Why do people use emotional appeal to persuade others?

Emotional appeal is a powerful tool in persuasion because it taps into people's feelings and motivations. When people are emotionally invested in something, they are more likely to be persuaded by arguments that relate to those feelings. Here are some reasons why people use emotional appeal to persuade others:

- To create a connection and establish credibility: By showing vulnerability and emotion, speakers or writers can quickly form connections with their audience, allowing them to convey their beliefs without seeming overly confrontational.

- To make the argument more memorable: Emotional appeals have been found to have greater staying power than purely logical arguments; people are more likely to remember, recall, and act on emotionally loaded information for longer in comparison to rational, factual-based statements.

- To elicit certain responses or reactions: When an argument arouses a specific emotion - anger, enthusiasm, or compassion - people might feel encouraged to share that message more readily and widely if it speaks to a common belief or societal problem.

- To generate sympathy: Emotional appeals to pathos can effectively arouse empathy from recipients of messages. Through stories and images of disadvantaged peoples or circumstances, speakers and writers evoke emotions of benevolence while encouraging audiences to help.

- To create a sense of urgency and influence decision-making: When audiences can feel an association between the presented argument and personal experiences, their own emotions can lead them to make immediate purchasing, societal, or attitudinal choices.