Logical Fallacy #2: Appeal to Fear

While known under many names including ad baculum and fear mongering, the appeal to fear is a well known scare tactic used in arguments. There is a difference between fear mongering and actual fear. For example, actual fear would be person A telling person B , "Do not lie down in the middle of Highway 405 at 1am, someone could drive over you," because the fear is not a threat but more of a likely result of lying down in the middle of Highway 405 at 1am.

An example of the appeal to fear is the Willie Horton ad used in the 1988 Presidential campaign by George H.W. Bush (R) against Democratic opponent Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis (D). Before this ad, Dukakis was leading in the polls. This ad talked about Willie Horton who committed violent crimes in Massachusetts under a furlough program Massachusetts had even though Dukakis himself had not created the program. This ad was meant to scare people by associating Horton with Dukakis. The ad worked by erasing Dukakis's lead in the polls.

Another example of fear mongering is the "Daisy" ad. This ad was used in the 1964 Presidential campaign between President Lyndon Johnson (D) and Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater (R). Johnson released this ad called "Daisy" which had a little girl picking flowers and then a nuclear bomb exploded and the ad suggested that Johnson would be the best one to protect the United States from a nuclear bomb explosion. This ad's main job was to scare people into voting for Johnson instead of focusing on the issues themselves. The ad helped Johnson too, he won with about 60% of the vote.