Sometimes ethos, pathos, and logos can be used to make people believe things that are not entirely true. Can you think of an example? How can people avoid being tricked by faulty persuasion tactics?

Answer 1

All three appeals can be used to manipulate people (the audience) into saying, thinking, or doing something. You can see this in advertisements, politics, speeches, essays, and so much more. For example, an advertisement by Coke (ethos) with Taylor Swift (ethos and pathos) about how you can entertain (logos) your guests with this soft drink is using all three appeals. You can avoid being tricked by not being persuaded right away and making sure that you think critically by asking questions: Are these people reliable or experts? What are they trying to get me to say, think, or do? Are those facts correct or faulty? Is there something else that is true that they are not saying? (soft drinks are unhealthy).

Answer 2

According to the Greek philosopher Aristotle, persuasion occurs when pathos, logos, and ethos are used skillfully. The percentages represent how important each component is to convince people:

1. Ethos (10%) is your credibility
2. Pathos (65%) is the art of appealing to emotions
3. Logos (25%) is the logic behind information, data, and statistics.

As you can see, someone's credibility becomes almost irrelevant when they skillfully use the power of persuasion and have some believable data to back it up.

I am sure you can easily think of politician who use this to their advantage.