and go unnoticed.
False Connection Fallacy
To avoid rhetorical fallacies, it’s important to first understand how they function and are constructed. People understand fallacies by first dividing them according to where the faulty reasoning begins; fallacies are either formal or informal.
Formal fallacies include an error in the construction of the argument, or in how it’s formed. In this case, “formal” doesn’t mean proper, it has to do with the formation of the argument. Informal fallacies contain an error in content or Context and have to do with the substance of the argument instead of the way it is formed.
Inaccurate connections are a branch of informal fallacies. The false connection between the premise of an argument and its conclusion is a result of a misunderstanding—whether intentional or not—of the substance of the argument.
The common phrase, “Correlation does not imply causation” applies to many issues involving inaccurate connections. This means that just because two things share a correlation, or a connection of some kind, does not mean that one caused the other.
To say that one thing caused another is quite difficult to prove because establishing causation requires appropriately designed experimentation. Since causation is hard to prove, this leaves a lot of room for mistaken logic to creep into the argument.
There are three main types of inaccurate connections: Faulty Analogy, faulty causality, and Reverse Causation.
False Connection: Faulty Analogy
Formula: Because A and B have quality X in common, they must also have quality Y in common.
A faulty, or weak Analogy is an informal logical fallacy. This type of logical fallacy makes the mistake of assuming that just because two things are similar in one way, they are alike in other ways. False analogies are a form of faulty inductive reasoning.
Inductive reasoning is the process of forming a broad generalization from specific observations.
Schools with expansive music programs produce students with better reading skills. So, if we want to raise the reading level at poorer-performing schools, all we need to do is expand music programs.
There may be a correlation between expansive music programs and students with excellent reading skills, but that does not mean that the music program is the cause of better reading skills.
False Connection: Faulty Causality
Formula: Because Y followed X, X must have caused Y.
Faulty causality, also known by the Latin phrase post hoc, ergo propter hoc, which means “after this, therefore because of this,” occurs when someone incorrectly assumes that one thing caused another. Like all false connection fallacies, faulty causality is an informal fallacy that has to do with misplaced causation.
With faulty causality, there may not even be any correlation between the two events. Someone may try to establish a cause-and-effect relationship to suit their agenda, but there is nothing to suggest they are closely related. It is important to note that sequence is not causation.
The protagonist became a detective and then had kids. He has a bad relationship with his kids, so his career must have negatively impacted his role as a father.
As with faulty analogies, there might be a correlation here between the protagonist’s job and his relationship with his kids, but there is no way to establish a cause. Just because something happened (in the example, the protagonist became a detective) before the conclusion, does not mean it is the cause of the conclusion (the protagonist’s sour relationship with his kids).
False Connection: Reverse Causation
Formula: X caused Y when in reality Y caused X.
Reverse Causation is a false belief that one thing caused another when the truth is the opposite. This happens frequently because it is easy to spot a correlation between two events, but it can be more difficult to say which thing causes which to happen (or if there is a cause and effect relationship at all). Again, this does not have to do with the formation of the argument, but rather the substance of what the arguer is presenting.
Reverse causation is also called retrocausation or backwards causation.
Writing poetry causes depression.
This statement is false causation because, in reality, it is more likely that depressed people tend to write poetry as an expression of difficult emotions. Poetry does not cause depression. Likewise, not all poets are depressed, but many poets may write because of their depression.
More False Connection Examples
Read through the additional examples and see if you can determine which type of inaccurate connection each example is.
A: Research shows that schools that have smaller classroom sizes (fifteen or fewer students per classroom) produce students with better grades when compared to schools with larger classrooms (twenty-five or more students per classroom). Therefore, smaller classrooms cause students to have better grades.
Is it possible to know which factor determines better grades in this example? The grades of the students who are sent to the school with smaller classes may also have more supportive parents, or the school may have access to other helpful programs in their community. Is it possible to know which came first?
Is this example a Faulty Analogy, faulty causation, or reverse causation? See the answer below.
B: If we allow professionals to research information for their jobs, then we should allow students to look up information during exams.
There is a disconnect between the claim and the premise in this example. Are these two professions alike enough to compare?
Is this example a faulty Analogy, faulty causation, or reverse causation? See the answer below.
C: I downloaded new software onto my computer, then it crashed. The new software must have caused my computer to crash.
Is it possible that the two events—installing new software and the computer crashing—are totally unrelated? Is it fair to claim the timeline as a premise of the claim that the software caused the computer to crash?
Is this example a faulty analogy, faulty causation, or reverse causation? See the answer below.
Example A – Reverse causation, Example B – Faulty analogy, Examples C – Faulty causation
False Connections - Key Takeaways
- Inaccurate or false connections are a division of rhetorical fallacies, which rely on a faulty connection between the premises and the conclusion.
- A common result of a faulty connection between the premise and the conclusion of an argument is a result of confusing correlation with causation.
- Fallacies are either formal—having to do with how they are formed—or informal—having to do with the substance of the argument.
- There are three main types of false connections:
- Faulty analogy
- Faulty causality
- Reverse causation
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