ABSTRACT
Motivational appeals may be generally defined as external inducements, often of an emotional nature, that are designed to increase an individual's drive to undertake some course of action. By external inducements, this chapter means incentives that exist apart from the substance of a message itself. Such external inducements typically seek to alter people's moods, feelings, or emotions as a means of persuasion. Motivational appeals can be thought of as attempts to jump-start an individual's drive to do something. They provide an external incentive for performing some action. Intrinsic motivation is drive that comes from within. Motivational appeals are found everywhere. Daily entreaties include anxiety, fear, guilt, health, honor, humor, patriotism, pity, pride, sex, warmth, and more. Emotions tend to exert more influence when receivers rely on peripheral processing, as opposed to central processing (Greifeneder, Bless, & Pham, 2011). However, central processing and peripheral processing can coexist, a phenomenon known as parallel processing.
