Pathos

Pathos, or emotions, is an exceptionally strong rhetorical device because it catches the attention of a large variety of audiences, establishes a solid and understandable medium for most viewers to relate to, and its attachment to emotion can keep the argument in the audience's memory for a long time. Arguments containing only persuasion can be intractably ignored, and arguments with no understanding will inevitably prove ineffective; however, the use of "pathos" attacks both of these issues and commonly proves more effective than ones based entirely on logic and reason.

While people will commonly not respond to or commonly even understand an argument about a controversial topic such as economics, emotions, like sympathy, will register with the reader or listener. For example, when establishing a point to an audience with a little education, mentioning the stock market patterns will prove pointless, but mentioning the one legged hobos on the sides of the streets will draw tears, and the person will go back and spread the "need for change" to his or her friends and family. 

If emotion alone does not connect the reader to the piece, pressure to do so often will finish the job. For example, an argument encouraging acting out against pet abuse will show the harmful and irreversible effects of abuse on a defenseless animal, such as a puppy. Just the sympathy for the baby animal alone will change the majority of the audience member's minds, but those who are not will then fall into a category contrary to "peer pressure." They will be attacked for being heartless, inconsiderate, and having an unreasonable hatred of puppies. Regardless of how this person responds or the level of logic that his argument has, the opinions of the peers around him will remain unchanged; such is the power of pathos. Not only will the emotions bring out the most powerful, angry emotions in people, but they will also pressure those who remain loyal to reason to change. 

This is not to say, however, that emotional arguments are perfect. While they do have the extremely beneficial attributes mentioned above, emotions are no substitute for reason. Emotions alone will only convince a small majority of people, and the ones that are convinced, will commonly later reason out their error in judgement. It is therefore important to maintain a balance of logic and emotion, for without emotion, you will get few listeners, and without logic, those who do listen will often not remain loyal to the cause.