Question

What is the difference between a red herring and a straw man fallacy?

Answer 1

Hint: A fallacy would be the use of false or flawed logic, often "wrong moves." A red herring fallacy involves diverting topics and the straw man fallacy is related to misinterpretation of the concept in such a way that the addressed statement is partially distorted.

Complete answer:
First, let us understand in detail the red herring fallacy and straw man fallacy before we find the differential factor amongst them. Remember that a misleading false claim can appear to be stronger than it should be, such an occurrence is a fallacy; it would be the use of false or flawed logic

To define a red herring fallacy; mainly involves diverting attention away from the actual problem by concentrating on something that has just a passing connection to the first.

Similarly, we can define the straw man fallacy; to be that which happens when anyone takes a person's statement or points, misrepresents or magnifies that to the point of absurdity, and afterwards addresses the severe distortion as though it were the original assertion.

So clearly both of them have an underlying meaning; that is the spreading of false information. Generally, that is what a fallacy means. Now moving on to the difference between them;

A red herring would be a fallacy that utilizes an unnecessary statement to divert attention away from the larger point. A straw man argument is really a red herring since it diverts attention away from the key point by misrepresenting the rival's case. In a nutshell, every straw man fallacy would be a variant for red herring. The red herring is often driving away from the original point and straw man is to misinterpret the point.

Here the example for the red herring fallacy would be;
First-person: I am tired of doing homework, Didi.
Second person: There are starving children in Africa, there are people with bigger problems than you Richa.
In the above conversation, the first person has said that they are tired of doing homework but the second person changes the topic to something that has no relation to what the first person says. The second person is inconsiderate to the words spoken by the first person and has diverted the topic, so it is a red herring fallacy.

Here an example for the straw man fallacy would be;
First Person: Sherina wants to buy a dog, not a cat.
Second Person: Why does Sherina hate cats?
In the above conversation, the first person wishes to buy a dog rather than a cat, this may be because that person likes dogs but it does not mean that the person dislikes cats. The second person has misinterpreted what the first person said. So it becomes a straw man fallacy since the first person’s hatred for cats may not be the reason for not wanting a cat, it may simply mean that they like dogs more.

Note: Both red herring and straw man fallacies are informal fallacies. The Informal Fallacy is a grammatical mistake with what you're conveying, or when there is an error in your argument's substance. Although the concepts are well-organized, anything you said is incorrect.