Hooked on a Feeling?

The Fallacy of the Appeal to Emotion

“A Nigerian prince needs your assistance!” We’ve all received the emails. They start with a sob story about a disaster or a loved one who is in trouble. Or they tell you about an important investment opportunity that’s just for you. They end with a request for money or information. But you must act quickly!

Scams are common, and unfortunately many of us fall victim to them. Scammers don’t aim at the truth. They aim to deceive. One of the ways they deceive is through the manipulation of emotion. They make a person feel empathetic or excited, then urge the person to act on that emotion. But acting could mean getting swindled out of $10,000 or sensitive information.

Terrible Masters

Many people try to manipulate others’ emotions to get them to think or act a certain way. When they do this, they commit the fallacy of appeal to emotion, on which a claim or an act is justified by emotion rather than truth.

What’s problematic about making decisions or forming beliefs based on emotion? After all, when we see someone in need and we feel empathy, isn’t it good that the empathy drives us to help? The problem is that emotions are not a reliable guide, either to truth or right action. In some cases, emotion leads us to the right action. But emotions can also lead to the wrong action. The same applies to truth. While we might sometimes form a true belief based on emotions, that’s not always the case.

Excellent Servants

While emotions aren’t meant to be the primary drivers of action or belief formation, this does not mean that emotions are bad. God designed us as emotional beings. It’s proper to feel happy at a wedding, affection towards our children, or compassion when someone is in need. But we ought always to use reason to evaluate a situation prior to adopting a belief or taking action.

So when we hear a rousing speech, we should step back and ask whether the content of the speech is true and the actions appealed to are right, rather than get carried away by emotion. When we see an image of a starving child and a donation request, we ought to research the organization to see how they use donations.

The Role of Reason

Plato illustrates the proper relationship between reason and emotion using an analogy. He imagines the soul as a charioteer driving two horses. The horses represent desire and spirit (i.e., motivations, emotions), while the charioteer represents reason. The role of the charioteer is to steer and guide the horses toward a predetermined goal, rather than let the horses determine the direction of the chariot.

So it is with reason: it is the job of the rational part of the soul to steer and guide the non-rational parts so that the soul gets to its proper destination. A person who lets his emotions rule is like a charioteer who lets the horses determine the direction of the chariot. If the emotions are allowed to drive the soul, the soul could end up anywhere…or nowhere.

While emotions are not a good guide to truth or action, they are an important part of our God-given design. But we live in a day in which far too many people are driven by emotion. Emotions were not designed to hold the reins or sit in the driver’s seat. They are not designed to get us to the truth. Reason is.