Fallacy · Rigging the question
Slippery slope
Also called: The thin end of the wedge
Claiming one small step will inevitably lead to a chain of extreme results, without showing why.
What it is
Some steps really do lead to others, but each link in the chain needs its own reason. The fallacy jumps from a modest first step to a disaster at the bottom, as if the slide were automatic and nothing could stop it along the way.
An example
“If we let students retake one test, soon they’ll want to retake every test, and then grades will mean nothing.” Each of those steps would be a separate decision.
How to spot it
A long chain of “and then…” with no evidence for each link.
How to answer it
“Why would the first step lead to the second? Couldn’t we stop there?”
When it is not a fallacy
When there is real evidence that one step makes the next likely, as with some habits or precedents in law, warning about it is reasonable.
Printable sheet of all fallacies
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A plain reference you can paste into notes or an essay:
Quest2Reason. “Slippery slope.” https://quest2reason.com/learn/ideas/fallacies/slippery-slope. Accessed 13 November 2026.