The most effective way to change people's opinions is to appeal to their emotions.

The most effective way to change people's opinions is to appeal to their emotions.

5:43- 6:13

Humans are driven by emotion on a daily basis  and is an important part of social life. With the  drastically changing field of media and technology, many companies rely on imagery and advertising to appeal and change people’s opinions. Also people tend to change opinions when a hardship is affecting a country. However there are times when cognitive reasoning is successful such as in times of peace and prosperity.

First consider a situation in which it is most effective to change people’s opinion by using reason rather than emotion. In most democratic nations, citizens experience financial security and high quality of life. When economic times are good, people tend to view capricious leaders as crazy and narrow minded. Over the past few decades, the issue of climate change has become a major controversial issue in society. Many organizations such as the United Nations and the EPA have encouraged Americans and other global citizens to take action against global warming by encouraging alternative energy. Often times these organizations use less imagery and more facts with supporting data to make their case heard. Recently in the 2012, National Clean Energy Summit held in Long Beach, CA was held to bring awareness and realization to the people about the importance of alternative energy fuels and what humans can do to reduce their carbon footprint. Thus innovative products and ideas had been proposed and discussed upon to encourage more people to cooperate in this effort. Likewise, the EPA and other organizations have been discussing alternative energy options for the US as a whole due to the skyrocketing cost of gasoline at the pump and for heating oil. Thus, these cases show that organizations in a stable and often prosperous society can change people’s opinion with cognitive reasoning.

In contrast there are times when it is effective to alter people’s opinions with emotion. This can be exemplified in the Post World War I Germany, when Germany lost and was forced to surrender to the Allied Powers. In addition to the defeat, the German government had to pay huge sums of fines and reparation as a means to negotiate for their ignorance and destruction of human ideals. After the reparations were paid, the German economy suffered and many people were below the poverty line. A few years past and in the mid 1920s came Adolf Hitler who would change the crippled Germany back to its feet. Hitler initially was a soldier in the Austrian army and knew how humiliating it was to lose to the Allied powers. He was fed up with his country and wanted to make change and make his mother Germany proud. Thus he started big rallies in community centers and public places across Germany to appeal to people’s emotions and scapegoat the Jews for their woes. Hence Hitler, was successful as a leader and took over the German Chancellorship in 1934 and established the Nazi Party. Even elected as Chancellor he used emotion and articulate speaking skills with gestures to appeal to any Germans by infusing the concept of the perfect “Aryan” race and everything else was inferior. Thus, Jews, gypsies, mentally disabled, senior citizens, sexually ambiguous, and people of color were being punished and banished from society as a means to pay for German humiliation. Hitler was responsible for the death of these innocent individuals by using his ardent speaking skills to persuade the public that there is hope for German Reich to last a thousand years. Thus Hitler is an example, of a leader who used emotion to appeal to the masses and change the opinion of hopelessness to patriotism.

All in all, whether to change people’s opinions with emotion or cognitive reasoning is circumstantial. When a nation is facing hardship, as in the case of Post World War I Germany, Hitler used emotion to bring hope to millions of Germans by appealing to their emotions. However, when a country is facing stability and a problem arises, it is often better to use cognitive reasoning to change people’s opinions as in the case of the National Clean Energy Summit.