Poisoning the well
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Poisoning the well is a logical fallacy where adverse information about someone is pre-emptively presented to an audience, with the intention of discrediting or ridiculing everything that person is about to say. Poisoning the well is a special case of argumentum ad hominem. The term was first used with this sense [1] by John Henry Newman in his Apologia Pro Vita Sua [2]. The term comes from anti-Semitic gossip in the Middle Ages that Jews caused plagues by poisoning the water supply.
This "argument" has the following form:
- 1. Unfavorable information (be it true or false) about person A is presented.
- 2. Therefore any claims person A makes will be false.
Examples:
- Before you listen to my opponent, may I remind you that he has been in jail.
- Don't listen to what he says, he's a lawyer.
In general usage, poisoning the well is the provision of any information that may produce a biased result. For example, if a woman tells her friend "I think I might buy this beautiful dress." then asks how it looks, she has "poisoned the well", as her previous comment could affect her friend's response.
Similarly, in written work, an inappropriate heading to a section or chapter can create pre-bias. As an example:
- The so-called "Theory" of Relativity
- We now examine the theory of relativity...
which has already "poisoned the well" to a balanced argument.
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