Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion

The Sophists, teachers and intellectuals of ancient Greece, once claimed “pathos affects an audience’s judgement” (83). Modern neurological studies confirm this theory: The limbic system, where emotions reside, overpowers the brain’s rationality. Rhetorically pathetic, pathetic appeal, and emotional argument are all synonyms for pathos. For an argument to be rhetorically pathetic, it must include sympathy.

Heinrichs details tools of pathos that agents can use to rouse their audience to action—one such tool being storytelling. This tool works because experience (what an audience believes already happened) and expectation (what the audience believes will happen) shape emotion. Telling a story with many details makes the story itself seem like a real experience (even if it isn’t), one that could happen to anyone rather than just the teller. Detailed stories are more effective at changing someone’s mood than ranting.

Another tool of pathos is emotional volume control or emotional self-control (i.e., little to no exaggeration of one’s emotions). For successful pathetic appeals, people must use simple emotional language. Heinrichs notes that “holding your emotions in check also means taking your time to use them” (86). Emotions need to build gradually in an argument, working best at the argument’s end.