Tu Quoque Fallacy

Latin for “You Too”, also called “Appeal to Hypocrisy”

“You shouldn’t smoke. It’s unhealthy.”
“But you smoke!”

You commit the tu quoque fallacy when, instead of assessing advice or a claim on its merits, you accuse the speaker of not following it themselves. It is a kind of red herring. Whether the person giving the advice follows it has no bearing on the quality of the advice. Hypocrisy can be irritating, but it does not invalidate an argument.

You can also commit tu quoque when someone criticizes you and you reply that they do the same thing. Imagine Naomi is talking to Alfred and Alfred starts scrolling on his phone.

Naomi: “It hurts my feelings when you go on your phone when I’m talking to you. It makes me feel like you don’t care about what I have to say.”
Alfred: “Well, you did the same thing this morning!”

This conversation, which had the potential to resolve an issue, may now take a nasty turn. The fact that Naomi did the same thing does not make her concern invalid. Had Alfred acknowledged Naomi’s criticism before bringing up his own, they would likely have had a much more constructive conversation.

People often use tu quoque to deflect criticism; politicians are notorious for it in debates. But it undermines discussion and escalates conflict.

Next fallacy (Appeal to Nature)

Back to the Logical Fallacy Handbook

You can buy a printable version of this handbook.