A politician states: 'We should ignore Professor Vance's economic forecast because he has never run a profitable private business.' What flaw is present?
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. ad hominem
- Step 1: The speaker attacks Professor Vance's personal background and occupational history rather than critiquing his economic methodology. Attacking the arguer rather than the argument is an ad hominem fallacy. Answer: ad hominem. Why not the others: "straw man misrepresentation of ideas" involves distorting or caricaturing an opponent's argument to make it easier to attack; "red herring distraction" introduces an irrelevant extraneous topic to divert attention from the central issue; "appeal to tradition" argues that a policy is right simply because it has historically been done that way.
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