Fear Appeal Arguments

Abstract

The subject of this chapter is the fear appeal argument, a scare tactic widely used in the mass media by corporations, government agencies, public relations firms and politicians to influence public opinions and behavior. Opinions are somewhat divided on how effective fear appeals are,¹ but the growing use of them in the past decade suggests there is a perception by social scientists that these appeals are successful as devices of persuasion. In this chapter, many examples of these fear appeals are presented, along with a survey of the leading theories presented by social scientists to show how the fear appeal type of argument works to persuade a subject.