Detrimental Impact of Selfish Appeals on Altruism

In “The Wrong Way to Get People to Do the Right Thing”, Alfie Kohn uses rhetorical appeals to support the claim that appealing to self-interest is detrimental towards getting people to help others.
In the beginning of the article, Kohn provides the basis for the aforementioned argument. He starts off by identifying the focus of the article: the usage of selfish appeals in order to motivate someone to do a desired action. He then provides several examples of the selfish appeals being used in advertisements, magazines, and other sources. In the examples, the desired action is to help others and the selfish appeals come in the form of promises of money, improved health, enlightenment, and other self-serving gains. The validity of the examples can easily be proven because most people have likely come across similar examples on their own at one point or another, This provides credibility to Khon’s initial claims, which in turn, makes the reader more apt to believe his primary claim. Khon’s claim that the usage of selfish appeals is detrimental towards getting people to help others is fully expressed in the remainder of the article. After creating the basis for the argument, Khon

By describing the advertisements and other sources that use selfish appeals, the article made it easy for me to recognise the problem without having to be directly told that it is a problem. When the counterclaim was introduced, I was already opposed to it as a result of the introduction. The wide variety of sources that support Khon’s claim lead me to believe that there are likely plenty other sources that also support the argument. These three aspects of the article are why I am persuaded and why an an undoubtedly large group of people are also