Emotional Appeals are More Effective than Rational Explanations

Have you ever been in a situation where you want to get someone to do something for you? Whether it is getting that person to make you food, or get you a pillow? It could even be getting that person to do something for himself/herself. For example, applying for a job, or university. These are all examples of motivation. To motivate someone means to make someone feel determined, or willing to do something. If you want to motivate someone to do something, you need to think of a way that would persuade him/her the most effectively. Some examples of ways to persuade people are by giving them rational explanations, or by appealing to their emotions.

One way of motivating people is to give them the rational explanation. In other words, the scientific reason behind it. Some people are easily motivated if they know the facts behind something. For example, the reasons of why you should NOT smoke. There are plenty of scientific reasons of why cigarettes are bad for you and how you can get cancer. If you want to motivate people to stop smoking, you could tell them these facts. Hearing this explanation could make them realize that they need to do something, and stop smoking. This is a great way to motivate someone to stop because hearing the rational explanation may force him/her to have second thoughts about pulling out that next cigarette.

Although there are positives to rational explanations, there are also downfalls about them. In this case, sometimes the facts are hard to face, and may not be rational. For example, when you are applying for a class or job, some places specifically tell you how many people they are looking for. They may say, “We are looking for three people.” You may think that since this is such a low number, and tons of people may apply, that you have no chance of getting accepted, and that the odds are not in your favour. If you heard this, would it motivate you to apply? Knowing that only three people would be accepted? Probably not. You may feel that since three people get in, that you have no chance. This is a scenario where rational explanations are not good. You could have been one of the three fortunate people to get accepted, but now you will never know, because seeing such a low number of acceptances did not motivate you to apply.

Getting to someone on an emotional level is another way of motivating people to do something. One of the ways people do this is psychologically. They get into someone else’s head. You could tell them something, whether it is true or not, to motivate them to do something. I find that when someone tells me something to motivate me, whether it is true or not, I tend to remember it. It gets trapped in my head, and does not escape, until I finish what I was motivated to do. A great example of this happened when I was seven. My soccer coach told my team that if we scored a goal that was a header, we would get a pizza party. Every soccer game after he told us this, all I could think about was scoring a header goal so we could have a pizza party. The pizza was my motivation. He got to my heads and motivated me to score. Eventually, I did score a goal by heading the ball, and we got our pizza party. This shows how you can motivate someone by getting into that person’s head.

Another way of getting to someone emotionally is by guilt. Guilt is very powerful when it comes to making decisions. It can completely change your perspective. When someone wants one of their peers to do something for them, they may guilt them into it. For example, say that you and your best friend sit together in math class, and your class is writing a test. You feel confident about the test, but your best friend is very nervous. S/he looks over at you and whispers, “Help me. I do not understand! You do not want to see me fail...right?” Although you may want to go with your gut, you may feel that if you do not help, you will feel guilty. You know that cheating is wrong, but you do not want to see your best friend fail either. In the end, you have to be the one to decide whether you help them or not. This shows how guilt can make you feel.

You can guilt people into doing good things as well. For example, getting someone to donate to the food bank at Christmas time. You may tell them that since they have so much at Christmas and others do not, that they would feel better by helping others out. It would make them feel good. You are motivating them to do something to benefit others. Another example is the Heart and Stroke Foundation. My Mom donates every year, because my Opa had a heart attack and seven bypasses. He is still alive, and she is motivated to help so others will also have a good chance of surviving.

When motivating someone to do something, you are more likely to be successful by getting to him/her on an emotional level. If you are motivating someone to do something good, it makes them want to go with their heart, and with their gut feeling. The best way to accomplish this is emotionally. It is not always a good thing to go with the facts, when it comes to motivating people. Sure the facts may be true, but that will not get to someone as much, as saying something to the heart. The most effective way to persuade someone is emotionally.