# Appeal to pity

*Also called: Argumentum ad misericordiam*

- **Cluster:** Emotional pressure — Feeling recruited to do the work of evidence
- **Page:** https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/pity/
- **In Arabic:** https://fallacy.wiki/ar/fallacy/pity.md
- **Licence:** CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

## What it is

Substituting sympathy for the person in place of support for the claim.

## In the wild

> I deserve the promotion, I have had a hard year.

## How to answer it

Separate what the person deserves as a person from what the claim earns as a claim.

## Origin and naming

From the Latin 'argumentum ad misericordiam', 'argument to mercy'. Logicians gave it a name to mark the substitution of sympathy for support: the hardship is real, but it is not evidence the claim is true.

## More places it shows up

- You can't fail my son's project — he's been crying about it all week and his grandmother is ill.
- The committee should approve my grant despite the thin methodology; I've been pursuing this research for a decade.
- Don't ticket the delivery rider; consider how hard his day has already been.
- She should be acquitted — look at what the trial itself has already put her through.

## How to spot it

- Notice when the story about suffering arrives exactly where the evidence should be.
- Notice when refusing feels like cruelty, even though nothing about the claim changed.
- Notice when the person asking has renamed 'unqualified' as 'deserving.'

## Nearby

- [Appeal to emotion](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/appeal-emotion.md)
- [Special pleading](https://fallacy.wiki/fallacy/special-pleading.md)

## Read more

- [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_pity)
- [The Fallacy Files](https://www.fallacyfiles.org/emotiona.html)

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From fallacy.wiki — a bilingual field guide to 91 logical fallacies, published by phi holdings. Licensed CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/): reuse freely with attribution to fallacy.wiki.