Appeal to pity

What it is

Seeks agreement by evoking sympathy for a person or group in place of evidence about the merits of the claim.

Related

• Appeal to emotion fallacy
  Pity is a gentler appeal to emotion, used to win agreement on sympathy rather than merit.
• Liking bias bias
  Sympathy makes us warm to a person, and liking makes us easier to persuade.
• Red herring fallacy
  Pity and other emotions are common red herrings: they pull attention from the merits to the person or story.

References

• Wikipedia: Appeal to pity en.wikipedia.org
• Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Fallacies iep.utm.edu
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Fallacies plato.stanford.edu
• Wikipedia: List of fallacies en.wikipedia.org
• Purdue OWL: Logical fallacies owl.purdue.edu

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