More often, it behaves like a defence lawyer, marshalling arguments for conclusions we reached for entirely different reasons. Bad arguments rarely persuade us because they are logically compelling. Why We Fall for Bad ArgumentsPlato feared that rhetoric had become detached from truth, while Aristotle sought to distinguish valid reasoning from mere persuasion. But neither believed that bad arguments prevailed simply because people lacked intelligence. We do not cling to bad arguments because we are in need of illumination.