Universal Principles of Design, Updated and Expanded Third Edition
by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, Jill Butler
011 Appeal to Nature
The tendency to believe natural things are inherently better than human-created things.
The appeal to nature is a fallacy that occurs when something is deemed superior simply because it evolved in nature or inferior because it’s human created. It is also a cognitive bias in which people interpret “natural” as a cue for “safe”, leading to a preference for natural things and a bias against synthetic things. Examples of appeals to nature include preferences for herbal remedies, organic foods, and all-natural ingredients, and biases against baby formulas, genetically modified foods, and vaccines.1
The fallacy occurs with conscious deliberation, whereas the bias operates below conscious awareness. For example, in an early example ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access