§   DEFINITION

Appeal to Reward – using a reward to tempt the audience into a favorable response.
 

An appeal to reward is the opposite of a threat.  This appeal encourages a person to do something to gain some reward (rather than to lose something).  Such appeals divert attention away from the main issue, and onto what will be gained by accepting the disputed point of view.
 

FOR  YOUR  INFORMATION  

Examples of this appeal include buying votes, trading favors, and bribery.

 
FOR  YOUR  INFORMATION  

Children are especially susceptible to this fallacy because they often cannot comprehend consequences or recognize the down sides and risk factors involved in their decisions.  Young children cannot really understand that one doesn’t “get something for nothing.”

NOTE: in children’s minds, they appear to get something for nothing — this is apparently the way their world has always operated.  Kidnappers prey upon the naïveté of these children by luring unsuspecting children into their cars with promises of candy or puppies.
 

EXAMPLE 1

A candidate says: “If elected, I promise to cut your taxes.”

Tax breaks are always nice ... but everything that exists has a trade-off.  Cutting taxes could cut public money for important projects, such as roads and bridges, law enforcement, and public schools.  This appeal to reward is often overgeneralized by the speaker, for most political budgets do not focus on simply one issue in realty.  Often, cutting taxes might be the least important issue facing the public, yet can suddenly become the number one focus of your local politician.

When people know that they are going to be getting some money or credit, they tend to listen extra hard.  These arguments are usually nothing more than carrots dangling before starry-eyed followers.  More thoughtful individuals will seek to understand the other sides of the arguments more clearly.
 

EXAMPLE 2

A novice teacher says: “If you turn your essay in on time, I’ll give you extra credit.”

Teachers love wielding their swords of reward and punishment, often in the form of grades.  The fact that this teacher feels obligated to offer “extra” credit for simply fulfilling an assignment expectation is unreasonable logically, but ironically makes psychological sense.  Most students do not view submitting an assignment on time as a rewarding experience.  They feel relief, but not reward (that only happens after receiving a good grade).

Personally, I have always been amazed at how hard some students will work for one scrawny point of extra credit, but would place no effort at all in an assignment worth 100 points.  The reason, again, suggests that people are motivated by rewards (or perceived rewards), provided that the rewards are obvious, easy, and worthwhile to the participant.