Appeal to Common Practice Examples
Appeal to common practice is a type of fallacy, or unsound argument. When writers or speakers appeal to common practice, they argue that something must be okay (correct, reasonable) because it is a common behavior or because most people do it.
1. It's okay to let your children spend the night at the house of someone you don't really know because most other parents would be okay with it.
2. When a teacher gets into trouble for leaving her students unsupervised, she argues that many teachers in the building besides her also leave their students unsupervised from time to time.
3. A student caught cheating on a test claims that students cheat all the time and that he was just the unlucky one who got caught.
4. Most colleges factor race into admissions-giving some additional consideration to minorities-so it is okay.
5. Most people go at least 10 miles per hour over the speed limit, so no one will care if you do that, too.
6. Everyone at this company takes home a few office supplies for themselves, so you do it as well.
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