This can be done in many ways and will often be revealed later in the story to be a fallacy when the true culprit is brought to light. One of the most common uses of the red herring fallacy in literature is to lead the reader to believe that a certain character is the suspect of a crime. This will mislead the reader and in some cases can be used as a way of misleading the characters within the story as well. This is a technique which is regularly applied in fictional works based around crime and detective work as a way of keeping the reader on their toes.

Red Herring Fallacy In LiteratureĪs we mentioned, writers will often use the red herring fallacy within their work as a way of distracting the reader away from the truth of the situation. This type of fish was used in fox hunting, the dogs would be distracted by the smell of the fish and therefore would be distracted from actually catching the foxes, and this is where the name comes from. The phrase red herring originally comes from the name of a dried fish which has a very strong odour. It can be used as a way for the listener or reader to draw a false conclusion from the information that they are being given. This is something which is frequently done in both a literary sense when the writer wishes to divert the attention of the reader away from the topic at hand or in spoken English. What Is The Red Herring Fallacy? The red herring fallacy is a type of fallacy which is used as a way of distracting away from the original topic that is being discussed.

Def of a red herring logical fallacy