emotional appeal
Feelings-based argument tactic
Emotional appeal is persuasion that targets feelings rather than logic—fear, sympathy, pride, anger, hope.
Advertisers use emotional appeal to sell products; politicians use it to win votes.
The term often carries a faintly dismissive tone, implying manipulation: The campaign relied on emotional appeal rather than policy substance.
In rhetoric, it corresponds to pathos.
- pathosPity-evoking quality
- persuasionConvincing through reasoning
- storytellingRecounting events aloud
- personal testimonyIndividual's firsthand narrative
- human interest storyNews emphasizing personal narratives
tug at heartstrings · rhetoric · nostalgia · joy · vivid imagery · metaphor · manipulation · guilt · sadness · demagoguery · bleeding heart · empathy · hope · pride · scare tactics · slippery slope · think of the children · advertising
- advertisingad, ads, ad campaign, ad campaigns, advertising campaign
- communication skillspersuasion, active listening, empathy, body language, storytelling
- persuasionpersuade, persuasion, persuasive, convince, convincing
- persuasion tacticscharm, butter up, flattery, flatter, coax
- sales tacticsupselling, cross-selling, hard sell, soft sell, high pressure
- rhetoricrhetoric, persuasion, oratory, argumentation, debate
emotional appeallogical argument
Reasoning from premises to conclusion
appeal to logic · reasoned argument · logical reasoning · scientific reasoning · logos
appeal, emotion, emotional, appealing, emotions, unemotional, emotionless, appealed, appeals