Appeal To Pity Fallacy Examples

Appeal to Pity As Good Reasons with Contemporary Arguments states, writers use logical fallacies to gain audience approval, but all the statements are false (Faigley). One type of logical fallacy is the appeal to pity fallacy. For this fallacy, the arguer appeals to the audience's emotional side to gain support on a claim that should be decided on more relevant or objective terms. Examples of this fallacy can be seen on commercials, campaigns, and various methods of advertising. The given examples reveal how advertisers and campaigners use irrelevant information to persuade Americans and people all around the world by evoking sympathy to gain funds and/or support for a certain cause. What is a fallacy? A fallacy is an argument that gives
ASPCA commercials, use claim of substantiation, claim of evaluation, and claim of policy to appeal the emotional side of viewers. According to Ms. Urban, the ASPCA commercial shows sick and dying animals that need love and care. The viewers see these images and donate money (Urban). This shows that the ASPCA knows the right visuals to show and have the perfect dialogue, utilizing the appeal to pity to persuade the viewers to donate to the cause. The different claims listed above are added on top of appeal to pity to gain even more emotion, claiming things such as “ If you donate to the ASPCA, you will be making a beneficial difference in these animals’
An example stated by Logical Fallacies says that Pro-life campaigners have recently adopted a strategy that capitalises on the strength of appeals to pity. By showing images of aborted foetuses, anti-abortion materials seek to disgust people, and so turn them against the practice of abortion (Logical Fallacies). This article reveals that the pity that one feels for a group or an individual can affect the thoughts about that group, triggering an emotional response that leads to clouded judgement and beliefs based on less than the truth. When emotions are triggered and elevated in response to a topic such as abortion, it is hard to get those emotions in check to respond slowly and responsibly rather than quickly and irresponsibly. One is acting on the high of emotions felt at the very moment leading to decisions made according to false information.