Fallacies of Pathos

An appropriate appeal to Pathos is different than trying to unfairly play upon the audience's feelings and emotions through fallacious, misleading, or excessively emotional appeals. Such a manipulative use of pathos may alienate the audience or cause them to "tune out".

Even if an appeal to pathos is not manipulative, such an appeal should complement rather than replace reason and evidence-based argument. In addition to making use of pathos, the author must establish her credibility (Ethos) and must supply reasons and evidence (Logos) in support of her position. An author who essentially replaces logos and ethos with pathos alone should be given low marks.

FALLACIES THAT MISUSE APPEALS TO PATHOS

Appeal to fear: using scare tactics; emphasizing threats or exaggerating possible dangers.

Example: "Without this additional insurance, you could find yourself broke and homeless."

Appeal to guilt and appeal to pity: trying to evoke an emotional reaction that will cause the audience to behave sympathetically even if it means disregarding the issue at hand.

Example: "I know I missed assignments, but if you fail me, I will lose my financial aid and have to drop out."

Appeal to popularity (bandwagon): urging audience to follow a course of action because "everyone does it."

Example: "Nine out of ten shoppers have switched to Blindingly-Bright-Smile Toothpaste."

Slippery Slope: making an unsupported or inadequately supported claim that "One thing inevitably leads to another." This may be considered a fallacy of logos as well as pathos but is placed in this section because it often is used to evoke the emotion of fear.

Example: "We can't legalize marijuana; if we do, then the next thing you know people will be strung out on heroin."

Appeal to the people: also called stirring symbols fallacy; the communicator distracts the readers or listeners with symbols that are very meaningful to them, with strong associations or connotations.

Example: This fallacy is referred to in the sentence "That politician always wraps himself in the flag."

Appeal to tradition: people have been done it a certain way for a long time; assumes that what has been customary in past is correct and proper.

Example: "A boy always serves as student-body president; a girl always serves as secretary."

Loaded-Language and other emotionally charged uses of language: using slanted or biased language, including God terms, devil terms, euphemisms, and dysphemisms.

Example: In the sentence "Cutting access to food stamps would encourage personal responsibility," the god term is "personal responsibility." It might seem as if it would be hard to argue against "personal responsibility" or related god terms such as "independence" and "self-reliance." However, it would require a definition of "personal responsibility," combined with evidence from studies of people's behavior in the face of food stamp or other benefit reductions, to argue that cutting access to food stamps would lead to the intended results.