Appeal to Authority Fallacy / Authority Bias

This can be both be a Fallacy and a Cognitive Bias.

Insisting that a claim is true simply because a valid authority or expert on the issue said it was true, without any other supporting evidence offered.

Don’t get this wrong. Appeal to Authority (ethos) is usually very much part of Rhetoric.

Note

“While appeals to authority are by no means always fallacious, they can quickly become dangerous when you rely too heavily on the opinion of a single person — especially if that person is attempting to validate something outside of their expertise.

Getting an authority figure to back your proposition can be a powerful addition to an existing argument, but it can’t be the pillar your entire argument rests on. Just because someone in a position of power believes something to be true, doesn’t make it true.” Source: Hubspot