What Will It Take to Make Great Salt Lake Great Again? 67%

4/13/2026, 8:59:46 PM

BS Summary: This article contains 17 faulty reasoning types, including Halo Effect, Pessimism Bias, and Recency Bias, with Appeal to Authority as the most egregious example at 41.2% saturation with 63 hits. Analysis detected 414 faulty-reasoning hits from 153 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 60.7% and a BS Rank of 67% (5,698 of 16,813 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 66.10% of the article peer group.

Some observers may have balked when President Trump posted on social media earlier this year promising to “MAKE ‘THE LAKE’ GREAT AGAIN.” 
He backed it up in his budget proposal to Congress, requesting a billion dollars to ensure Great Salt Lake’s long-term sustainability. 
The challenge, says BYU ecologist Ben Abbott, will be turning that money into water that can actually help fill the lake. 
Abbott and biologist Bonnie Baxter join us to talk about how the lake is doing and where it’s headed after a dry winter, a warm spring, and an active legislative session. 
GUESTS 
Ben Abbott is an assistant professor of ecosystem ecology at Brigham Young University and executive director of Grow the Flow, an non-profit advocacy group. 
Bonnie Baxter is a professor of biology at Westminster College and director of the Great Salt Lake Institute. 
Broadcast April 16, 2026 
Confirmation Bias
13.7%
Anchoring Bias
0%
Availability Heuristic
14.4%
Representativeness Heuristic
0%
Hindsight Bias
0%
Overconfidence Bias
0%
Framing Effect
7.2%
Loss Aversion
0%
Status Quo Bias
7.2%
Sunk Cost Effect
0%
Optimism Bias
0%
Pessimism Bias
20.3%
Negativity Bias
13.7%
Self-Serving Bias
0%
Fundamental Attribution Error
0%
Actor-Observer Bias
0%
In-Group Bias
0%
Out-Group Homogeneity Bias
0%
Halo Effect
27.5%
Horn Effect
0%
Dunning-Kruger Effect
0%
Recency Bias
20.3%
Primacy Effect
14.4%
Blind-Spot Bias
0%
Ad Hominem
0%
Straw Man
0%
Appeal to Authority
41.2%
False Dilemma
0%
Slippery Slope
0%
Circular Reasoning
0%
Hasty Generalization
0%
Red Herring
0%
Bandwagon
0%
Appeal to Emotion
0%
Begging the Question
13.7%
Post Hoc (False Cause)
20.3%
Tu Quoque
0%
Burden of Proof
0%
Appeal to Nature
0%
Composition/Division
0%
Anecdotal
0%
No True Scotsman
0%
Ambiguity (Equivocation)
7.2%
Gambler’s Fallacy
0%
Middle Ground
0%
Personal Incredulity
0%
Special Pleading
0%
Genetic Fallacy
0%
Unattributed Quote
14.4%
Quote-first Misdirection
14.4%
Biased Writer Voice
7.2%
Indoctrination
0%
Politically Left Leaning Bias
0%
Politically Right Leaning Bias
13.7%
Attempt to Sell a Product or Service
0%

153 words analyzed.

Analysis

Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.