The fallacy I chose to explain more in depth is the fallacy of “appealing to emotion”. Essentially this means that someone is trying to unfairly associate an action or belief with a certain feeling. I say unfair because these are typically decisions one must decide on their own. I believe that this is one of the most common types of fallacies, because although we do not think of it, it is implied on the commercials we see everyday. Buy “Product” because it will make you fell this way. Because that method of fallacy can be seen in tons of ads everyday, my “real world” example will a different use of “appeal to emotion”
The other day I was shopping in downtown San Francisco. I live in San Jose for school, but my family lives in the suburbs outside of San Francisco, so I spend time there occasionally. It was the day before valentines day, and I noticed something strange. While there are usually panhandlers there, there was at least 4 times more this day. While thinking about their methods from a communication standpoint, I noticed that they used this fallacy They try to associate certain emotions with the action of giving them money (or time when signing a petition). They use clever wording to either imply that you will feel good if you give them money, or make you feel like a greedy, heartless person if you do not and walk away. While the various premises may be different, the end conclusion is usually to give them money. While their situation is certainly sad, and it would be difficult to give money to every one people who panhandle use this (plus many more) communication method(s).
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