Relationship of epistemic beliefs, grade level and identification of informal fallacies in Hong Kong secondary school students

Epistemic beliefs were found to be associated with the ability to identify fallacy. This study examined the joint function of Hong Kong students’ grade levels and epistemic beliefs on their ability to identify three types of fallacy. Sixty-two students completed the epistemic beliefs questionnaires and 4 fallacy tasks. MANOVA results revealed that grade 11 students have more sophisticated epistemic beliefs than grade 7 students. ANOVA results revealed that grade 11 students were better in identifying appeal to popularity fallacy only. Multiple regression showed that, Certainty and Complexity, predicted the identification of appeal to popularity fallacy, whereas grade level exerted no effect. This study sheds light on the understanding of epistemic beliefs and informal reasoning among teenagers in the Chinese culture.