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Red Herring Facts & Worksheets

A red herring deviates from or confuses a pertinent or significant subject.

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A red herring deviates from or confuses a pertinent or significant subject. It could be a literary technique or a logical mistake that steers readers or audiences in the wrong direction. A red herring may be employed in arguments unintentionally or purposely, as in mystery novels or as part of persuasive techniques (such as politics).

See the fact file below for more information about Red Herring, or download the comprehensive worksheet pack, which contains  5 worksheets and can be used in the classroom or homeschooling environment.

Key Facts & Information

Outline of a Red Herring:

  • Topic A is contested.
  • The speaker raises Topic B, which is unrelated to Topic A.
  • Because Topic B is more important than Topic A, it needs to be remembered or addressed.

History

  • The term “red herring” refers to a particularly potent kipper made from fish (typically herring) that has been strongly brine-cured or heavily smoked rather than a specific fish species. The term “strongly cured kipper” can be traced back to the mid-13th century in the poetry  of Bibbesworth’s The Treatise by Walter: “He ete no ffyssh But heryng red.” This process results in the fish having a particularly pungent smell and turning its flesh reddish.
  • There are several versions of the story, but one claims that the smelly red herring was tugged along a trail until a puppy learned to follow the scent. Later, when the dog was being taught to heed the faint odor of a fox or a badger, the coach would drag a red herring (whose intense scent baffles the animal) perpendicular to the training trail. The dog eventually mastered following the original scent instead of the more potent one. 
  • The phrase “Drawing a red herring across the path” is defined by Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1981) as “to divert attention from the main question by some side issue.” Once more, a “dried, smoked and salted” herring, when “drawn across a fox’s path, destroy the scent and sets the hounds at fault.”Another variation of the dog story was provided by Robert Hendrickson (1994), who says fugitive inmates used the firm fish to deter hounds from pursuing them.
  • The phrase did not originate from a hunting practice, according to two articles by Professor Gerald Cohen and Robert Scott Ross that were published in Comments on Etymology (2008), supported by etymologist Michael Quinion, and accepted by the Oxford English Dictionary.
  •  Ross looked into the background of the tale and discovered the earliest mention of using herrings for training animals was in a tract on horsemanship written in 1697 by Gerland Langbaine. Langbaine advised readers to use herrings.
  • Nicholas Cox misinterpreted this advice and wrote that it should be used to train hounds in the notes of another book published around the same time (not horses). In any case, the herring was used to direct the hounds and horses along the trail rather than to divert them from it.
  • According to Cohen and Ross, and supported by the OED, this is the origin of the symbolic meaning of the red herring. In the article, radical journalist William Cobbett criticizes the English press for incorrectly reporting Napoleon’s defeat. The earliest reference to using herring for distracting hounds is a piece published on February 14, 1807, in his controversial periodical Political Register.
  •  It was only a temporary effect of the political red herring because, on Saturday, the scent turned as cold as stone, according to Cobbett’s account of using a red herring to divert hounds pursuing a hare. Quinion adds: “This story, and [Cobbett’s] extended repetition of it in 1833, was enough to get the figurative sense of the term red herring into his readers’ minds, regrettably also with the false notion that it originated from some actual hunting practice.
  • Although Cobbett popularized the figurative usage, Thomas Nashe wrote in his 1599 pamphlet Nashe’s Lenten Stuffe, “Next, to draw on hounds to a scent, to a red herring skin there is nothing comparable,” that red herring was used for scenting hounds in a literal sense. The Oxford English Dictionary makes no connection between Nashe’s statement and the symbolic meaning of the red herring.
  • In MythBusters Episode 148, the effectiveness of using herring to divert pursuing scent hounds was tested. Even though the testing hound was a female, it temporarily lost the fugitive’s scent when it stopped to eat the fish, but eventually found the target, and the myth was labeled “Busted” by the show.

Logical Fallacy

  • The red herring fallacy belongs to a large category of informal relevance fallacies. The red Herring is a diversionary strategy that appears convincing at first but is eventually unimportant, as opposed to the straw man, which includes distorting the other party’s stance.
  • The Oxford English Dictionary states that a red herring need not be intended to fool; it might be accidental or purposeful.
  • The phrase is typically used to claim that an argument has no bearing on the discussed subject. For instance, “I believe we should increase the academic standards for kids, and I strongly urge you to support this since we are in a financial crisis and we do not want our pay to be impacted.”
  • Despite being used to support the first statement, the second sentence does not touch that subject.

Intentional device

  • In fiction and non-fiction, the author may use a red herring to elicit a misleading inference from readers or viewers.
  • For instance, Bishop Aringarosa in Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code is portrayed for most of the book as being at the center of the church’s plots. Still, it is revealed that he was the innocent victim of the plot’s real adversary.
  • The character’s name is a rough translation of “red herring” in Italian (aring rosa; rosa means pink and very close to rossa, red).
  • When the murderer writes the word “Rache” (which means “revenge” in German) at the crime scene in the 1st Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, it serves as a red herring and leads the reader and the police to believe—incorrectly—that a German was involved.
  • Red herrings are frequently used in legal studies and exam problems to deceive and divert students from coming to the correct conclusion about a legal issue. This technique gauges how well students understand the underlying law and their capacity to identify critical factual circumstances accurately.

Other Logic Fallacies vs. Red Herrings

  • A red herring is an informal logical fallacy.  It is due to the lack of a rational blueprint for how a red herring causes a fallacy.
  • Any time throughout a debate, a red herring might be used to divert attention.
  • A speaker uses a strategy to win a discussion, even when it has little to do with the subject.
  • A formal logical fallacy draws an incorrect conclusion from an error in the logic of the argument. A formal fallacy is a fault that results from the deduction.
  • Although formal fallacies are strong arguments, the reasoning needs to be revised. 

Other Examples of Informal Fallacies:

  • Ad hominem: an attack on a person rather than an issue
  • Non-sequitur: when the premise and conclusion do not coincide.
  • False dilemma: consideration of constrained findings when more is feasible.
  • Straw man: Responding to a spurious argument that the opponent did not make
  • Begging the question: supposing the result

The Purpose of a Red Herring

  • A red herring is used to divert attention during a debate. A red herring distracts the audience’s focus from the main point.
  • A red herring’s primary function is to confuse and distract the audience’s attention. For a variety of reasons, a speaker might do this:
  • The available data needs to support his claim sufficiently. He wants to highlight a weakness he perceives in his rival. He is manipulating his audience’s feelings.
  • Speakers should recognize red herrings. An audience should also be able to spot a red herring.
  • Red herrings effectively persuade audiences of an argument because they frequently have a more robust emotional component.
  • When the speaker is conscious that he is detracting from his case or believes it is the best approach to win an argument, red herrings can be used in debate. Red herrings should also be avoided because they do not make sense logically.

Red Herrings in Literature

  • Red herrings may appear in thrillers or mystery books. In this fashion, a character who looks “guilty” may be used by the author as a “red herring” to generate intrigue and divert the reader’s attention away from the actual offender.
  • Political speeches tend to use red herrings more frequently. It is so that the speaker may divert attention from the issue and win the audience around to his point of view.
  • Red herrings are effective in political speeches, even though they assume the audience won’t spot the error.

Red Herring in Popular Usage

  • Currency manipulation has always been a smokescreen. Like other countries, the United States policy affects currency levels by altering interest rates and the money supply. – Wall Street Journal
  • Although the attorney general says his choice would increase public safety, this is a smokescreen for Herring’s anti-gun agenda. – Washington Post.

Red Herring Worksheets

This bundle contains 5 ready-to-use Red Herring worksheets that are perfect to test student knowledge and understanding of a red herring which is something, whether it be words or actions, that is used to distract someone from an important topic or issue.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a red herring?  

A red herring deviates from or confuses a pertinent or significant subject. It could be a literary technique or a logical mistake that steers readers or audiences in the wrong direction. A red herring may be employed in arguments unintentionally or purposely, as in mystery novels or as part of persuasive techniques (such as politics).

Why is red herring a type of informal logical fallacy?

A red herring is an informal logical fallacy, and it is due to the lack of a rational blueprint for how a red herring causes a fallacy.

What are examples of other informal fallacies?

Other informal fallacies are ad hominem, Non-sequitur, False dilemma, Straw man, and Begging the question. 

What is the purpose of red Herring?  

A red herring is used to divert attention during a debate. A red herring distracts the audience’s focus from the main point.

When should we not use red herrings?  

When the speaker is conscious that he is detracting from his case or believes it is the best approach to win an argument, red herrings can be used in debate. Other than that, red herrings should also be avoided because they do not make sense logically.

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Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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