392 17.3 Using PersUasive strategies
emotional appeals used to persuade, but you could also elicit several other emo-
tions to help achieve your persuasive goal.
• Hope. Listeners could be motivated to respond to the prospect of a brighter
tomorrow. When Franklin Roosevelt said, “The only thing we have to fear is
fear itself,” he was invoking hope for the future, as was President Obama in
his upbeat 2008 campaign phrase, “Yes, we can!”
• Pride. When a politician says, “It’s time to restore our nation’s legacy as a
beacon of freedom for all people,” she is appealing to national pride. The
appeal to pride is to invoke feelings of pleasure and satisfaction based on
accomplishing something important. A persuasive appeal to achieve a goal
based on pride in oneself or one’s country, state, or community can be very
powerful.
• Courage. Challenging your audience to take a bold stand or to step away
from the crowd can emotionally charge your listeners to take action. Refer-
ring to courageous men and women as role models can help to motivate
your listeners to take similar actions. Patrick Henry’s famous “Give me
liberty, or give me death!” speech appealed to his audience to take a coura-
geous stand on the issues before them.
• Reverence. The appeal to the sacred and the revered can be an effective
way to motivate. Sacred traditions, revered institutions, and cherished
and celebrated individuals can inspire your audience to change or rein-
force attitudes, beliefs, values, or behavior. The late Mother Teresa, holy
writings, and the school your listeners attended are examples of peo-
ple, things, and institutions that your listeners may perceive as sacred.
As an audience- centered speaker, however, you need to remember that
what may be sacred to one individual or audience may not be sacred to
another.tap auDIenCe members’ belIeFs In shareD myths Often people
talk about a “myth” as something that is factually untrue. The Easter Bunny,
the Tooth Fairy, and Santa Claus are often labeled as myths. But in a rhetorical
sense, a myth is a belief held in common by a group of people and based on their
values, cultural heritage, and faith.
A myth may be factual—or it may be based on a partial truth that a group
of people believes to be true. Myths are the “big stories” that give meaning and
coherence to a group of people or a culture. The myth of the Old West is that
the pioneers of yesteryear were strong, adventurous people who sacrificed their
lives in search of a better tomorrow. The myth of the 1950s was that U.S. families
were prosperous and lived like Ward and June Cleaver and their sons, Wally and
“The Beaver,” in the TV program Leave It to Beaver. Religious myths are beliefs
shared by a group of people of faithful disciples. So a myth is not necessarily
false—it is a belief that a group of people share, one that provides emotional
support for the way they view the world.