Appeal to Emotion

Appeal to emotion is the manipulation of a person’s emotions. Instead of using logic, a person might be able to win an argument through persuasion of emotions. For instance, in arguments about abortion the pro-life group argues that they are killing babies. In the United States, we associate the word “killing” with negative connotations. Killing is bad. We consider a killer to be a criminal and a horrible person. Through all these emotions the arguer is using the manipulation of emotions to gain the other side to their argument.

Appeal to emotion can be used as a powerful tool in arguments because the arguer does not have to logically persuade his opponent that he is wrong, but simply that it morally for the right reasons. Thus, many borders are broken depending on the audience. For example, if were in a community of people who believe marijuana should be legal. We might have to be careful in arguments dealing with drugs because they might have different opinions prior to the argument.