Appeal to Popularity: Don’t Jump on the Bandwagon

“Be careful when you follow the masses. Sometimes the ‘M’ is silent.” -Anonymous (perhaps Unanimous)

I had a conversation with my friend, Majority:

Me: “Buying a house is not always the best investment.”

Majority: “Most people want to buy a house, so it must be the best investment. It’s just common knowledge.”

This is an example of a fallacy in informal logic called “Appeal to Popularity.”

What Is Appeal to Popularity?

Appeal to popularity happens when someone makes a claim based on popular opinion or on a common belief among a specific group of people. My friend Majority thinks that buying a house is the best investment because it’s a popular view. Because it’s popular, he reasons, it must be true.

Appeal to popularity is an informal fallacy because the popularity of a claim doesn’t provide evidence that the claim is true. Something is not automatically true if it’s popular. If I believe something, that doesn’t make it true. Likewise, if the majority of the people believe something, that doesn’t make it true.

For example, at one time, everyone believed that the sun orbited the earth, but that claim was false.