''Argumentum ad lazarum'' or appeal to poverty is the

informal fallacy Informal fallacies are a type of incorrect argument in natural language. The source of the error is not just due to the ''form'' of the argument, as is the case for formal fallacies, but can also be due to their ''content'' and ''context''. Fallac ...

of thinking a conclusion is correct solely because the speaker is poor, or it is incorrect because the speaker is rich. It is named after

Lazarus Lazarus may refer to: People *Lazarus (name), a surname and a given name * Lazarus of Bethany, a Biblical figure described as being raised from the dead by Jesus * Lazarus, a Biblical figure from the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus * Lazar ...

, a beggar in a

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

parable A parable is a succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse, that illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. It differs from a fable in that fables employ animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters, whe ...

who receives his reward in the afterlife. A common summary of the fallacy is "Poor, but honest". The opposite is the ''

argumentum ad crumenam An ''argumentum ad crumenam'' argument, also known as an argument to the purse, is the informal fallacy of drawing conclusions based on the speaker's financial status. The term generally refers to the assumption that having wealth is indicative of ...

''. Some experimental evidence supports the appeal to poverty. A 2017 study by Igor Grossmann and Justin Brienza at the University of Waterloo in Canada found that when "wisdom" is defined as the ability to consider opposing perspectives and find a compromise that defuses an interpersonal dispute, poor and working-class people are more likely to show such an ability than are those in higher socioeconomic classes.Justin P. Brienza, Igor Grossmann
"Social class and wise reasoning about interpersonal conflicts across regions, persons and situations"
''Proceedings of the Royal Society B'', 2017-12-20. Accessed 2017-12-23. As with all fallacies though, the tendency is not absolute.

Examples

* "Family farms are struggling to get by so when they say we need to protect them, they must be on to something." * "The homeless tell us it's hard to find housing. Thus it must be." * "The monks have forsworn all material possessions. They must have achieved enlightenment." * "All you need to know about the civil war in that country is that the rebels live in mud huts, while the general who sends troops against them sits in a luxurious, air-conditioned office."

References

{{Fallacies Genetic fallacies Latin philosophical phrases Latin logical phrases Poverty