It is how you persuade your audience by appealing to their emotions.

You probably have seen the TV commercials for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals featuring celebrities such as the singer Sarah McClachlan and images of sad, abandoned animals. Those commercials have been running for years and are notable because they have raised a staggering amount of money for the ASPCA.[1] How do those commercials make you feel when you watch them? Would they be as effective if they didn’t appeal to our emotions?

Convincing an audience to believe something or do something often can’t be achieved by only appealing to their sense of reasoning. Persuaders also need to know how to appeal to emotions in an effective and ethical way.

When we talk about appealing to emotions, we are talking about pathos: the emotions a speaker is able to appeal to and awaken in their audience. Common emotions speakers try to raise in their audience include sympathy, joy, humor, anger, and fear. One of the most common ways to bring emotional appeals into a speech is to use memorable examples. Stories, for example, can be compelling in the way they can personalize an otherwise general or abstract issue.

For instance, people who fundraise for charities or nonprofits often share with potential donors concrete stories of specific people to illustrate how donations can materially change lives for the better. These stories can tap into the emotions of the audience and help the audience identify with the subject of the story.

Politicians frequently use stories to grab an audience’s attention and move them to feel emotion. In almost every State of the Union Address for decades now, for example, the president illustrates policy initiatives by using stories of real people who are often invited to the speech and are sitting in the audience. Those stories are often the most powerful and remembered moments of the State of the Union Address.

To Watch: John MCCAin, “Joe The Plumber”

In politics, one of the classic appeals to pathos is to use one person’s story to argue for or against a policy position. During the final debate in the 2008 presidential campaign, Republican candidate John McCain invoked a small-business owner named Joe Wurzelbacher to attack Obama’s proposed tax initiatives: “What you want to do to Joe the Plumber and millions more like him is have their taxes increased.” Several times during the debate, McCain and Obama sparred about how Obama’s tax and health-care policies would affect “Joe the Plumber” (at 0:05 and 2:18 in the clip below). McCain was hoping that viewers of the debate would be outraged by the idea that this hard-working tradesperson would see increased taxes under the Obama plan. Whether or not the plan would actually increase taxes on the average plumber (an idea energetically disputed by Obama) is beside the point: McCain’s “Joe the Plumber” story is an appeal to pathos.

You can view the transcript for “The Final Three-Minute Debate | TIME” here (opens in new window).

Word choices are also key to effective emotional appeals. Vivid, powerful, and emotion-laden language can be very effective in moving an audience. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is a classic example of the way a speaker uses vivid word choices to appeal to the emotions and values of an audience.

Emotional appeals can be very effective, but they can also be overdone or used poorly. When using emotional appeals, be sincere and respectful of the audience. Emotional appeals can backfire when the audience perceives the speaker is being phony or manipulative. Also don’t rely solely on emotional appeals as doing so can be seen as less persuasive than an argument that balances emotional appeals with the use of good reasoning and evidence.

Ethos, Pathos, and Logos are referred to as the 3 Persuasive Appeals (Aristotle coined the terms) and are all represented by Greek words. They are modes of persuasion used to convince audiences.

Ethos

Ethos, or the appeal to ethics, refers to the effort to convince your audience of your credibility or character. Before you can convince an audience to accept anything you say, they have to accept you. Whether you are creating a flier, giving a presentation, applying for a job, or teaching a workshop, people won’t be persuaded by you unless they trust you. When it comes to communication, trust can be built in a number of ways. It is up to you to understand how you need to respond in each situation and adapt accordingly.

Ethos can be promoted by choosing appropriate language & vocabulary (dependent on the audience and topic), by making yourself look honest, by paying attention to your movements and the way you dress (for your digital presence pay attention to design details, functionality, content, etc.) and by documenting on the areas of your expertise. Ethos finally, may be hard to acquire and maintain, sometimes it may take years to build a strong, credible reputation which can be lost in minutes…

Pathos

Pathos, or the appeal to emotions, refers to the effort to persuade your audience by making an appeal to their feelings. Your audience is more receptive to being persuaded by someone with whom they can identify. Pathos can be used in a variety of ways (to promote positive and negative feelings) as it is the Greek word for referring both to “suffering” and “experience”. When you use pathos to persuade your audience, you need to make them feel an emotion in order to act. Any emotion can cause people to act, (happiness, compassion, nostalgia, anger etc.) even in a ‘small scale’.

Pathos can be promoted by using simple & meaningful language, emotional tone of voice (oral or written), pauses and emotional metaphors or stories. Remember however, most people are aware of when we are trying to touch their emotions and we need to do it cautiously and responsibly. Generally, pathos is most effective when used in the introduction and conclusion. You want to grab readers' attention in the beginning and to leave them with conviction at the end and emotion is a useful tool for those purposes.

Logos

Logos, or the appeal to logic, refers to the effort to convince your audience by using logic and reason. Effective arguments should include testimonials, surveys and other supporting details to back up your claims/positions. Logos means to document your point through storytelling, logical arguments, facts, recorded evidence, historical data and literal analogies.

When using logos to persuade, you need to ensure that you have found facts, stories and information that ‘matter’ to your audience and that you will present them in a way that makes sense (to them).

Did you know that

2300 years ago, Aristotle compiled his thoughts on the art of rhetoric into “Rhetoric”. Many people consider it to be the most important work to have influenced communication and it is as relevant today as it was in ancient Greece.

In a sentence, to be an effective persuader, you need to utilize all three pillars of persuasion: ethos, logos, and pathos. Use ethos in the beginning to set up your creditability and to make you readers/listeners relate to you. Use logos, or logic, to argue and build your points. Finish up with pathos, or the emotional appeal as people will act based on their emotions, and that is, after all, your ultimate goal.

What is to persuade by appealing to the audience's emotions?

What emotions are used to persuade?

How does it persuade the audience?