Motivational appeals are a type of psychological appeal used by speakers to inspire or encourage their audience to do something. Motivational appeals target an audience’s emotions, needs and values.

Reiss’s 16 Basic Desires

Psychology professor Steven Reiss developed a theory of sixteen needs and values that motivate human beings.^[1]

1.  Acceptance, the need to be appreciated
2.  Curiosity, the need to gain knowledge
3.  Eating, the need for food
4. Family, the need to take care of one’s offspring
5.  Honor, the need to be faithful to the customary values of an individual’s ethnic group, family, or clan
6.  Idealism, the need for social justice
7.  Independence, the need to be distinct and self-reliant
8.  Order, the need for prepared, established, and conventional environments
9.  Physical activity, the need for work out of the body
10.  Power, the need for control of will
11.  Romance, the need for mating or sex
12.  Saving, the need to accumulate something
13.  Social contact, the need for relationship with others
14.  Social status, the need for social significance
15.  Tranquility, the need to be secure and protected
16.  Vengeance, the need to confront or resist those who hurt or offend

With these motivators in mind, we can then proceed to think about ways to appeal to an audience’s emotions, needs, and values.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

One common approach when designing motivational appeals is to make use of Abraham Maslow’s model of human needs. Maslow arranged human needs into a hierarchy and he insisted higher-level needs on the hierarchy cannot be achieved before lower-level needs are met. What this means for persuasion is that you cannot motivate an audience to address a higher-level need until their lower-level needs are fulfilled.

Maslow’s model of needs in order from low to high level:

• Physiological needs: Food, drink, sleep, shelter.
• Safety needs: Personal protection and safety from threat, crime, dangerous weather, loss of property, etc.
• Love and belonging needs: Love, affection, belonging.
• Esteem needs: Desire for stable, high-evaluation of the self and acceptance by others.
• Self-actualization needs: The need to achieve our highest sense of who we can become.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is illustrated here. In some versions of the pyramid, cognitive and aesthetic needs are also included between esteem and self-actualization. Others include another tier at the top of the pyramid for self-transcendence.