zohnerism means the use of a true fact to lead a scientifically and mathematically ignorant public to a false conclusion. It carries an Arena rating of 1500, earned across 94 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, zohnerism ranks #22 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #609 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #1,810 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #1,914 of 17,131 for Scariest Words.
Why “zohnerism” is a great word
ZOHNERISM — [Noun] The rhetorical tactic of using a true fact to mislead a scientifically or mathematically uninformed audience into accepting a false conclusion. From the surname Zohner (of Nathan Zohner, a 14-year-old student whose 1997 science fair project demonstrated the phenomenon) + the suffix -ism (denoting a practice or system). Coined by journalist James K. Glassman. Unlike sophistry, which trades in clever falsehoods, or misinformation, which peddles outright falsehoods, zohnerism is a more insidious graft: it forges a deceptive key from a nugget of pure truth. It is the alarming statistic about a chemical's ubiquity presented without the crucial context of dosage, the mathematically sound percentage increase whispered to imply a looming crisis, or the earnest headline declaring a benign substance is found in every tumor—a practice that proves the most dangerous falsehoods are built not upon invented sand, but upon displaced stones of truth.
Etymology
From Zohner + -ism. In 1997, Nathan Zohner, a 14-year-old student at Eagle Rock Junior High School in Idaho Falls, Idaho, gathered 43 votes (out of 50 ninth-graders surveyed) to ban a chemical that proved to be water. Zohner received the first prize at Greater Idaho Falls Science Fair for analysis of the results of his survey. In recognition of his experiment, journalist James K. Glassman coined the term "Zohnerism" to refer to "the use of a true fact to lead a scientifically and mathematically ignorant public to a false conclusion".
noun
- The use of a true fact to lead a scientifically and mathematically ignorant public to a false conclusion.e.g.“The dihydrogen monoxide parody is an example of the effects of Zohnerism.”
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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