affective fallacy

American  

noun

1. a proposition in literary criticism that a poem should be analyzed and described in terms of its own internal structure and not in terms of the emotional response it arouses in the reader.

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Etymology

Origin of affective fallacy

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

When making the case for Dark Souls, almost every defender stumbles into the affective fallacy, wherein the value of a work is tied to the emotions it dredges up from its audience.

From Slate