Appeal to Emotion & summary Law Essay Research Paper

Appeal to Emotion
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Appeal to Emotion
Seeking a political office is a bold move that requires one's investment financially, emotionally, and mentally. Politics is often regarded as a dirty game, and that is nothing far from the truth. One is required to dig into the dark side of the opponent while throwing jibes to get the best of the voters. Politicians have mastered several strategies to help them swing voters in their favor. Campaign ads, slogans, rallies, celebrity endorsement, gerrymandering, and digital marketing are just a few of the strategies that work well in an electoral campaign. Just like in product marketing, politicians can also leverage music, ads, speeches, or images that evoke emotions to influence electors' behavior toward them or their opponents (Brader, 2005). It is also important to note that the electors' response to emotions varies accordingly with the type of emotions invoked, and the sooner the campaigner notices, the better.
Electoral campaigns often take two paths. One is the path that the one seeking to be elected project their positive self in order to expose their strengths to the electors. This approach is best described as positive political advertising (Valentino et al., 2011), and emotional appeal plays a critical role in its success. The values deployed to attain positive political advertising include hope, empathy, compassion, and pride (Malloy & Pearson-Merkowitz, 2016). Also, some symbols, objects, or state of a group triggers positive emotions, and politicians leverage this appeal to positive emotion in their campaign ads and speeches to influence voters' decisions, turnout, and even support. Besides, neuroscience assets that emotions, be it positive or negative, triggers a response that significantly alters the decision making (Malloy & Pearson-Merkowitz, 2016). An election is a vital process that relies on decision making, and politicians can take advantage of the massive influence positive emotions have on decision making.
An alternate path in the political campaign is to use language that...