Abstract—The current paper attempts to highlight the technique of persuasion used in online Attorneys' Marketing by means of appeal to pathos in which persuasion is done through arousing emotions. Pathos is usually achieved by means of emotions. This paper focuses particularly on the arousal of feelings through the use of negative emotional appeals to arouse emotional reactions. Basically, the research intends to identify negative words and phrases that are used to arouse emotions and at the same time to provide information on legal issues. The results show that emotions of fear, guilt and shame are specifically aroused in the attorneys’ websites. Hence, the paper describes how online Attorneys' Marketing uses negative emotional appeals as an effective method to persuade prospective clients who might be involved in any legal problem in order to get the services of experienced attorneys.
Index Terms—Attorneys' marketing, negative emotional appeal, pathos, persuasive techniques.
F. A. Jabbar was with the Iraq/Wassit University (e-mail:farah_fa78@yahoo.com).
A. A. Christopher is currently with the Seminar and Training committee at the university Utara Malaysia.
Cite: Farah Abdul Jabbar and Anne A. Christopher, "Negative Emotional Appeals in Online Attorneys' Marketing in North America," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 305-309, 2012.
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