Reasoning Skills and Appeals to Emotion Help

Introduction to Reasoning Skills and Appeals to Emotion

"They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel."

—Carl W. Buechner, author (1926–)

Lesson Summary

Arguments that appeal to people's emotions rather than to their sense of logic and reason abound in everyday life. In this lesson, you'll learn how to recognize several common appeals to emotion so that you can make more informed and logical decisions.

One of your coworkers, Ronald, is running for union representative. You've known him for several years. Ronald is good friends with your supervisor, Shawn, so you see him often—and you don't like what you see. You've seen Ronald treat other coworkers unfairly and talk rudely behind people's backs. You've decided to support another candidate who has always impressed you with her work ethic and generosity. But the day before the election, Ronald says to you, "I know I can count on your vote on Tuesday. After all, I know how much your job means to you. And you know that Shawn and I go back a long way." Even though you are on the committee that set up the voting procedure and voting booths, even though you know that it's almost impossible for Ronald to determine how you voted, and even though you're sure Shawn values you too much to fire you over your vote, you still vote for Ronald. Why? How did he get your vote?

It's probably not hard to see that Ronald took advantage of your desire to protect your well-being. Though you know better, he still made you think that your job was in jeopardy if you didn't vote for him. He got your vote not by arguing with any reason or logic, but by manipulating your emotions.

There are many strategies people will use to try to convince you that their conclusions are sound. Unfortunately, many of these strategies appear to be logical when, in fact, they're not. These strategies—often called logical fallacies or pseudoreasoning (false reasoning)—can lead you to make poor decisions and accept arguments that really don't hold water. That's why the next three lessons go over some of the most common logical fallacies. The more of them you can recognize—and the more you can avoid them in your own arguments—the better problem solver and decision-maker you will be.

This lesson addresses four fallacies that appeal to your emotions rather than to your sense of reason: scare tactics, flattery, peer pressure, and appeals to pity.

Scare Tactics

In the opening scenario, Ronald appealed to your emotion of fear. You voted for him out of fear that you might lose your job if you didn't. He used his relationship with your supervisor to frighten you into accepting his conclusion (that you should vote for him). He didn't provide you with any logical reasons for giving him your vote; instead, he played upon your emotions. He used a logical fallacy known as scare tactics.

Scare tactics are used very commonly in deductive arguments, and they can be quite powerful. Though sometimes scare tactics cross the line and can become very real threats to your physical or emotional well-being, in most cases, you're not in any real danger. Once you know what to look for, you can see right through scare tactics. For example, read the following argument:

Support Governor Wilson, or your children will receive a poor public school education.

Sounds convincing, doesn't it? After all, who wants their children to receive a poor education? But is this a good argument? Notice that the only reason this argument gives you for supporting the conclusion is emotional. It aims to frighten you into supporting Governor Wilson. The argument would be much more powerful if it also provided a logical reason for your support.

Tip

Do you read horror novels? Go to scary movies? It can be fun to get scared when you know that you are really safe. Arguments based on scaring you, on the other hand, are not enjoyable nor are they trustworthy. If someone is trying to persuade you of something by frightening you, it's a red flag.

Flattery

They say flattery will get you nowhere, but they're wrong. Flattery is powerful. So powerful, in fact, that it often leads people to make poor decisions and to accept arguments that really have no logical basis. Just as people can appeal to the sense of fear, they can also appeal to our vanity, which is another logical fallacy. Here's an example:

You're a good citizen. You care about the future. That's why we know we can count on you to reelect Senator Houseman.

Notice how this argument doesn't give you any logical reasons for reelecting Senator Houseman. Instead, it flatters you; you like hearing that you're a good citizen and someone who cares about the future. While this may be true about you, is that any reason to reelect the senator? Not without evidence that he's done a good job during his first term. This argument doesn't give any evidence of his job performance.

Here's another example of an appeal to vanity:

"Professor Wilkins, this is the best class I've ever taken. I'm learning so much from you! Thank you. By the way, I know that I missed an exam last week and that you normally don't let students make up missed exams. However, since you are such an excellent teacher, I thought you'd allow me to make up the test."

Here, the student doesn't give the teacher any reason to make an exception to her no-make-up policy. She may indeed be an excellent teacher and the student may indeed be learning a lot from her, but he's not giving her any good reasons; he's just buttering her up to get her to say yes.

Peer Pressure

Along with fear and vanity, another extremely powerful emotion is our desire to be accepted by others. For example, children often do things they know are wrong because of pressure from friends. Unfortunately, many people continue to give in to peer pressure throughout their lives. Peer pressure is another form of false reasoning. It is an argument that says, "Accept the conclusion, or you won't be accepted." Take a look at the following arguments for examples of peer pressure:

"C'mon, Sally. Stay. Everyone else is."

"We're all voting no, Joe. You should, too."

In both these examples, the arguers don't offer any logical reasons for accepting their conclusions. Instead, they offer you acceptance—you'll be like everyone else. It's the old "everyone else is doing it" argument. The counterargument is exactly the one your mother gave you: If everyone else were jumping off a cliff, would you do it, too?

No one likes to be left out, and that's why we often give in to peer pressure. It is hard to be different and stand alone. But it is important to remember that our desire to belong is not a logical reason for accepting an argument. Why should Joe vote no? He needs to hear some specific, logical reasons. Otherwise, he's just falling victim to false logic.

Pity

Ms. Riviera, an eighth-grade history teacher, finds one of her students wandering the halls when she should be in class. The student tells the teacher, "I'm sorry, Ms. Riviera. I didn't realize I was out here so long. I'm just really upset about my math exam. I studied really hard for it and I only got a D on it. That means I'm going to be kicked off the tennis team!"

What should Ms. Riviera do?

Suspend the student. She should know better than this.
Send the student to the principal's office.
Take the student back to class and just give her a warning.
Call the student's parents and then expel the student.

Tip

Sympathy is good—it's a great trait to demonstrate with your friends and family, but when you start analyzing an argument, pity shouldn't be involved. It is just another logical fallacy that appeals to emotions instead of your thinking skills.

Clearly, options a and d are unreasonable. But should Ms. Riviera give the student a break (choice c) just because she is upset? Is that a good enough reason for Ms. Riviera not to follow appropriate procedures, when the student clearly broke school rules?

Whether or not the student is telling the truth (and that's something Ms. Riviera will have to determine), she has appealed to another one of the most powerful emotions—the sense of pity and compassion for others. No one wants to be seen as heartless or uncaring. And that's why the appeal to pity, another logical fallacy, often works.?

Here's another example of an appeal to pity:

Think of all the people who can't afford healthcare. Imagine the physical and emotional anguish they endure, knowing that having insurance coverage is all that it would take to alleviate their illness or disease. Support healthcare reform—for their sake.

Notice that this argument asks the listener to support a cause purely for emotional reasons. It appeals to the sense of compassion for those without healthcare. While this may be a compelling argument—after all, these people do deserve compassion—it is not a logical one. It doesn't directly address why healthcare reform is a reasonable policy.

Of course, you will have to judge each situation individually. But just as with the other appeals to emotion, it's important to have some logical reasons to balance the emotional. Unfortunately, if decisions are made based purely on pity, they often come back to haunt you. There are some people in the world who will take advantage of your sense of compassion, so think carefully before you act on pity alone.