Fallacies in Reasoning: Today I came home to find my wife in a bit of a tizzy. No, I hadn’t forgotten to take out the trash…I’m getting better at that! She had watched NBC’s Today Show about 10 hours earlier, and she was FUMING! The subject was a pretty touchy one for a lot of parents – although the Today Show didn’t really provide both sides of the issue, making it seem like it should be a non-issue altogether. The issue was regarding childhood immunizations.
As a family that has been leveled by chronic illness, and as a family dedicated to education, you can bet that my wife and I have researched a great deal about how to raise our daughter to give her the best chance at a healthy life. For those of you who don’t know, Keena (my wife) has a very bad case of Crohn’s disease – it almost killed her about four years ago. While we’re certainly not doctors, we have learned a LOT about medicine, the medical community, and advice in the past half decade. And unfortunately, a lot of that can be summed up by one word: fallacies.
Case in point – Dr. Nancy Snyderman. She’s actually the NBC News Chief Medical Correspondent. So, you’d think that her arguments would be carefully constructred and would point out both sides of an issue, while explaining how one side was better or stronger. You’d think. Keena and I watched the webcast of the story tonight and Dr. Snyderman (as well as a pediatric hospital doctor) used fallacious arguments over and over again, with nobody there to stop them! (What happened Matt Lauer??? I thought reporters didn’t put up with that kind of thing?!) Here are a few fallacies from the good doctors in this particular story.
1. There is no evidence to prove that immunizations can hurt children, therefore parents should get them. The Greeks would have cried, “Argumentum ad ignorantiam (argument to ignorance).” This is the fallacy of assuming something is true simply because it hasn’t been proven false. Does anyone remember when eggs were bad for you? Then, remember that they were good for you? Oh, and then they were bad for you again? I’m actually not sure where we are in that cycle. Or how about a high fat diet being assumed to cause obesity? Now, we know that you can eat an all fat diet and lose weight. (I realize you wouldn’t be healthy, but technically it can produce weight loss…) Scientists go with the facts they have at the time – as they should! We can only use the information we have. But, to say that immunizations don’t cause yeast overgrowth, bowel disorders, or Down’s Syndrome because we haven’t proven it yet…that’s not only fallacious, it’s ignorant.
2. Dr. Synderman goes on to say that it is a parent’s responsibility to think more of the collective, than of their child. How unfortunate! Becuase I know there are mom’s out there who don’t know any better and now the Today show has just told them not to research this serious issue, instead going for the Nike slogan of old: Just Do It! Do you feel it’s a parent’s job to look out for the best interest of their child or of their neighbor’s child? (Ok, maybe this isn’t a fallacy – it’s just a bad argument.)
3. The good doctors continue with their poor reasoning skills by explaining that there are more doctors in favor of immunizations than those who are against it. This would be the Argumentum ad populum (argument to the public). This is the fallacy that the more people who support or believe a proposition, the more likely that proposition is to be correct. You’ve probably heard this before, “Eat fish three times a day – 1 Billion Chinese people can’t be wrong!”
4. Dr. Snyderman goes on to say that the Federal Government has said that these vaccinations are safe. Unfortunately, this could be classified as a red herring fallacy. Why? Because the government isn’t always right and to ascert otherwise is foolish. Plus, there are a number of other issues at play with the government. Imagine if they came out and said, “Uh oh…we were wrong! Stop giving the MMR to children as it causes autism!” Do you know how many lawsuits there would be against doctors, pharmacies, and the government?
5. Finally, the Today Show itself proposes a Slippery Slope fallacy. They talk about an outbreak in San Diego of 12 kids with the Measles. Yes, I said 12. Is it strange to hear about 12? Absolutely! Is 12 statistically significant in any way? Nope. 12 kids in San Diego is less than .0000017 percent of the population of kids. Don’t even try to figure it out with regard to the US population of kids. But, the Today Show reports that number as if it were half the population. The one tidbit of balance in the story was a ten second interview with a doctor who describes the odds that a child in the US will have autism being 1 in 150. If you’re going to force me to play roulette with my daughter’s life, I like my chances with 12 out of 70,000,000 versus 1 out of 150.
Do you see how frustrating it is to experience fallacious arguments? They’re everywhere! But what’s worse is that sometimes they are convincing, even when they are wrong. I’m discouraged to think of the thousands of parents who watched the Today Show this morning and are armed with bad advice and no information the next time they take their kids to the doctor’s office for shots. It’s a serious issue that requires research, thought, and discussion with medical professionals that you trust, not a six minute video segment on a morning show.
With that I’ll leave you so that I can go calm Keena down. I think she’s writing a letter to the Today Show so I should probably just take her some tea…
(If you would like a speaker for your conference on persuasion, argumentation, fallacies, reasoning – or if you just need a speaker for your organization’s teaching / training needs, contact Jeff at jborden@jeffpresents.com)
