A good example can be sadness. "I was eating a home style breakfast at a dinner and it reminded me of my Grandmother. Just reminded me of my Grandmother had cause me to become sad because she passed away a year ago." The emotion is caused by remembrance which brings emotion to the statement.
I found this interesting in how any emotion can be caused through words. It can be hateful to even something beautiful. Every statement can be surrounded by an emotion.
This is me with a really big pig. I'm the one with the hat.
I also wrote about the subject of appealing to emotion in my blog. I believe that this is a very powerful and dangerous strategy to use. It is linking an emotion with an argument, and this can be beneficial or harmful. I feel that companies do this all the time with ad's. They try to link an emotion with their product. Usually they will try to convince the potential buyer that their product will make them happy, more attractive, etc. I think the reason that “appeal to emotion” is listed as a fallacy and not a strategy for argument is the fact that most of the time, while the connection maybe true, it is irrelevant to the argument. Even if it is relevant, I feel that sometimes it is used “unfairly” and the argument should just rely on concrete evidence and not ones emotions.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, good post buddy.
Yeah, they used appeal to emotion all the time not only in advertising but political campaigns as well. The y will use threatening or negative imagery, like a thunderstorm, or a pack of wolves, and then a threatening voiceover to make the candidate or issue seem like a life-or-death situation. But because this type of appeal to fear, one of our basest instincts, it will work almost every time. Another way they appeal to emotion is by using children in commercials for or against an issue. These always make me feel like the kid is being exploited, and I wonder if they even realize what they are saying and what it means, but because kids appeal to emotion, they will probably be used in a lot more ads.
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