An
appeal to fear (also called
argumentum ad metum or
argumentum in terrorem) is a
fallacyIn logic and rhetoric, a fallacy is a misconception resulting from incorrect reasoning in argumentation. By accident or design, fallacies may exploit emotional triggers in the listener or interlocutor , or take advantage of social relationships between people...
in which a person attempts to create support for his or her idea by using deception and propaganda in attempts to increase fear and prejudice toward a competitor. The appeal to fear is common in
marketingMarketing is an integrated communications-based process through which individuals and communities are informed or persuaded that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others....
and
politicsPolitics is a process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic and religious institutions...
.
This fallacy has the following
argument formIn logic, the argument form or test form of an argument results from replacing the different words, or sentences, that make up the argument with letters, along the lines of algebra; the letters represent logical variables. This is of importance since the validity of an argument is determined solely...
:
- Either P or Q is true.
- Q is frightening.
- Therefore, P is true.
The argument is invalid.
An
appeal to fear (also called
argumentum ad metum or
argumentum in terrorem) is a
fallacyIn logic and rhetoric, a fallacy is a misconception resulting from incorrect reasoning in argumentation. By accident or design, fallacies may exploit emotional triggers in the listener or interlocutor , or take advantage of social relationships between people...
in which a person attempts to create support for his or her idea by using deception and propaganda in attempts to increase fear and prejudice toward a competitor. The appeal to fear is common in
marketingMarketing is an integrated communications-based process through which individuals and communities are informed or persuaded that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others....
and
politicsPolitics is a process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic and religious institutions...
.
Logic
This fallacy has the following
argument formIn logic, the argument form or test form of an argument results from replacing the different words, or sentences, that make up the argument with letters, along the lines of algebra; the letters represent logical variables. This is of importance since the validity of an argument is determined solely...
:
- Either P or Q is true.
- Q is frightening.
- Therefore, P is true.
The argument is invalid. The
appeal to emotionAppeal to emotion is a potential fallacy which uses the manipulation of the recipient's emotions, rather than valid logic, to win an argument. Also this kind of thinking may be evident in one who lets emotions and/or other subjective considerations influence one's reasoning process...
is used in exploiting existing fears to create support for the speaker's proposal, namely P. Also, often the
false dilemmaThe logical fallacy of false dilemma involves a situation in which only two alternatives are considered, when in fact there are other options. Closely related are failing to consider a range of options and the tendency to think in extremes, called black-and-white thinking...
fallacy is involved, suggesting Q is the proposed idea's sole alternative.
Fear, uncertainty and doubt
Fear, uncertainty, and doubt (
or FUD) is the appeal to fear in
salesA sale is the pinnacle activity involved in selling products or services in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity.A sale is completed by the seller, the owner of the goods...
or
marketingMarketing is an integrated communications-based process through which individuals and communities are informed or persuaded that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others....
; in which a company disseminates negative (and vague) information on a competitor's product. The term originated to describe misinformation tactics in the
computer hardwareA personal computer is made up of multiple physical components of computer hardware, upon which can be installed an operating system and a multitude of software to perform the operator's desired functions.-Typical PC hardware:...
industry and has since been used more broadly. FUD is "implicit coercion" by "any kind of
disinformationDisinformation is false or inaccurate information that is spread deliberately. It is synonymous with and sometimes called Black propaganda. It may include the distribution of forged documents, manuscripts, and photographs, or spreading malicious rumors and fabricated intelligence...
used as a competitive weapon." FUD creates a situation in which buyers are encouraged to purchase by brand, regardless of the relative technical merits. Opponents of certain large computer corporations state that the spreading of fear, uncertainty, and doubt is an unethical marketing technique that these corporations consciously employ.
Image wars
Although FUD was originally attributed to IBM, the 1990s saw the term become often associated with industry giant
MicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is a multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices...
. The
Halloween documentsThe Halloween documents comprise a series of confidential Microsoft memoranda on potential strategies relating to free software, open-source software, and to Linux in particular, and a series of responses to these memoranda. Both the leaked documents and the responses were published by Eric S...
(leaked internal Microsoft documents whose authenticity was verified by the company) use the term FUD explicitly to describe a potential tactic against
Open sourceOpen source is an approach to the design, development, and distribution of software, offering practical accessibility to a software's source code. Some consider open source as one of various possible design approaches, while others consider it a critical strategic element of their operations...
software. More recently, Microsoft has issued statements about the "viral nature" of the
GNU General Public LicenseThe GNU General Public License is a widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project....
(GPL), which Open Source proponents purport to be FUD.
As persuasion
Fear appeals are often used in
marketingMarketing is an integrated communications-based process through which individuals and communities are informed or persuaded that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others....
and
social policySocial policy primarily refers to guidelines and interventions for the changing, maintenance or creation of living conditions that are conducive to human welfare. Thus, social policy is that part of public policy that has to do with social issues...
, as a method of
persuasionPersuasion is a form of social influence. It is the process of guiding people and oneself toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic means. It is a strategy of problem-solving relying on "appeals" rather than coercion...
. Fear is an effective tool to change attitudes
http://issuu.com/martijnboermans/docs/boermans_2009_-_thesis_fear_appeals, which are moderated by the motivation and ability to process the fear message. Examples of fear appeal include reference to social exclusion, and getting laid-off from one's job., getting cancer from smoking or involvement in car accidents and driving.
Fear appeals are
nonmonotonic, meaning that the level of persuasion does not increase in proportion to the amount of fear that is used. A study of public service messages on AIDS found that if the messages were too aggressive or fearful, they were rejected by the subject; a moderate amount of fear is the most effective
attitudeAn attitude is a hypothetical construct that represents an individual's degree of like or dislike for an item. Attitudes are generally positive or negative views of a person, place, thing, or event-- this is often referred to as the attitude object...
changer.
. Others argues that its not the level of fear that is decisive in attitude change in the
persuasionPersuasion is a form of social influence. It is the process of guiding people and oneself toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic means. It is a strategy of problem-solving relying on "appeals" rather than coercion...
process. As long as a scare-tactics message includes a recommendation to cope with the fear (the defensive self is broken), it can work.
http://igitur-archive.library.uu.nl/dissertations/1975035/inhoud.htm
See also
- Appeal to emotion
Appeal to emotion is a potential fallacy which uses the manipulation of the recipient's emotions, rather than valid logic, to win an argument. Also this kind of thinking may be evident in one who lets emotions and/or other subjective considerations influence one's reasoning process...
- Appeal to force
Argumentum ad baculum , also known as appeal to force, is an argument where force, coercion, or the threat of force, is given as a justification for a conclusion...
- Embrace, extend and extinguish
"Embrace, extend and extinguish," also known as "Embrace, extend, and exterminate," is a phrase that the U.S. Department of Justice found was used internally by Microsoft to describe its strategy for entering product categories involving widely used standards, extending those standards with...
- The terrorists have won
"...the terrorists have won", or "...then the terrorists win" is a rhetorical phrase used in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States and, to a lesser degree, the 7 July 2005 London bombings in the United Kingdom....
- Scareware
Scareware comprises several classes of scam software, often with limited or no benefit, sold to consumers via certain unethical marketing practices. The selling approach is designed to cause shock, anxiety, or the perception of a threat, generally directed at an unsuspecting user...
External links