Do You Appeal to Emotion?
18. May, 2007 
6 Comments - Leave your comment
Appeal to Emotion is a common logical fallacy used by some bloggers to persuade users to an action emotionally rather than logically. The appeal to emotion fallacy can be used to win an argument or even to influence readers to perform certain actions.
Within this post I will list some reasons and common ways to appeal to emotion.
Reasons to Appeal to Emotion
The Argument Isn’t Logical
Everybody has some sort of logic built into them. Sometimes a plea doesn’t make sense from a logical stand-point. The parts do not equal the whole so-to-speak.
Why not use emotion to fill in the gaps that logic doesn’t? The minute laughter, pain, trauma, fear, or anger show up, logic can easily be put to the side.
The Argument Isn’t Objective
An objective argument is one made without bias or emotion. The best debates I ever had with someone were done objectively. There were no biases. There were no stereotypes. There were no motives. Each of us in the debate was arguing from an objective and logical standpoint. No voices were being raised. No tears were being shed. Nobody was claiming offense even though the subject matter wasn’t politically correct.
In the event that an argument cannot be won from an objective standpoint, why not use emotion to sway the other person into seeing your side?
The Argument Isn’t Winnable
There are some arguments that are lost before they have even begun. Why should we give to a particular charity that is obviously a fraud? Because a crying child suffering the ill-effects of starvation is on the home page?
You’ve probably received your fair share of Nigeria scam e-mails that claim that someone is in desperate help to get money out of Nigeria. This is an obvious scam. However, the plea for help and the prospect of making some cash is enough to convince people to give in.
How to ‘Appeal to Emotion’
Use Tragedy
After the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech, a website was set up to have a day of silence for all bloggers to remember victims of violence.
Would so many bloggers have gotten behind this movement had a tragedy not occurred?
Use Tragedy to Promote a Political Agenda
Why not use a tragic example (that has obvious emotional appeal) and compare it to a current argument? For example, a couple is slain in a home by some teenager. Why not point out all the previous killings done by teenagers and blame it on the rising popularity of violent video games?
Use History
Lorelle VanFossen recently encouraged her readers to participate in a One Day Blog Silence by talking about the experience of silence she experienced in Israel in remembrance of the deaths of over six million European Jews prior to and during World War II.
How can one argue against using such a profound historical example? Simple. A moment of silence over the deaths of six million Jews cannot be compared to the Virginia Tech massacre. The six million Jews were killed systematically in an act called genocide by many persons. Millions were displaced and entire families (spanning several generations) were lost. A moment of silence held for The Virginia Tech massacre simply cannot be compared to a moment of silence for the Holocaust.
Use Personal Circumstance
Some salespeople use this technique. They’ll come to your door and beg for a sale so that they can earn a trip, make a living, or meet some kind of quota. The argument isn’t about giving you what you want. It’s about “helping” the salesperson out by purchasing one of their products.
Use Imagery
One of the reasons I picked the above image for this particular post is because it does an effective job at communicating emotion. I could have easily have made up a story about how the woman’s family was in distress and needed some donations. Imagery is powerful. Marketers know this. Bloggers know this. The right image might just convince somebody who might otherwise have not taken action into taking action (regardless of the cause).
Conclusion
Within this post you learned how to recognize appeal to emotion. I encourage you to avoid the fallacy and use logic to persuade readers rather than emotions.
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I’m not sure I agree with this article. My blog is all about emotions, and if I were to simply rely on logic, I don’t feel that I would be able to reach my readers at all.
I think the danger of bringing emotion into a discussion is that it can bring a level of insincerity to the discussion, as you have described here. However, we are writing for human beings, and they are emotional. Honest appeals to emotion are, in my mind, the mark of a good writer.
Scott,
The appeals to emotion you speak of are simply tugging at someone’s emotions to relate or get a point across. Once it crosses the boundary into manipulation, then the Appeal to Emotion fallacy is committed.
I personally don’t think your blog falls into the “Appeal to Emotion fallacy” category.
From Wikipedia:
I agree with Ronald. Scott’s blog is great. Writing about emotions has nothing to do with manipulating your readers’ emotions.
Scott, thanks for commenting. You have an interesting point; how some concept can or cannot apply to a blog revolving around a certain theme. Like Ronald said, fallacy due to appeal to emotion is a form of manipulation in disguise, whereas your site focuses on emotions themselves.
I personally think that many times, bringing emotion into a topic can bring a level of sincerity into a discussion.
Thanks again for sharing your view on this, Scott.
Ronald, thanks for explaining what you meant and the meaning also.
Simonne, yes, I agree.
[this comment was edited by me, Bes, to remove the F word for the time being]
&^%$ your blog silence!
The preceding flashback has been a shameless self-promotion.