Appeal to spite

Informal fallacies → Relevance / appeals

Appeal to spite is when you want people to do something to hurt someone or get back at them—not because it's the right thing to do. Revenge or "showing them" isn't a good reason for a vote, a decision, or a policy. The fallacy is to appeal to malice instead of to the merits. The question should be whether the idea or action is good, not whether it would stick it to someone.

Examples

  • Vote against her idea just to show her she can't boss us around.

  • Let's not support their project—they didn't support ours.

  • We should reject the offer just to make them sweat.

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