Appeal to spite

Description

An appeal to spite is a fallacy in which spite is substituted for evidence when an “argument” is made against a claim. When successful, it manipulates the listener to question where and/or with whom their trust lies.

Examples

• Jack claims that the Earth is round and provides a picture from space as evidence. Frank, a flat-earther then causes you to question your trust in Jack, because Jack once used his Photoshop skills to create a fake photo which he asserted was an actual picture as a joke.
• Creationsts point to the well-known hoaxes Piltdown Man and Nebraska Man implying or claiming outright that this is representative of scientists who used fossils to demonstrate human evolution.

v · d Logical fallacies v · d Formal fallacies Propositional logic   Affirming a disjunct · Affirming the consequent · Argument from fallacy · False dilemma Quantificational logic   Existential fallacy · Illicit conversion · Proof by example · Quantifier shift Syllogistic   Affirmative conclusion from a negative premise · Exclusive premises · Necessity · Four-term Fallacy · Illicit major · Illicit minor · Undistributed middle v · d Faulty generalisations General   Begging the question · Gambler's fallacy · Slippery slope · Equivocation · argumentum verbosium Distribution fallacies   Fallacy of composition · Fallacy of division Data mining   Cherry picking · Accident fallacy · Spotlight fallacy · Hasty generalization · Special pleading Causation fallacies   Post hoc ergo propter hoc · Retrospective determinism · Suppressed correlative · Wrong direction Ontological fallacies   Fallacy of reification · Pathetic fallacy · Loki's Wager v · d False relevance Appeals   Appeal to authority · Appeal to consequences · Appeal to emotion · Appeal to motive · Appeal to novelty · Appeal to tradition · Appeal to pity · Appeal to popularity · Appeal to poverty · Appeal to spite · Appeal to wealth · Sentimental fallacy · Argumentum ad baculum Ad hominem   Ad hominem abusive · Reductio ad Hitlerum · Judgmental language · Straw man · Tu quoque Genetic Fallacies   Genetic fallacy · Chronological snobbery · Association fallacy · Appeal to tradition · Texas sharpshooter fallacy