Public Speaking Tips for Pathos
Pathetic!
That is a powerful put-down we probably use too frequently without proper consideration.
The word derives from the Greek rhetorical term pathos but the significance of its meaning has shifted.
In modern English, we have only kept a small corner of the meaning of the rhetorical word pathos.
Today there is no greater dismissive condemnation of a person than to tell them they are pathetic!
In speaking, if ethos is about the character and credibility of the speaker
(https://www.ataps.co.uk/about/blog/public-speaking-tips-for-ethos.html)
and logos is about how well the argument of the speech seems to hang together,
(https://www.ataps.co.uk/about/blog/public-speaking-tips-for-logos.html)
then, pathos is about the emotions we stir in the audience,
because in persuasion we usually need more than just logic.
As any salesperson will tell you:
‘Emotion sells, logic only tells.’
So why are people being told that they are ‘pathetic’?
What we might be saying is that their argument, far from revealing any element of character and credibility, is lacking all persuasive reasoning, because all it is, is a direct emotional appeal of:
‘Pity me.’
‘Help me.’
‘Support me.’
There is no substantial content or character to their plea, it is purely emotional, hence, they are just being ‘pathetic.’
However, in a rhetorical sense, an emotional appeal does not necessarily have these purely negative overtones: a rhetorical appeal could also be said to stir more positive emotions, of love, ambition, injustice, anger (to correct a wrong), or possibly of patriotism or duty.
Today if you are looking for examples of strong appeals to emotions, one of the most fruitful areas full of rhetorical pleas can be witnessed every evening in the realm of modern TV advertising.
Not only do we experience a wide range of rhetorical structures and patterns in the slogans and catchphrases used in the modern advertising campaign, but we are also subject to the (often cynical and manipulative) appeals to our emotions.
Psychology tells us that we tend to either move towards pleasure or away from pain.
So the next time the adverts come on, rather than fast-forwarding (if that is an option for you) or going out to make a cup of tea, stay to think about how the advertiser is attempting to appeal to your emotions.
Are they painting a desirable picture: lots of friends, a perfect family, being the envy of all around you, or are they playing more on potential shame and embarrassment: everyone else knowing what you do not, horrible smells in your house that you are no longer aware of, the evil consequences to you status or happiness of not choosing their product.
Very few adverts simply tell you what the product can do (logos); some will play on the credibility of an actor or personality (ethos), but most aim at an emotional response to either having or not having (pathos).
Never underestimate the power of the emotional appeal:
pride in your country
fear of outsiders
desire for better.
If still in doubt, have a look at social media, which is full of:
FOMO
TGIF
YOLO
All emotional appeals.
We like to think of ourselves as rational beings, but often we find ourselves merely clothing our impulses and desires with a small fig leaf of rationality. Therefore the accomplished speaker realises how important it is to stimulate the audience’s emotional response.
10 tips for Pathos
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Tell stories
The simplest, most effective, and most powerful way to connect with another person is through a story.
Facts, numbers, and statistics never move anyone. Astronomical statistics about poverty or starvation tend to get a nod of understanding, but it is the personal story of one deprived girl having to walk miles to fill her pot with unclean water that starts to stir the emotions.
Jeremy Corbin during his brief spell as leader of the Labour Party in the UK would often start a question to the prime minister by bringing up a specific example, even though he was making a point about a wider trend.
So instead of asking a broad question about hospital waiting lists, he would quote a letter from ‘Mary’ who has written to him outlining her pain and frustration at not being able to be seen by a doctor.
Stories connect on a personal level.
It is natural for us to use examples to illustrate our points and the most fundamental tool for this is a story.
A story connects on an emotional level.
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Paint pictures
Often a full story is not necessary. Instead, a short, neat description is often enough to paint the picture and stir the audience's emotions.
Mark Bezos in his TED talk about volunteering as a firefighter paints a very evocative picture in a few words to gain our sympathy for a woman who has lost her home in a fire:
‘here it was the middle of the night, she was standing outside in the pouring rain, under an umbrella, in her pyjamas, barefoot while her house was in flames.’
His words are simple and every little detail is calculated to emphasise her discomfort and to draw on our sympathy.
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Know your audience
You can only appeal to your audience’s sympathy if they are likely to be sympathetic!
Mark Bezos appeals to our general humanity. No one would want to lose their home and to paint a further picture of helplessness and confusion at being woken in the middle of the night to the catastrophe will only heighten our sympathy.
However, if Mark Bezos opts to fill us in on the background of the woman - maybe claiming that she is the wife of a violent criminal, whose house was won on ill-gotten gains and cruel exploitation - we might be less sympathetic: he now might be appealing to less sympathetic feelings of ‘natural justice’ or ‘karma’.
And we might be thinking:
‘Maybe she deserved it.’
I remember one political party that wanted to win support for restricting government subsidies for unemployed people on social benefit by painting a picture of them as sleeping to noon while the honest hard-working taxpayer was out working all day.
The opposition offered a counter-picture of the honest unemployed person scouring the neighbourhood for any work opportunity and being continuously turned down because the system was against them.
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Moving towards / moving away
Some people are better reached by telling positive stories that stir emotions towards a desired outcome, others a better motivated by telling negative stories that stir the emotions away from an undesired outcome.
Emmanuel Macron is quoted as saying:
‘Emotion is stronger than argumentation and negative emotion is stronger than positive emotion.’
This is unfortunately why it is easier to stir the emotions against a situation than towards a positive outcome.
This does not mean it is not worth appealing to the positive.
In politics, we might say it is the difference between a statesman and a demagogue.
John F Kennedy told us we should strive for
‘a new world of law,
where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved.’
which led him to move positively to the famous words:
‘my fellow Americans,
ask not what your country can do for you;
ask what you can do for your country.’
Like his contemporary, Martin Luther King Junior (‘I have a dream’), he chooses to paint a picture of a better world that we should strive for.
Vladimir Putin, on the other hand, uses the collective deep-seated trauma of Russia’s suffering at the hands of Nazi Germany in the 1940s to justify a war with his Ukrainian next-door neighbour
‘to protect the people that are subjected to abuse, genocide from the Kyiv regime’ and to ‘demilitarize and denazify Ukraine.’
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Empathy
There is probably no greater way of achieving a connection with another person than by letting them know:
‘I know exactly how you feel.’
‘I had the same experience.’
‘I have been where you have been.’
Politicians will play on their humble backgrounds to insinuate they can ‘feel’ with the common man. One of Donald Trump’s greatest achievements is to have created an apparent bond with a class of ‘poor’ Americans with whom on the surface it would seem he has very little in common.
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Vocabulary
Whether positive or negative, strong emotive words will have a powerful impact.
Putin’s choice of ‘abuse and genocide’ is obviously calculated to stir our horror at the claimed ill-treatment and thereby open up the way to us agreeing to a full military response.
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Metaphor
Comparing a leader to a Father who loves his children will stir warm positive feelings in the listener.
Over time we have learnt to associate Orwell’s term ‘Big Brother’ in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four as deeply sinister and consequently any modern reference to a ‘Big Brother’ state will have negative connotations, however, if we take the term at face value, the inhabitants of Oceania were intended to associate their leader with all the positive feelings that would come with being looked after by a caring older brother.
On the other extreme, choosing to tie the term ‘vermin’ onto a group of individuals is calculated to create negative associations and a course of action that leads on to ‘extermination’ seems quite acceptable -because that is what you do to solve an infestation.
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can lead to persecution.
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Feel it
Shakespeare’s Mark Antony speaking at Julius Caesar’s funeral wants to stir the emotions of the Roman people. He plays at being logical, justifying Brutus as honourable, wanting to hide the contents of Caesar’s will, but ‘accidentally’ letting some of the details slip, and as the Roman poet Horace said,
‘if you want me to feel an emotion, you must feel it yourself first’.
Therefore Mark Antony ‘allows’ himself to be overcome by emotion while speaking to inhabiting the feelings he wishes to impart and so he breaks down for a moment, ’overcome’ by his feelings:
Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.
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Voice
If you can ‘feel it’ and you choose appropriate vocabulary, then I would hope your voice, as an expressive instrument, will respond with the right emphasis, pace and power to help express the feeling in your words.
and my point here is to find the right words and images that allow or even encourage an expressive delivery, rather than trying to mechanically generate a level of feeling that is not coming naturally.
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Honesty
Sincere, genuine feelings will always connect powerfully.
Therefore if you can genuinely empathise with your audience, feel what they feel, and relate your own experience to it, you will create an emotional connection much more effectively than by listing dates, numbers, and statistics.
In the end, the most successful presentation is when I take what I have inside of me, give it a name, give it a purpose, and connect it to what is inside of you.
