I think people are hopelessly addicted to competition, and that individuals who commit logical fallacies are those who prioritize "winning" and/or capturing authority from others, over and ahead of reasoning and personal honesty.

There's certainly cowardice in there, in that people tend to attack and attempt to subdue and defeat any and everything that threatens their identity and/or "inner story".

The identity is the collection of meanings, symbols, stories, beliefs, agreements, habits, practices, attitudes, behaviors, outlooks, allegiances and social treatments and effects that individuals collect throughout the course of their lives and seek to self-actualize through.

The identity is basically the story the individual actor tells themself about the world around them, and their place and value within it.

When people experience cognitive dissonance and/or aggression, it usually stems from reality (or individuals performing within reality) not conforming to the identity and/or inner story.

A coward is simply a person who's afraid to face reality; and who, instead of facing and dealing reality, either freezes or retreats in the face of uncertainty, or attacks and tries to destroy that which makes them feel insecure and uncertain, OR (in the case of aggressive cowards) tries to capture false feelings of power, by taking power from others (e.g. bullies, tribalists, pedophiles, rapists, etc).