Arguments should be valid and credible. This is how we prepare ourselves if we want to win over our counterpart for a project idea. We deliberately focus on the three most important arguments, the weakest in the middle and the strongest at the end.
So what about assessing a large number of counter-arguments? Reality shows that we can easily be deceived by the mere stringing together of many arguments. Even if the individual arguments are weak or even wrong, their sheer number gives our intuitive thinking the feeling that there is ‘something’ to them. The effect sets in with just ten arguments, as Pascal Wagner-Egger points out in the NZZ article.
However, our analytical thinking can counteract this: by scrutinising each individual argument and not allowing itself to be influenced by how many arguments there are, but only evaluating their strength.
