Wrong direction

Wrong direction is a logical fallacy that occurs when a cause is mistakenly considered an effect.

Cogito ergo sum Logic and rhetoric

Key articles

Logical fallacy Syllogism Argument

General logic

Appeal to fiction Appeal to the minority Damning with faint praise Relevance logic Suppressed correlative تقلیل به هیتلر

Bad logic

Appeal to consequences Argument from incredulity Danth's Law Flying carpet fallacy One-way hash argument Pathos gambit v - t - e

The fallacy is a fallacy of causation.

Alternate names

• reversing causation
• confusing cause and effect
• faulty causal direction

Examples

• Chanticleer the rooster crows loudly enough to bring the sun up.
• Cancer causes smoking.
• The street lights turning on causes the Sun to set.
• Winds are caused by waving trees.
• Kids that play a lot of video games are the most violent. Clearly, video games make children more violent.

Not only is this an unrepresentative sample, but it's possible that violent children play video games because they are violent.

• Evolution causes mutation

See also

• Confusion of the inverse
• Causalation
• Correlation does not imply causation

External links

• See the Wikipedia article on Wrong direction.
• Wrong Direction, One Good Move