An emotional appeal is a mode of persuasion that relies on descriptive, sensory language and imagery to evoke an emotional response and convince the audience. It is a rhetorical strategy intended to evoke feelings in the audience, often used in persuasive communication such as advertising and political communication. Emotional appeals are directed to sway an audience members emotions and use the manipulation of the recipients emotions rather than valid logic to win an argument. It is a logical fallacy characterized by the manipulation of the recipients emotions in order to win an argument, especially in the absence of factual evidence.

Some key points about emotional appeals include:

• Pathos: Pathos represents an appeal to the emotions of an audience. It is a communication technique used most often in rhetoric, literature, film, and other narrative art.

• Logical fallacy: Emotional appeal is a logical fallacy, whereby a debater attempts to win an argument by trying to get an emotional reaction from the opponent and audience. It is generally characterized by the use of loaded language and concepts.

• Manipulation: Emotional appeals are intended to cause the recipient of the information to experience feelings such as fear, pity, or joy, with the end goal of convincing the person that the statements being presented by the fallacious argument are true or false, respectively.

Examples of emotional appeals include:

• Using strong, tragic, freedom, equality, and power words to evoke pity or sadness.

• Using descriptive, sensory language and imagery to evoke an emotional response.

• Using loaded language and concepts to manipulate the audience.

It is important to note that emotional appeals are fallacious when the emotions that are elicited are irrelevant to evaluating the truth of the conclusion and serve to distract from rational consideration of relevant premises or information.