Concept · Cognitive Bias: Informal fallacies of relevance
Appeal to consequences (argumentum ad consequentiam)
Origin: Traditional Latin rhetoric
Biological Parallel
Ground squirrels suppress alarm calls when predators are near their burrows—warning others would reveal the burrow location and doom their offspring. This consequence-based silence seems logical but operates independently of whether a threat actually exists. The appeal to consequences exploits our ancestral calculations where outcomes (survival, reproduction) mattered infinitely more than accuracy. Brains evolved to maximize fitness, not truth; we're wired to ask 'what happens if I believe this?' before 'is this actually true?'