Thank You for Arguing

Years ago, Heinrichs was at a bank with his three-year-old daughter, when his daughter threw a temper tantrum. Heinrichs responded by telling his child, “That argument won’t work, sweetheart. It isn’t pathetic enough.” His daughter abruptly ended her tantrum. The word “pathetic,” as Heinrichs used it, means “emotional.” His daughter was trying to use emotion to sway Heinrichs’s behavior.

Pathos is a powerful rhetorical tool. Sometimes, when a speaker discusses a frightening possibility, the speaker’s words alone can make an audience feel frightened, too. One important principle of pathos is, “When you want to change someone’s mood, tell a story.” Single words or ideas rarely have an effect on someone’s mood—a cohesive narrative is more effective since it gives the audience a vicarious experience. Stories and jokes are also usually most effective when they’re told in the first person.

Another effective technique of pathos is self-control. Often, a persuader who seems to be trying to hold back emotion will be more persuasive than one displaying strong emotion. This leads to one of Cicero’s key points: “when you argue emotionally, speak simply.” The senator Daniel Webster once prosecuted a case in which a captain had been killed in his sleep. Webster delivered his closing argument to the jury as if he could barely conceal his own outrage. The jury agreed to hang the accused, a young farm boy with no previous criminal record.

It’s often best to wait before deploying pathos, particularly when making a speech to a large group of people. It can be disarming to begin with an emotional appeal—it’s better to work up to it. Daniel Webster once argued a case before the Supreme Court; at a crucial point in the speech, his voice cracked ever so slightly, triggering the Chief Justice of the court, John Marshall, to weep.

Humor is perhaps the most persuasive emotion, in part because people with a good sense of humor are often seen as being able to “stand above petty squabbles.” The problem with humor as a persuasive technique, however, is that it doesn’t always persuade people to act—they laugh, but do nothing. Aristotle argued that emotions such as love and compassion are better motivators than humor.

Often, successful speakers appeal to their audiences’ tribal instincts by appealing to 1) their patriotism, 2) their anger, or 3) their desire to fit in with a group, or “emulate.” The best way to make a crowd angry with someone, Aristotle argued, was to show how that person had ignored and belittled their desires. Aristotle also showed that patriotism could motivate people to act together. Patriotism doesn’t have to be about a country; it can appeal to any group with a common bond—for example, a soccer team. Yet it’s important to distinguish patriotism from idealism. During the Revolutionary War, few people were genuinely interested in the Founding Fathers’ ideals; they mobilized because of their patriotic desires to defend their country from British military aggression. Finally, speakers often use pathos to appeal to their audience’s desire to emulate others (nowadays, it’s rare to think of emulation as an emotion; however, the Greeks believed it was). For example, impressionable children may wish to emulate role models’ behavior.

The appeals to pathos that Aristotle discussed have one thing in common: they work best in a group setting. It’s also important not to advertise a speech’s intended emotion too explicitly—for example, any good comedian knows not to say that the joke they’re about to tell is hilarious.

Emotional appeals are a form of seduction. Therefore, it’s important to recognize the importance of desire in rhetoric. Advertisements regularly use sex appeal to make their products seem more attractive. Heinrichs’ wife Dorothy enjoys a BBC mystery show that combines gardening with crime, and refers to it as “flower porn,” because of the close-ups of flowers and plants. Shortly afterwards, Heinrichs convinced her to book a vacation to Hawaii by showing her pictures of beautiful Hawaiian flowers, appealing to her love for flowers. Heinrichs used a form of seduction to convince his wife.

Appeal to desire is one of the most basic forms of persuasion. One of the businesses for which Heinrichs works as a consultant sells workout programs. The company uses the “appeal to desire” strategy by using ads to associate their product with things for which customers lust: sex, beauty, and, more abstractly, independence and freedom. With the help of rhetoric, businesses or speakers can appeal to their audience’s desires, associate their position with those desires, and thereby convince their audience to agree with their position.