What does the term red herring mean?

Answer 1

It has a number of metaphorical senses that share the general sense of something being a diversion or distraction from the original objective:

* a type of logical fallacy in which one purports to prove one's point by means of irrelevant arguments. See Ignoratio elenchi.
* in politics, a minor or even phony issue trumped up as being of great importance, in order to influence voters to vote for one party or candidate and against the other, or distract from more important issues that might help the opposing party.
* in literature, a plot device intended to distract the reader from a more important event in the plot, usually a twist ending. See also MacGuffin.
* in detective work, mystery fiction, and puzzle-solving, a false clue which leads investigators, readers, or solvers towards an incorrect solution.
* in adventure games, an item or object of no practical use; its purpose may be to frustrate the gamer who tries to find the intended use for it. In The Secret Of Monkey Island a red herring is ironically a key item for progression in the game. And in Simon the Sorcerer 2, Simon makes a comment about a carriage that he always thought herrings would be fishes.

The phrase may have originated from the practice of saving a hunted fox by dragging a red herring across its trail to cause the pursuing hounds to lose the true scent and follow the false trail of herring odour instead. In this context the Oxford English Dictionary records its first written use occurring in 1686 "To draw a red herring across the track". There are however reasons to question this attribution of the metaphor.[1] There also is a nursery rhyme, 'The Man in the Wilderness', in which a man answers the question of how many strawberries grew in the sea with 'As many as red herrings grew in the wood'.

Answer 2

A Red Herring is a trick, used in discussion or debate, to send the other person off in the wrong direction:

Also Known as: Smoke Screen, Wild Goose Chase.

Description of Red Herring
A Red Herring is a fallacy in which an irrelevant topic is presented in order to divert attention from the original issue. The basic idea is to "win" an argument by leading attention away from the argument and to another topic. This sort of "reasoning" has the following form:


Topic A is under discussion.
Topic B is introduced under the guise of being relevant to topic A (when topic B is actually not relevant to topic A).
Topic A is abandoned.
This sort of "reasoning" is fallacious because merely changing the topic of discussion hardly counts as an argument against a claim.

Examples of Red Herring

"We admit that this measure is popular. But we also urge you to note that there are so many bond issues on this ballot that the whole thing is getting ridiculous."

"Argument" for a tax cut:
"You know, I've begun to think that there is some merit in the Republican's tax cut plan. I suggest that you come up with something like it, because If we Democrats are going to survive as a party, we have got to show that we are as tough-minded as the Republicans, since that is what the public wants."


"Argument" for making grad school requirements stricter:
"I think there is great merit in making the requirements stricter for the graduate students. I recommend that you support it, too. After all, we are in a budget crisis and we do not want our salaries affected."

Answer 3

A 'red herring' is 'a misleading clue'.
If you are trying to track an animal (or a person) with dogs dragging red herring (smoked herring) across the trail will usually be enough to confuse the scent. So a red herring is something which puts you off the right track (or at least tries to).

Answer 4

It is a term used by mystery writers to indicate a clue that leads in the wrong direction or is misleading. There are other uses, but I think that is the most common. The old Agatha Christie mysteries always had a "red herring".

Answer 5

A red herring is "something used to divert attention from the basic issue." It derives from smoked herring, which turn red when cured. The red herrign were supposedly used by fugitives to put bloodhounds off the scent.

Answer 6

A Red Herring is a false clue planted in order to throw you off the right track.

Answer 7

It is a legal term and also a fish.

When something is done to throw off an investigation to an untrue cause would be an example.

There is an article online in the Wikipedia, but I know of it from other sources.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_herring

Answer 8

It means to watch out for something sneaky, a trick. something or soemthing to lead you astray.
For example if you were following seomone and they left you a delibert false trail it;s a known as a red herring or trick.

Answer 9

way back when they trained the dogs to catch theives and criminals they used red herrings to train them, but the problem with this is that the criminals got smart and used red herrings to distract the dogs scent while they got away, thats where it came from :)

Answer 10

When you got it it wasn't what you expected it to be.
A fake like fools gold.
Barking up the wrong tree.
The wild goose in the wild goose chase.

A deliberate false thing or clue to mislead you.