Appeal to emotion

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal cartoon illustrating the fallacy of appeal to emotion.

An appeal to emotion is an argument tactic that is very similar to an appeal to popularity which attempts to circumvent rational thought in the hopes of “supporting” a conclusion with an emotional response in the place of real evidence. Many times, this fallacy is committed in concert with other fallacies as well. i.e. Ad Hominem

Example

• "Aren't you afraid to go to hell when you die?"

The above statement appeals to the listener's emotion of fear, but begs the question by assuming that hell exists in the first place.

• "Hitler was an evil atheist; you don't want to be a Nazi, do you?"

The premise of this argument is faulty; Hitler was actually a devout Catholic. Even if the premise were granted, however, the attempted link between atheism and Nazism relies on an enthymeme (missing premise).

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