... a red herring ... is a clue which makes you come to a wrong conclusion or something which looks like a clue but isn't.
(M. Haddon, the curious incident of the dog in the night-time, Vintage Books, 2003)

What Is Red Herring?

A red herring is an artificial distraction from the essence of the problem. A red herring is a superficial and redundant piece of information that often complicates the formulation and obscurs the nature, of the problem. This could be a valuable device of problem posing that forces the solvers to investigate the problem first, separate what's important from what is not, and focus on the former.

Below are several examples.

 

  • What Is Red Herring

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