Affirming the Consequent


Affirming the consequent is a fallacy in which an ‘if-then’ statement is incorrectly interpreted. For the logical statement “He is 16 or older, therefore he can buy alcohol”, it would be incorrect to then state that “He bought alcohol, therefore he is 16 or older”, since, although the subject may have bought alcohol, it does not necessarily follow that he is 16 or older.

See list of more biases and fallacies.