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It’s About Them: 14.4 Traditional Views of Persuasion

It’s About Them
14.4 Traditional Views of Persuasion
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table of contents
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Table Of Contents
  5. Preface
  6. What Is an Open Textbook?
  7. Chapter 1: Why Public Speaking Matters Today
    1. 1.1 Public Speaking in the Twenty-First Century
    2. 1.2 Why Is Public Speaking Important?
    3. 1.3 The Process of Public Speaking
  8. Chapter 2: Building Confidence
    1. 2.1 What is Communication Apprehension?
    2. 2.2 Classifying PSA
    3. 2.3 Learning Confidence
  9. Chapter 3: Audience Analysis
    1. 3.1 What Is Audience Analysis? Why Conduct It?
    2. 3.2 Why Conduct an Audience Analysis?
    3. 3.3 Three Types of Audience Analysis
    4. 3.4 Conducting Audience Analysis
    5. 3.5 Using Your Audience Analysis
  10. Chapter 4: The Importance of Listening
    1. 4.1 Importance of Listening
    2. 4.2 Listening vs. Hearing
    3. 4.3 Listening Styles
    4. 4.4 Why Listening Is Difficult
    5. 4.5 Stages of Listening
    6. 4.6 Listening Critically
  11. Chapter 5: Ethics
    1. 5.1 The Ethics Pyramid
    2. 5.2 Ethics in Public Speaking
    3. 5.3 Free Speech
    4. 5.4 Mass Communication and Ethics
  12. Chapter 6: Researching Your Speech
    1. 6.1 Beginning the Research Process
    2. 6.2 What Is Research?
    3. 6.3 Developing a Research Strategy
    4. 6.4 Citing Sources
  13. Chapter 7: Supporting Ideas and Building Arguments
    1. 7.1 Crafting Supporting Ideas
    2. 7.2 Using Research as Support
    3. 7.3 Exploring Types of Support
    4. 7.4 Using Support and Creating Arguments
  14. Chapter 8: Organizing and Outlining
    1. 8.1 Why is Organizing and Outlining Important
    2. 8.2 The Topic, General Purpose, Specific Purpose, and Thesis
    3. 8.3 Organizational Patterns of Arrangement for Informative Speeches
    4. 8.4 Outlining Your Speech
  15. Chapter 9: Delivery
    1. 9.1 The Importance of Delivery
    2. 9.2 Methods of Speech Delivery
    3. 9.3 Preparing for Your Delivery
    4. 9.4 Practicing Your Delivery
    5. 9.5 What to Do When Delivering Your Speech
  16. Chapter 10: Introductions and Conclusions
    1. 10.1 Introductions
    2. 10.2 Conclusions
  17. Chapter 11: Language
    1. 11.1 What Language Is and Does
    2. 11.2 Standards for Language in Public
    3. 11.3 Using Effective Language in Public Speaking
  18. Chapter 12: Presentation Aids
    1. 12.1 What Are Presentation Aids?
    2. 12.2 Functions of Presentation Aids
    3. 12.3 Types of Presentation Aids
    4. 12.4 Using Presentation Slides
    5. 12.5 Low-Tech Presentation Aids
  19. Chapter 13 Informative Speaking
    1. 13.1 What is an Informative Speech?
    2. 13.2 Types of Informative Speeches
    3. 13.3 Guidelines for Informative Speech Topic Selection and Preparation
    4. 13.4 Sample Informative Speeches and Speech Outlines
  20. Chapter 14: Persuasive Speaking
    1. 14.1 Why Persuade?
    2. 14.2 A Definition of Persuasion
    3. 14.3 Why is Persuasion Hard?
    4. 14.4 Traditional Views of Persuasion
    5. 14.5 Constructing a Persuasive Speech
    6. 14.6 Sample Persuasive Speech Outlines
  21. Chapter 15: Special Occasion Speaking
    1. 15.1 Understanding Special Occasion Speaking
    2. 15.2 Types of Special Occasion Speeches
    3. 15.3 Special Occasion Language
    4. 15.4 Special Occasion Delivery
    5. 15.5 Sample Special Occasion Speech Outline
  22. Chapter 16: Online Public Speaking
    1. 16.1 Online Public Speaking
  23. About the Contributors
  24. Adaptations
  25. Glossary
  26. Appendix A: Checklist for Accessibility

14.4 Traditional Views of Persuasion

two people by a display giving a presentation

In the fourth century BCE, Aristotle took up the study of the public speaking practices of the ruling class in Athenian society. For two years he observed the rhetoric of the men who spoke in the assembly and the courts. In the end, he wrote Rhetoric to explain his theories about what he saw. Among his many conclusions, which have formed the basis of communication study for centuries, was the classification of persuasive appeals into ethos, logos, and pathos. Over the years, Aristotle’s original understanding and definition of these terms have been refined as more research has been done.

Ethos

Ethos has come to mean the influence of speaker credentials and character in a speech. Ethos is one of the more studied aspects of public speaking. During the speech, a speaker should seek to utilize their existing credibility, based on the favorable things an audience already knows or believes about the speaker, such as education, expertise, background, and good character. The speaker should also improve or enhance credibility through citing reliable, authoritative sources, strong arguments, showing awareness of the audience, and effective delivery.

The word “ethos” looks very much like the word “ethics,” and there are many close parallels to the trust an audience has in a speaker and their honesty and ethical stance. In terms of ethics, it goes without saying that your speech will be truthful. Another matter to consider is your own personal involvement in the topic. Ideally, you have chosen the topic because it means something to you personally.

For example, perhaps your speech is designed to motivate audience members to take action against bullying in schools, and it is important to you because you work with the Boys and Girls Club organization and have seen how anti-bullying programs can have positive results. Sharing your own involvement and commitment is key to the credibility and emotional appeal (ethos and pathos) of the speech, added to the logos (evidence showing the success of the programs and the damage caused by bullying that goes unchecked). However, it would be wrong to manufacture stories of personal involvement that are untrue, even if the proposition is a socially valuable one.

Logos

Aristotle’s original meaning for logos had philosophical meanings tied to the Greek worldview that the universe is a place ruled by logic and reason. Logos in a speech was related to standard forms of arguments that the audience would find acceptable. Today we think of logos as both logical and organized arguments and credible evidence to support the arguments.

Pathos

In words like “empathy,” “sympathy,” and “compassion,” we see the root word behind pathos. Pathos, to Aristotle, was using the emotions such as anger, joy, hate, desire for community, and love to persuade the audience of the rightness of a proposition. One example of emotional appeals is using strong visual aids and engaging stories to get the attention of the audience. Someone’s just asking you to donate money to help homeless pets may not have a strong effect, but seeing the ASPCA’s commercials that feature emaciated and mistreated animals is probably much more likely to persuade you to donate (add the music for full emotional effect).

Emotions are also engaged by showing the audience that the proposition relates to their needs. However, we recognize that emotions are complex and that they also can be used to create a smokescreen to logic. Emotional appeals that use inflammatory language—name-calling—are often unethical or at least counterproductive. Some emotions are more appropriate for persuasive speeches than others. Anger and guilt, for example, do have effectiveness, but they can backfire. Positive emotions such as pride, sympathy, and contentment are usually more productive.

One negative emotion that is useful and that can be used ethically is fear. When you think about it, we do a number of things in life to avoid negative consequences, and thus, out of fear. Why don’t we drive 100 miles an hour on the interstate? Fear of getting a ticket, fear of paying more for insurance, fear of a crash, fear of hurting ourselves or others. Fear is not always applicable to a specific topic, but research shows that mild fear appeals, under certain circumstances, are very useful. When using fear appeals, the speaker must:

  • Prove the fear appeal is valid.
  • Prove that it applies to the audience
  • Prove that the solution can work
  • Prove the solution is available to the audience

Without these “proofs,” the audience may dismiss the fear appeal as not being real or not applying to them (O’Keefe, 2002). Mild and reasonable are the keys here. Intense, over-the-top fear appeals, especially showing gory photos, are often dismissed by the audience.

For example, a student gave a speech in one of our classes about flossing teeth. This may seem like an overdone subject, but in this case it wasn’t. He used dramatic and disturbing photos of dental and gum problems but also proved that these photos of gum disease really did come from lack of flossing. He also showed the link between lack of flossing and heart disease. The solution to avoid gum disease and other effects was readily available, and the student proved through his evidence that the solution of flossing regularly did work to avoid the disease. Fear appeals can be overdone, but mild ones supported by evidence are very useful.

Because we feel positive emotions when our needs are met and negative ones when our needs are not met, aligning your proposition with strong audience needs is part of pathos. One way to better understand human needs is by examining Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Students are often so familiar with it that they do not see its connection to real-life experiences. For example, safety and security needs, the second level on the hierarchy, is much broader than what many of us initially think. It includes:

  • supporting the military and homeland security;
  • buying insurance for oneself and one’s family;
  • having investments and a will;
  • personal protection such as taking self-defense classes;
  • policies on crime and criminal justice in our communities;
  • buying a security system for your car or home; seat belts and automotive safety; or even
  • having the right kind of tires on one’s car (which is actually a viable topic for a speech).

The third level up in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, love and belongingness, deals with a whole range of human experiences, such as connection with others and friendship; involvement in communities, groups, and clubs; prioritizing family time; worship and connection to a faith community; being involved in children’s lives; patriotism; loyalty; and fulfilling personal commitments.

In the speech outline at the end of the chapter about eliminating time spent on Facebook, the speaker appeals to the three central levels of the hierarchy in her three points: safety and security from online threats, spending more time with family and friends in real-time rather than online (love and belonging), and having more time to devote to schoolwork rather than Facebook (esteem and achievement). Therefore, utilizing Maslow’s hierarchy of needs works as a guide for finding those key needs that relate to your proposition and, by doing so, allows you to incorporate emotional appeals based on needs.

Up to this point in the chapter, we have looked at the goals of persuasion, why it is hard, and how to think about the traditional modes of persuasion based on Aristotle’s theories. In the last section of this chapter, we will look at generating an overall organizational approach to your speech based on your persuasive goals.

Annotate

Next chapter
14.5 Constructing a Persuasive Speech
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Presenting and Public Speaking
It’s About Them: Public Speaking in the 21st Century Copyright © 2022 by LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted
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