Slippery slope

Informal fallacies → Cause

The slippery slope fallacy is when you say that if we do one small thing, we'll have to do a worse thing next, then an even worse one—without showing why each step would really lead to the next. You're assuming a chain of consequences without evidence for each link. Sometimes one step does make the next more likely, but often the "slide" is just asserted. The fallacy is to treat the slope as inevitable when it isn't.

Examples

  • If we let people marry whoever they love, next we'll have to let people marry pets.

  • If we allow this small exception to the rule, soon there will be no rules at all.

  • If we raise the minimum wage a bit, employers will keep raising it until they go bust.

  • If you give them an inch, they'll take a mile.

← Back to Fallacies