Your little Tommy wants a slingshot for his birthday, but you shouldn't give him one. If you do, next he'll want a B-B gun. Then
a 22 rifle. After that it will be a high powered rifle, and then an Uzi and an AK-47. Soon he'll want a bazooka and after that an antiaircraft gun. In no time your home will become an armory. a. Red herring. b. Missing the point. c. No fallacy. d. False cause. e. Slippery slope.
A fallacy is a flawed way of reasoning that ends up invalidating an argument. In the paragraph we are analyzing here, the type of fallacy used is called slippery slope.
Slippery slope is a reasoning that, from little evidence, develops a whole sequence of events that get more and more serious. It often ends with a catastrophic consequence. In this case, the speaker goes from a child wanting a slingshot to that child, in the future, owning several different types of heavy weapons.
The social influence model has its basis on the Social Learning Theory proposed by Bandura, which indicates that behavior comes from either positive or negative influences. Individuals that are part of the social sphere (such as parents and peers) and subjection to the media usually work as impact models, representing proper or improper behavior.
