Definition

Appeal to emotions, argumentsum ad passiones, for the children is the attempt to convince someone by exciting their emotions rather than producing a rational argument. This fallacy is a part of Red Herring Fallacies group.

There are several specific variants of this fallacy:

Appeal to Fear or Consequences

argumentum ad consequentiam argument is made by making other someone fear a possible outcome without any supporting evidence

The Divine Order must exist. If it didn’t, all the galaxies and planets and comets would fall on Earth in one huge apocalypse.

Or even directly scaring other party into accepting your position.

If you don’t go to study the the uni, you will spend all your life regretting leaving like this.

Appeal to Guilt

An argument made with linking the opposite point of view with impropriety resulting in feeling guilty/ Three kinds of guilt are commonly identified: Anticipatory Guilt, Reactive Guilt, and Existential Guilt. The example of  appeal to A.G.:

If we don’t start saving on the college right after newborn appears we might not have enough time and would be ashmed later.

Or another example for Existential Guilt Appeal

Charity ads: It’s our responsibility to alleviate the suffering of victims of poverty, famine, natural disasters and all less fortunate.

Appeal to Ridicule

the horse laugh is showing the opponent’s argument as ridiculous or humourous, and therefore not reasonable, rather than proving the point of view directly. For example, in the Song of Ice And Fire.

Democracy? Maybe we should give the dogs a vote as well! I’ll ask my horse!

Appeal to Anger

It happens when the arguer inspires felling of Anger on himself or the publlic and this way makes opponent agree on their point of view. There is an opinion though that feeling of light anger is rising an attention, awareness and reaction. For example:

How can we trust this government who keeps us all in quarantine!

Appeal to Spite

argumentum ad odium, appeal to hatred is a fallacy in which arguer is exploiting existing feelings of spite or hatred. THis fallacy is sometimes mistaken for an Ad Hominem but while A.H. attacks opposition directly inflicting negative emotion, the A.S. appeals to a negative emotion when hatred towards other party already exists.

Why shouldn’t prisoners do hard labor? The place is full of trash!

Appeal to Disgust

Disgust is a natural reaction of the body to reject something harmful; In philosophy it’s believed that the feeling of Disgust  is a result of someone’s beliefs, not the cause. So while people sometimes try to exploit this emotion in argument, it’s probably not very efficient.

Do you see these torturous conditions of animals in factory farms?

Probably such argument wouldn’t be very good because might only work on people who didn’t know about such conditions before.

Appeal to Flattery

argumentum ad superbiam, to pride, to vanity logical fallacy is commited when excessive compliments are given to win support for their opinion instead of evidence.

We can be sure that our awesome team is smart enough to understand that our management is right.

Appeal to Pity

argumentum ad miserecordiam is used when the arguer tells a story where people feel bad for them rather than supporting the position, and Argument from Compassion suggests us to use some principles and agree with the point. A.C. is not a logical fallacy because gives information upfront and related to the matter. A classic example is:

Those cute little mice are being hunted up by terrible cats that are ten times their size!

Appeal to Patriotism

Also known as Jingoism, is showing the same missing the connection between emotion and opinion, but now based on patriotic feelings towards the country, the king the state or the family.

Of course the war in Iraq is justified! Support our troops!

Pooh-pooh

Pooh-pooh fallacy (dismissive arrogance), consists of dismissing an argument as being unworthy of serious consideration, just with the wave of a hand. It is a combination of Straw man fallacy and Appeal to Redicule.

Bitcoin as a safe haven - Is it even worth considering?

Wishful thinking

Wishful thinking fallacy is the believing something to be true because it’s pleasing to imagine, rather than based on rationality, boring evidence or unpleasant reality. The way of resolving conflicts between desire and belief - form of escapism.

I believe that things will turn out better than the forecast says because it makes me feel warm and content.

Playing the Nazi card

Reductio ad Hitlerum is the special case of this fallacy. That is an attempt to lower someone else’s position because the same view was held by Adolf Hitler. That is can think of this like Guilt by Association but because of strong negative association, we can classify it as Emotional Appeal too. One example would be that

Since Hitler was against smoking, implying that someone who is against smoking is a Nazi

Other common logical fallacies:

More info: