#049: Fallacies (Part 6): How to Vet Your Influencers

Influencers and endorsers with famous faces and voices are now a multi-billion-dollar industry for the advertising industry. The exploding popularity of social media channels is accelerating this trend.  As a result, we are bombarded nearly by the minute with messages propped up by celebrity, media, and online personalities.  Often these messages leverage the Fallacy of False Authority. So, what steps can we take to more intelligently respond to these messages - especially the ones where the expertise of the individual speaking up in support of a product, service or idea doesn’t at all match?  

In this episode of “Asking For A Friend,” TalkDoc with Meredith and Teighlor, explore the Fallacy of False Authority and it’s cousin Blind Loyalty. You’ll hear examples to better spot this fallacy in your own life.  Then our AFAF team will share practical steps you can take to put what you’ve learned into action to help avoid falling into these fallacy traps.

As you become familiar with how to spot different types of fallacies, including false Authority, you’ll be better equipped to keep an open mind so that you can focus on evidence and ideas vs. the false associations presented by “post hoc” fallacies.

Music by epidemic sound.