What is Ethos?

Aristotle defined ethos as the credibility or trustworthiness of the speaker. A speaker is able to deliver ethos through the style and tone of the presentation, as well as how he or she discusses opposing perspectives.

Ethos may also be able to be affected by the presenter’s reputation autonomous from the message they are trying to convey. Examples of this include previous experiences in the subject area, or their authenticity.

One should not rely entirely on the context of a speech to gain credibility with the audience. Self-presentation and establishing good credibility is an essential part of becoming a persuasive speaker.

A speaker builds credibility with their audience because it allows the speaker to do three essential things:

1. Establish trust and build a relationship with the audience
2. Motivate the audience to partake in the recommended action, and
3. Build the foundation for Aristotle’s other Modes of Appeals.

Using Credibility to Build Trust

While there are a wide variety of reasons for establishing credibility, one of the most important is to build trust with the audience. If the credibility a speaker establishes is trustworthy, a persuasive speaker will have the ability to convince their audience to do the action the speaker proposes. This is incredibly important for a persuasive speech and speaker, as the goal is to encourage the audience to take a particular action of the speakers choosing. Being credible and trustworthy is the most effective approach to build a connection and relationship with the audience to create a higher uptake to the speech’s action proposed. By establishing credibility in the speech, the audience will understand that the speaker has integrity, they are competent, they are relationally sensitive, they have sound judgment, and it also makes the speaker more likeable. When the audience understands these connections with credibility, they are more trusting of the speaker and are also more willing to build a relationship with the speaker.

Integrity:

Integrity is the ability to be honest and have a strong moral standing. If the audience can tell that the speaker has integrity, they will be more likely to take on the action asked by the speaker. The speaker will be able to demonstrate integrity by establishing ethical behavior. There is a saying that is, “Don’t do anything that you wouldn’t be proud to have showcased on the front page of the newspaper”. This is a good rule of thumb to follow if a speaker is ever unsure about what might or might not be ethical and show integrity. A speaker can also showcase their integrity by being honest and giving credit to outside sources and other people’s work.

Competence:

Competence is possessing knowledge, skill. and qualification that makes the speaker qualified to speak about the topic. An audience will likely have a higher uptake of pursing the action proposed when it is clear that the speaker is competent in the matter they are addressing. This can be established through a blend of education and experience, with the purpose of getting the audience to believe the arguments made are credible. The topic the speaker chooses should be something the speaker is comfortable and knowledgeable about, in order to establish competence with the audience.

Relationally Sensitive:

Being relationally sensitive means that the speaker is understanding and empathetic of the audience’s interests and values. The speaker will establish their openness to the audience’s thoughts and opinions by being careful not to ridicule or put down those values and interests. Instead, they will avoid using persuasion techniques through coercion, and show their commitment and openness to the audience’s freedom of thought and value.

Sound Judgment:

Possessing sound judgement means a speaker is able to assess a situation with an unbiased, and draw fair conclusions from the information. A speaker will be able to establish their sense of good judgment when they are able to analyze a situation with a clear mind and no bias, and make a decision that is suitable and likely benefits the maximum amount of people. The audience will be more open to suggestion and persuasion when they are able to see that the speaker has unclouded and sound judgment, and that they will not lead the audience down an unsuitable path with the action proposed.

Likeable:

Being likeable is the ability for a speaker to enter the room and have an easy going personality that makes them easy to warm up to and trust. Likeable people have an ability to please an audience, and are often quite charismatic. Finally, possibly one of the most important traits of a speaker who is looking to build trust and a relationship is being likeable. This is the first trait that the audience will notice, and it will make their decision to trust the speaker easier. With that being said, a valid and competent argument may also sway the audience to take the action. However, it will be a far easier sell if the audience likes the person speaking. Likeability has the ability on its own to create trust between the audience and the speaker, and is an important factor in a speaker’s repertoire.

Using Credibility to Motivate the Audience

Motivating people to take on any particular action is a challenging task, and it almost always requires some sort of logical or passionate argument in order to be effective. Often when an ethos appeal is successfully used to motivate people to take up in action, there is a subconscious mechanism at work, which can be attributed to Expert and Referent Power.

Expert and Referent Power

Ronald H. Humphrey wrote in Effective Leadership, Theory, Cases and Applications that there are five five bases of power, including reward power, coercive power, legitimate power, expert power, and referent power. We are interested in expert power and referent power, as they are derived from the audience’s perception of the speaker.

Expert power is the power a person has over others due to their perceived level of expertise or knowledge. A speaker may not necessarily need to have either of those things, but if a speaker creates an Ethos appeal advertising these qualities, a speaker can gain expert power. An audience will be motivated by expert power if the speaker looks like they know what they’re talking about, simply by the air of experience that they’re giving off through the ethos appeal.

People obtain referent power when they appear more friendly, attractive, trustworthy or credible. Referent power is strongly related to the Ethos appeal because it hinges on how the other people perceive the speaker. A speaker may be able to convince an audience to take up an action with no further logical argument because the audience simply thinks “Hey – that person looks good and they look pretty confident. They’re probably right.”

Expert power and referent power are the bases of power that stem from a speaker’s Ethos appeal. Humphrey wrote that expert power and referent power “operate by changing people’s attitudes” (Humphrey. 2014, 322) and that speakers with this power tend to produce more commitment among followers.

Perceived Authority

People can be motivated by perception of authority that is not even verbally communicated. In 1955 , researchers from University of Texas conducted an experiment where an individual would jaywalk across a street corner while waiting for the light to change. He recorded the number of people who followed after him. When the person jaywalking was well dressed with a suit and tie, significantly more people followed the person and also violated the jaywalking law, than when the person was dressed in a lower-class style (Lefkowitz et al., 1955).

What we can learn from this is that if you wear a suit, people will follow suit!

Summary on Motivation

A speaker with a sufficiently developed Ethos appeal will be able to motivate the audience because they give off a sense of referent power and expert power. Depending on the nature of the ethos appeal, a rhetorical audience can be persuaded to take up an action simply because of the speaker’s presentation and appearance of authority.

Sometimes, no verbal or logical argument is even required. This can be seen in the jaywalker example, where pedestrians were motivated to violate traffic law simply because of how a person was dressed.

Why does building credibility in your speech help motivate an audience? Because if you look like you know what you’re doing, the audience may sense your authority and do what you say.

Using Credibility to Build a Foundation for the Other Modes of Appeal

Jay Heinrichs describes how ethos and credibility can be used to build a foundation for the other Modes of Appeal in his paper, Thank You for Arguing. Heinrichs describes how arranging an argument is most effective when the ethos appeal is presented first, followed by logos, and finally pathos. The reason for this particular arrangement focuses on persuasion. By presenting the ethos appeal first, the speaker can most easily win over the audience. The speaker should try to identify with the audience by finding common ground and explaining their own interest in the subject of discussion. Presenting a solid ethos initially is vital before forming the other modes.

After ethos is established, the speaker can then start on presenting their argumentation. This is referred to as logos appeal. The facts should be stated in a logical manner, and the opponent’s argument should be addressed and defeated.

Finally, pathos appeal should be added into the speech before the conclusion. This is done to get the audience emotionally charged. This can be done by adding a variety of emotion depending on the action.

Logos and pathos appeal would not be able to be successfully added into the speech without first establishing ethos appeal. If the audience does not feel as though they are listening to a credible source, they will not be able to be persuaded of anything. It should also be noted that the most persuasive of all speeches are those that have a healthy balance of all three of the Modes of Appeal. Establishing the ethos appeal – or credibility – first is essential to achieving this and moulding a strong persuasive argument.

Further Reading / Resources

To read more in-depth about Jay Heinrichs’ original work Thank You for Arguing, book you can purchase it Here (Amazon).

The video below portrays two excellent examples of speakers establishing credibility for themselves:

• The first speaker depicts herself as an expert in her field by describing her learning experience about the subject matter in a public health class. She includes results from a survey as well, and mentions that she has done additional research which suggests that she has put a considerable amount of time and energy learning about the topic of antibacterial products. The speaker has clearly established her credibility after just a few short sentences. The audience is much more likely to trust the speaker after this, and will likely be much more motivated to partake in her action because of her knowledge and credibility on this issue.
• The second speaker establishes her credibility by describing her extensive personal experience involving people living in poverty. This speaker also has the ability to motivate the audience as she has established herself as an expert in this particular field.

This article further explains the importance of integrity:

http://www.goal-setting-guide.com/the-importance-of-integrity/

This article outlines techniques and strategies to become a more likeable speaker:

http://www.craigvalentine.com/6-ways-to-be-more-likeable-as-a-speaker/

References

The jaywalking paper:
Lefkowitz, Monroe, Robert R Blake, and Jane Srygley Mouton. Status factors in pedestrian violation of traffic signals. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, Vol 51(3), Nov 1955, 704-706.

The bases of power:
Humphrey, Ronald H. Effective Leadership: Theory, Cases and Applications. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2014. 321-322.

Reference to the building trust and a relationship with the audience:

Budzowski, Bonnie. “What Is Credibility and Why Do We NEED to Care.” InCredible Messages. N.p., 2015. Web. Feb. 2015