2018-06-14

IRRATIONAL APPEAL TO EMOTION

A rational appeal to emotion not only stimulates feelings but also demonstrates their appropriateness to the ideas being presented. For example, a public service commercial against drunk driving might use an accident scene to make us feel sadness and pity for the victims and thus take more seriously the verbal message “Don’t mix drinking and driving.” An ad for an international charity might show us the faces of hungry children as a narrator explains that the cost of feeding a child is only eighty cents a day. Such appeals are legitimate because they either explain the connection between the feelings and the ideas or at least invite us to think about that connection.

对情感的理性诉求不仅能激发情感，而且能体现情感对所呈现的思想的适切性。例如，公共服务商反对酒后驾车可能会让我们在事故现场对受害者感到悲伤和同情，从而更加认真地对待“不要酒后驾车”的口头信息。一篇关于INT的广告一个叙述者解释说，给孩子喂食的花费每天只有八十美分。这种呼吁是合法的，因为它们要么解释。感觉和想法之间的联系，或者至少邀请我们去思考这种联系。