Red herring

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A red herring is something that misleads or distracts from an important question, a relevant argument, or the solving of a mystery or crime. It may be a deliberate literary device that leads readers or audiences toward a false conclusion, typically in order to heighten suspense or to make a plot twist more shocking, as is common in mystery fiction. It may also be a logical fallacy or a rhetorical strategy (e.g., in politics) used in argumentation, either intentionally or unintentionally. The expression was popularized in 1807 by the English polemicist William Cobbett, who told a story of having used a strong-smelling smoked herring to divert and distract hounds from chasing a rabbit.

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