The Appeal to Pathos

Literally translated, pathos means “suffering.”  In this case, it refers to emotion, or more specifically, the writer’s appeal to the audience’s emotions.  When a writer establishes an effective pathetic appeal, he/she is able to make the audience care about what the writer is saying.  If the audience does not care about the message, then they will not engage with the argument being made.

For example, say that a writer is crafting a speech for a politician who is running for office, and in it he raises a point about Social Security benefits.  In order to make this point more appealing to the audience so that they will feel more emotionally connected to what the politician says, the writer inserts a story about Mary, an 80-year-old widow who relies on her Social Security benefits to supplement her income.  While visiting Mary the other day, sitting at her kitchen table and eating a piece of her delicious homemade apple pie, the writer recounts how the politician held Mary’s delicate hand and promised that her benefits would be safe if he were elected.  Ideally, the writer wants the audience to feel sympathy or compassion for Mary, and thus they will feel more open to considering the politician’s views on Social Security (and maybe even other issues).

When evaluating a writer’s pathetic appeal, ask the following questions:

• Does the writer try to engage or connect with the audience by making the subject matter relatable in some way?
• Does the writer have an interesting writing style?
• Does the writer use humor at any point?
• Does the writer use narration, such as storytelling or anecdotes, to add interest or to help humanize a certain issue within the text?
• Does the writer use descriptive or attention-grabbing details?
• Are there hypothetical examples that help the audience to imagine themselves in certain scenarios?
• Does the writer use any other examples in the text that might emotionally appeal to the audience?
• Are there any visual appeals to pathos, such as photographs or illustrations?

Appealing to Emotions

When an author relies on pathos, it means that they are trying to tap into the audience’s emotions to get them to agree with the author’s claim. An author using pathos appeals wants the audience to feel something: anger, pride, joy, rage, or happiness. For example, many of us have seen the ASPCA commercials that use photographs of injured puppies, or sad-looking kittens, and slow, depressing music to emotionally persuade their audience to donate money. This is a classic example of the use of pathos in argument.

Pathos-based rhetorical strategies are any strategies that get the audience to “open up” to the topic, the argument, or to the author through an emotional connection. Emotions can make us vulnerable, and an author can use this vulnerability to get the audience to believe that their argument is a compelling one.

Pathetic appeals might include:

• Expressive descriptions of people, places, or events that help the reader to feel or experience those events
• Vivid imagery of people, places or events that help the reader to feel like they are seeing those events
• Sharing personal stories that make the reader feel a connection to, or empathy for, the person being described
• Using emotion-laden vocabulary as a way to put the reader into that specific emotional mindset (what is the author trying to make the audience feel? and how are they doing that?)
• Using any information that will evoke an emotional response from the audience. This could involve making the audience feel empathy or disgust for the person/group/event being discussed, or perhaps connection to or rejection of the person/group/event being discussed.

Consider the use of pathos in one of the most common forms of media, the TV commercial, where advertisers use emotionally driven images or language to sway the audience.

Car Commercial: Images of a pregnant woman being safely rushed to a hospital. Flash to two car seats in the back seat. Flash to family hopping out of their Ford Escape and witnessing the majesty of the Grand Canyon.

OR

After an image of a worried mother watching her sixteen-year-old daughter drive away: “Ford Escape takes the fear out of driving.”

The use of examples and language that evoke an appropriate emotional response in the viewer or reader—that gets them to care about your topic—can be helpful in argument.

For academic essays, pathos may be useful in introductory sections, concluding sections, or as ways to link various parts of the paper together. However, if your argument is based solely or primarily upon emotional appeals, it will be viewed as weak in an academic setting, especially when data or ethical sources can disprove your claims. Therefore, college writing often puts more emphasis on logos and ethos.

Understanding “Emotional” Appeal

Pathos does not always necessarily mean that you are appealing to the way your audience “feels.”

Instead, “emotion” in pathos refers to beliefs and values and how you react when those beliefs and values are alluded to, questioned, or threatened. Please note that this is different from the usual way we think of “emotions.”

For example, let’s say that I am the director of some program that is a “worthy cause,” like a food bank. I need your money to keep the place going (a place that provides food for people who are really hungry). The simplest thing to do might be to write you a letter and ask you for the money, perhaps even giving you a figure (“send one single 20-dollar bill for the whole year”). I will probably be successful, up to a point. I might be more successful, however, if I appealed to your pathos. I could do this by including an 8×10 black and white photograph of a big-eyed, sad-faced, raggedly dressed child, with a caption that says, “Amy is hoping you can make the hunger pains go away. Amy is saying ‘help me’.” Now the appeal is to your reaction when your beliefs and values are alluded to, questioned, or threatened.

When writing an academic essay, your essay is probably equivalent to only writing the letter above, not the picture. However, be careful with the next few questions below. A little pathos goes a long way.

Connecting with Your Audience through Appropriate Language

Do I use honorific language?

Make sure your writing includes honorific language – language that is respectful, polite, courteous. Any language that shows respect for other points of view tends to increase the audience’s respect for you.

Do this: While Dr. Alvarez makes a valid point regarding the benefit of GMOs when it comes to increased crop yields for developing countries, he fails to take into account some of the greater risks that are still being investigated, such as antibacterial resistance being transferred from GMO crops to the humans who eat them.

Not this: John Alvarez refuses to see any other side of the issue but his own, even leaving out something as important as antibacterial resistance when making his point about GMOs.

When you have reread your entire essay and inserted honorific language, go to the next question.

Do I use pejorative language?

Pejorative language is language that puts down, belittles, sounds sarcastic. As much fun as it may seem to make fun of an opposing view, it makes your audience suspicious of you, particularly if your audience holds an opposing view. This kind of language should be eliminated from your writing.

When revising your own writing, be sure to eliminate any pejorative language. This may include phrases, punctuation, or the use of qualifiers and adjectives that make you look like you can only make fun of an opposing view, rather than make a serious point.

Do this: Soil scientist, Dr. Linda McAllister, conducted a recent study on the efficacy of glyphosate on commercial crops, and while her findings seem mostly positive and mention very few downsides to crop spraying, it is important to note that Monsanto, one of the largest agricultural companies in the world that regularly uses glyphosate as a pesticide for crops, was a major funder of the study.

Not this: Clearly, “Doctor” Linda is in the bulging pocket of greedy Monsanto, which is arguably the worst culprit of poisoning America’s farmland, thus revealing that her “scientific” study is entirely bogus.

When you have reread your writing and eliminated pejorative language, go to the next question.

Do I use an anecdote?

You could very easily insert a number of anecdotes to highlight what you are claiming, in the same way I included the photograph in the above example of the letter. You could include a single anecdote in your introductory paragraph of an essay. However, most readers of persuasive essays at the college level and higher do not appreciate many direct emotional appeals. It may be best to limit your anecdote to just the one in your Introduction, though the more anecdotes you use, the more emotional the argument. This includes anecdotes you tell yourself and anecdotes you find in other places.

When you are satisfied that you have used a number of anecdotes appropriate for the audience, go to the next question.

Do I use allusions?

Do you allude (or refer) to your anecdotes or other well-known symbols? At most, it may be best if you only allude to your one anecdote in your introduction. Pathos in writing like this should be limited to the kind of language you use, and the way you use it. However, you may also allude to anything that puts you and the audience in the same system of beliefs, or values, or assumptions about life. In a long persuasive essay, it is probably enough to remind the reader of the introductory anecdote by alluding to it indirectly in the conclusion.

Recognizing a Manipulative Appeal to Pathos:

Up to a certain point, an appeal to pathos can be a legitimate part of an argument. For example, a writer or speaker may begin with an anecdote showing the effect of a law on an individual. This anecdote will be a means of gaining an audience’s attention for an argument in which she uses evidence and reason to present her full case as to why the law should/should not be repealed or amended. In such a context, engaging the emotions, values, or beliefs of the audience is a legitimate tool whose effective use should lead you to give the author high marks.

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”. An example would be the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) commercials featuring the song “In the Arms on an Angel” and footage of abused animals. Even Sarah McLachlan, the singer and spokesperson featured in the commercials, admits that she changes the channel because they are too depressing (Brekke, 2014).

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.

When identifying pathos in written communication, try to locate where the author is trying to convince the reader by strictly using emotions because, if used to excess, pathos appeals can indicate a lack of substance or emotional manipulation of the audience. If the only way in which an author can persuade the readers is by making them sad or angry, does that make for a solid, valid argument?

Information in this chapter was remixed from the following sources:

Frameworks for Academic Writing by Stephen V. Poulter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Informed Arguments: A Guide to Writing and Research  by Terri Pantuso, Sarah LeMire, and Kathy Anders, which was published in 2019 by Texas A&M University with an attribution, non-commerical, share-alike creative commons license. It was accessed through the Open Textbook Library.

Let’s Get Writing by Elizabeth Browning, Kirsten DeVries, Kathy Boylan, Jenifer Kurtz, and Katelyn Burton, which was published by Virginia Western Community Colleges and uses a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License,