Pathos

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Another means of persuasion is appealing to the listeners’ emotions. The term Aristotle used for this is pathos. It requires “creating a certain disposition in the audience,” often through emotionally charged language and description. For example, consider this statement: “The sight of fishermen slashing and slicing baby seals should send chills through even the numbest and most stoic capitalists on earth.” Makes your skin crawl, doesn’t it?

Although emotion is a powerful means of moving an audience, emotional appeals should not be used in isolation—particularly if the emotion you arouse is fear (Rothman, Salovey, Turvey, & Fishkin, 1993; Sutton, 1982). In fact, fear appeals are typically effective only if the speaker can get the audience to see that the threat is serious, that it is likely to happen to them, and that there is a specific action they can take to avoid the threat (Boster & Mongeau, 1984).

Pathos is typically most effective when used alongside logos and ethos, which offer ways of dealing with and addressing the emotions. For example, consider the Montana Meth Project (2007), a campaign to communicate “the risks of methamphetamine to the youth of Montana” and address that state’s growing meth problem. The ads are indeed emotional, graphic, and frightening, playing into viewers’ love of family and friends, fear of poor health and degenerating appearance, and sense of shame and horror. One print ad depicts a young teenager surrounded by doctors and medical equipment, clinging to life, with text reading, “No one ever thinks they’ll wake up here. Meth will change that” (Montana Meth Project, 2007). The logical appeal is sound—teenagers who become addicted to methamphetamines will destroy themselves and their loved ones—and the ring of truth enhances the persuasiveness of the emotional appeal. The project’s follow-up research reveals that the ads have had a significant effect on teens’ attitudes toward meth, showing that the ads’ credibility is solid as well.