Have you ever been in the middle of a discussion and found yourself asking something like this: "How in the world did we get on the subject of pumpkin pie when we were talking about cartoons?" Or you start out with a disagreement about where to eat lunch, and it turns into a yelling match about who broke the mp3 player and whether or not it's your turn to do the dishes?This is called going off on a tangent. In logic, it's known as a RED HERRING. This is named after a type of pungent fish. Probably because the stinky fish would confuse dogs trying to track a fox or criminal. It would throw them off of the original scent.
A RED HERRING fails to prove the conclusion because it's irrelevant, it just tries to change or confuse the topic, it tries to throw you off the scent. It's a distraction, often an emotional one. In this way, appeal to consequences, appeal to emotion and other fallacies fall under the category of red herrings.
You may find it hard to ignore the red herring and might feel obliged to abandon your original point to try to address the new one. This often happens in online disagreements. Someone might introduce a string of red herrings in an attempt to "win" the argument by upsetting, undermining or distracting you until you forget what you were discussing in the first place.
Why are you upset that I stepped on your glasses? A hundred people died in Iraq today.
You want the government to help people who can't afford health care. So, you favor death panels?
You didn't lock the door when I asked you. You never listen to anything I say.
A common saying with regards to a red herring is, "What's that got to do with the price of tea in China?" It's a silly way of saying that the person's comment has nothing to do with the original topic.
Something to think about, however, is that the red herring might be psychologically or emotionally connected to the conclusion in the mind of the individual. Sometimes understanding red herrings -- and getting past them -- requires filling in the blanks. It might also require defusing the emotions involved.
You didn't lock the door when I asked you.
You didn't remember to feed the cats after I reminded you.
You hit your brother again when I told you to stop.
You won't look up from your book when I'm talking to you.
I'm beginning to feel like you never listen to anything I say.
I'm sorry. I'm listening to you now. Please tell me everything I missed.
In politics, one type of red herring is called the OCTOBER SURPRISE. This is when information is released, or something special happens, just before elections in November. The intent is to distract voters from more serious issues and influence the outcome of the election.
Emails have surfaced which show that the candidate was flirting with his secretary. Was he having an affair?
We just discovered that the candidate hired an illegal immigrant to do yard work last year. Did she know he was illegal, and did she hire others?
Red herrings are also a kind of plot device used in books, TV and movies, to distract the reader or viewer from figuring out what's going on, or to keep you from solving the mystery before the end.
I thought the brother was the murderer, because he looked so creepy. But the butler did it.
The princess found a key, and I thought it would open the magic door. Turns out, it was just a red herring.
