Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Appeal to Emotion
An appeal to emotion occurs when a premise dictates that because you feel a certain way, you should believe or do something as a result of that feeling. There are a few different types of appeals to emotion in arguments. These include appealing to pity, appealing to fear, and appealing to spite. Today, appealing to fear has struck me. A friend posted about how he was able to reach speeds of 90 mph on Highway 17. Someone instantly replied and commented about how that could result in his funeral. Car accidents and death are both very serious issues, so it definitely struck my attention. This demonstrates an appeal to fear, because the consequence for the action of speeding could result in an accident, and Highway 17 is notorious for these incidents. Not only that, the road is a dangerous when excessive speeds are reached. This type of driving will only leave more of a chance for possible deaths in the event of an accident.
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This type of appeal is quite frightening. I could not imagine driving that far above the speed limit and not get in an accident. I am surprised that he did not get a ticket. Stating that this type of recklessness can lead to death would for sure stop people from driving beyond the speed limit. I know I would be terrified to get into an accident because of the speeding. There are two different types of fearful consequences though and that would be to get a ticket or crash. We see this type of appeal frequently when it comes to our daily lives. Sometimes we do not notice the fear that is instill in some instances, but when we do it sounds terrifying to us.
ReplyDeleteI agree that your friend's response to the other friend's initial response gives an Appeal to Fear, in that it can scare anyone who would read that in thinking twice about going too fast on the highway, especially considering that you say that particular highway the friend happened to be speeding on was notorious for having incidents and being a dangerous road. I agree that going way too fast on a highway will essentially heighten your chances on injury if an accident occurs. Appeal to Fear is this, in its entirety. It scares the audience into avoiding the concept overall by comparing dangerous results that can occur while attempting the concept. Good post!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree when you noted about the highway MPH. But, when you think about it. That appeal to fear may apply to you but not someone else. Some people love the feeling of speed. The feeling of the wind and the scenaries whipping by... which is why people ride motorcycles! Driving fast in a car feels like nothing to the driver which makes them prone to drive fast to get the feeling of speed when they step down on the gas pedal. They think "oh, 70MPH. That's nothing" because they go that speed often. Going somewhere from 90 or 100 you feel the speed difference in the car because you are used to going 70 but it doesn't compare to being outside and feeling the wind.
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