The Definitive Guide to Winning an Argument

http://lifehacker.com/the-definitive-guide-to-winning-an-argument-1693076653

“Winning isn’t everything, but it sure is nice. When you don’t see eye to eye with someone, here are the best tricks for winning that argument.

Convince Them With Confidence

Avoid the Most Common Argument Fallacies

“Here are some of the fallacies that will lose you the argument before it even starts:

• Anecdotal Fallacy: Using a single personal experience as the foundation of your argument or your big piece of evidence. For example, your phone may have broken right after you bought it, but you can’t use that to argue that those phones are not worth the purchase by others.
• Confirmation Bias: Ignoring certain facts because of personally held beliefs. For example, you can’t cherry pick evidence that supports your claim and deny the evidence that doesn’t.
• Correlation vs. Causation: Assuming something is caused by something else just because they happen to correlate. For example, the number of homeless people in an area might correlate to the crime rate for the same area, but crime doesn’t necessarily cause homelessness and homelessness doesn’t necessarily cause crime. For more examples, check out Tyler Vigen’s Spurious Correlations to see how absurd these types of arguments can be.
• Straw Man: Making up a scenario to make the opponent look bad. You’re assuming because they think one thing they must think another. For example, if they don’t like orange juice, they must think oranges are bad for people.
• Omniscience: Using statements that imply “all” of something or “every” thing are a certain way. For example, saying something like “all dogs pee on fire hydrants.” This would require you to be omniscient to make such claims, which is not possible.

There are a lot more logical fallacies to consider, but avoiding these three can help you keep your argument on solid ground in the beginning.”

Find the Best Evidence You Can (When Possible)

“Even if you are confident, knowledge truly is power in an argument. If you’re arguing on the internet, you have the advantage of being able to research as you argue, but arguing in person is a whole different ball game. The best thing you can do is prepare ahead of time”

Be Calm and Courteous—Even If You’re Pretending

Have Them Thoroughly Explain Their View First

Ask Them the Right Questions to Get Them Going

Stay on Topic (and Don’t Blow Off Their Reasonable Points)

Look for Consensus to Back You Up

Change What Winning Means to You

“Logically, arguments are very rarely black and white. If an argument gets too tense, diffuse it and you’ll both win in the long run. There are always alternate conclusions to consider. Remember the words of the great Sun Tzu: “The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.””

Stephen