Fallacy · Leaning on the wrong support
Appeal to authority
Also called: Argument from authority
Accepting a claim because someone famous or important said it, outside their expertise or without reasons.
What it is
Relying on experts is often sensible: nobody can check everything. The mistake is trusting the wrong authority (a celebrity on medicine, a physicist on history), or treating one expert’s word as settling a question that experts still dispute.
An example
“A famous footballer says this diet cleared his skin, so it will clear yours.” He is an expert at football, not at skin.
How to spot it
Ask: is this person an expert in this exact question, and do other experts agree?
How to answer it
“What do people who study this say, and on what evidence?”
When it is not a fallacy
Trusting a real expert speaking within their field, especially when most experts agree, is good reasoning, not a fallacy.
Printable sheet of all fallacies
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A plain reference you can paste into notes or an essay:
Quest2Reason. “Appeal to authority.” https://quest2reason.com/learn/ideas/fallacies/appeal-to-authority. Accessed 13 November 2026.