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Ethos And Its Effect On Society

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A man runs into a building full of people and starts shouting about a gas leak in the walls and that everyone needs to evacuate. He´s frantic and dishevelled, and a bit unorganized. No one moves. Now, take the same guy and put him in a police uniform or calm him down, put him in new clothes, and give him a badge. Now, everyone’s rushing out the door. Why is everyone suddenly so willing to trust a random stranger? This occurs because of a thing called ethos. Ethos is the appeal to character. It is one of Aristotle’s three ingredients of persuasion known as logos, the appeal to logic, pathos, the appeal to emotion, and ethos, arguably the most important and persuasive part of an argument. Ethos is the strongest and most effective method of persuasion that establishes likability and credibility which creates a trustworthy bond and hooks the crowd into listening. It is used constantly in advertisement and everyday life, so much so that people don’t notice it. For example, in an EAS magazine ad for nutrition protein powder, a picture of Ramsey Bergeron, a famous triathlete and personal trainer, is used to persuade viewers to buy the product because a he uses it and he is a great athlete. Ramsey Bergeron Protein Powder. This athlete is famous for being incredibly athletic convincing viewers that he would know about sports nutrition. So this ad uses ethos to show credibility. Ethos is also effectively used in plays. In the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar Brutus shows this

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