Below is a series of questions to ask yourself concerning a personal held belief. Answering these honestly will help teach how to avoid logical fallacies.

Questions to Test for Logical Fallacies

1. Am I taking the character of the person posing the statement into consideration?
2. Am I concerned about how many people also believe the statement?
3. Am I rejecting the statement simply because it is structured fallaciously?
4. Am I applying an incorrect definition to the premises?
5. Am I incorrectly applying probability to a situation?
6. Am I placing trust in a belief because of the source rather than the actual nature of the statement?
7. Am I believing something because it is older?
8. Am I believing something because it is newer?
9. Am I believing something because an authority figure tells me too?
10. Am I believing a statement based of the consequences of not believing the statement?
11. Am I being threatened to accept and believe the statement?
12. Am I believing something due to pity?
13. Am I believing something because I feel that this is the way the world just is?
14. Am I changing the subject from the original premise?
15. Am I making inaccurate comparisons between subjects that are fair, complete, and valid?
16. Am I concluding a thing from a statement because I am applying that statement to a non applicable comparison?
17. Am I believing something because I cannot come up with any better idea?
18. Am I believing a statement because the premise is the same as the conclusion?
19. Am I believing a statement that presupposes the conclusion?
20. Am I believing a statement because of a correlative relation?
21. Am I believing a statement because I was posed with a false dichotomy?
22. Am I believing a statement because of a narrow and unique case?
23. Am I believing a statement because I discount the counter argument because it is simply a counter argument?
24. Am I believing a statement because I presupposed that it had to result from a prior statement?
25. Am I making a generalization about a large population/subject and applying that to an individual/sub-subject?
26. Am I rejecting or accepting a thing by falsely applying a subjective reality to it.

If You Answered Yes…

If you answered yes to any of the above questions then you may have a belief that is a logical fallacy. You might consider testing your belief further to ensure you possess a logically valid statement or belief.