Inconsistency Fallacy Examples in Media, Real Life, Politics, News & Ads

Inconsistency Fallacy

Inconsistency Fallacy Definition

The inconsistency fallacy is a logical fallacy that occurs when someone refuses to consider certain considerations because they are inconsistent with their current beliefs.

The concept of an inconsistency fallacy is one that many people find difficult to understand. Imagine that person A makes a statement and person B makes a statement that contradicts what person A said. Person B would be correct because what he said is true and what person A said is not true.

Misunderstanding the principle of the inconsistency fallacy can lead to a problem in logic. The inconsistency fallacy shows that the logic is flawed and that what person A said is not true.

For example, if someone is against the death penalty but supports abortion, they may refuse to take into account that both the death penalty and abortion are homicides because they are inconsistent beliefs.

Inconsistency fallacy when a person tries to rationalize or justify a decision. There are two types of inconsistency fallacies that are relevant to human decision-making:

• Question-begging
• Biasing.

The question begging fallacy occurs when an argument is premised on the assumption that it is not, in fact, true.

The biasing fallacy occurs when an argument does not take into account all the available relevant evidence.

Inconsistency fallacy examples: why it matters

Inconsistent reasoning is when someone changes their opinion about an important issue, often without providing a valid justification for the new opinion.

Everyone makes mistakes. We all judge people for their mistakes, and we are all fallible human beings. While we make mistakes, the psychology of inconsistency fallacy is important to understand so you can successfully judge someone fairly or decide for yourself when you realize you are being judged unfairly.

Inconsistency Fallacy Examples

Inconsistency example in Philosophy

Examples of Inconsistency Fallacy in Philosophy:

The inconsistency fallacy is the assumption that because two statements contradict each other, one of them must be false.

An example of this fallacy in philosophy would be to say, “I can’t prove I exist,” and then conclude, “therefore I don’t exist.”.

This is a flawed argument because it relies on an unproven premise (i.e., that you cannot prove your own existence).

Inconsistency Fallacy Real-Life Examples

Inconsistency Fallacy in Real Life:

The inconsistency fallacy is when you assume that because two statements are inconsistent, one of them must be false.

An example of the inconsistency fallacy would be if someone were to say “I saw a car” and then later say “I didn’t see a car,” it would not necessarily mean that one statement was true and the other was false.

Inconsistency Fallacy Examples in Media

Examples of Inconsistency Fallacy in Media: 

• A media outlet reports that a celebrity is pregnant, and then the next day, they report that she miscarried
•  An article says one thing, but another article on the same topic says something different.
•  The same person or company publishes two articles with contradictory messages.

Inconsistency Examples in Advertising

Inconsistency Fallacy in Advertising: 

The marketing team for a company that sells energy drinks creates an advertisement with the slogan, “Drink our product, and you’ll be full of life!”.

A few days later, they release another ad with the slogan, “Drink our product, and you’ll feel like death.”

This inconsistency is confusing to consumers, who may not know which message to believe in order to make their purchase decision.

Inconsistency Fallacy in Politics

Examples of Inconsistency Fallacy in Politics:

The inconsistency fallacy is when you assume that they will do another because someone has done one thing. For example, if a politician supports the death penalty for murderers and then later opposes it after being elected to office, this would be an inconsistency fallacy.

This is not always true- sometimes people change their minds on issues as they learn more about them or encounter new information.

Inconsistency Fallacy examples in Movies

Examples of Inconsistency Fallacy in Movies:

In the movie “The Matrix,” Neo is able to dodge bullets.

However, in the next scene, he gets shot and killed by an Agent

Inconsistency Fallacy Examples in Literature

Examples of Inconsistency Fallacy in Literature:

The inconsistency fallacy is when someone assumes that the entire story must be false because there are inconsistencies in a story.

One example of this is if you read about how a person’s hair was brown, and then it changed to black later on in the book – some people might assume that the whole book is made up or at least partially untrue.

Another example would be if a man said he had been wearing his watch on his left wrist all day but then later said he had it on his right wrist.

Inconsistency Fallacy Examples in News

Examples of Inconsistency Fallacy in News:

The headline says, “No new cases of Ebola in Liberia,” but the article talks about how there are still people who have been infected with Ebola.

A news outlet reports that a person has died from an illness, but when you look at the details, it turns out they died because of a car accident.

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