Logical fallacies can be broadly divided into two categories: formal and informal fallacies. But for the purposes of this post, we’ll be focusing on the red herring fallacy as it’s used in rhetoric. This isn’t always for nefarious purposes-sometimes, it’s a literary strategy used to keep readers in suspense. The purpose of a red herring is to distract the reader or listener from the actual issue being discussed in a conversation or piece of writing. The first instance of the term being used figuratively dates to 1807, when political journalist William Cobbett used it to critique the English press’ coverage of Napoleon’s defeat. In 2008, etymologists Gerald Cohen and Robert Scott Ross published their research that showed that the earliest references to the phrase came from a historical method for training horses, not dogs, to be comfortable with the chaos and competing smells that follow a hunting party. For a long time, the common explanation for this phrase was that a kipper, or a cured herring that becomes pungent and takes on red-colored flesh from the curing process, was used to train hunting dogs to follow scent paths. Write with Grammarly What is the red herring fallacy?Ī red herring is a misleading statement, question, or argument meant to redirect a conversation away from its original topic.Ī red herring is not an actual species of fish.
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