Black & White

Other Names

False Dichotomy, False Dilemma, False Choice, Fallacy of Bifurcation

Description

A black and white fallacy or false dichotomy is when you ignore subtlety, nuance or caveats, and use oversimplification to try to convince your audience that they only need to make a simple choice between two options, when in reality, many more choices or possibilities exist.

This is often combined with exaggeration so that one option appears extremely bad, making the other option appear good by comparison, or at least the lesser of two evils.

Example

You don't support PETA? Why do you hate animals?

Famous Examples

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