Egocentric or Sociocentric Thinking - Essay Example

To understand how egocentric or socio-centric thinking can be applied to the appeal of pathos, it is important to understand the meaning of such ideas. Egocentric and socio-centric are very similar in meaning. Egocentric is “The natural human tendency to view everything within the world in a relationship to oneself, to be self-centered” (Paul & Elder, 2006, p. 213). On the other hand, socio-centric is defined as “The natural human tendency to view everything within the world in a relationship to a group, to be group-centered” (Paul & Elder, 2006, p. 213). When using either of these ideas for appealing to pathos, which is appealing to a person’s or group’s values and beliefs, can be very powerful.

An important fact to consider is that people naturally believe that their thinking is rational; however, many times it is not true. There are many psychological standards of irrational thinking but the five most common are listed here, “It’s true because I believe it”, “It’s true because my group believes it”, “It’s true because I want to believe it”, “it’s true because I have always believed it”, or “It’s true because it is in my selfish interest to believe it”.

When using egocentrism or Sociocentrism, the writer would try and appeal to the person’s or group’s values and reinforce what they already believe, such as most religious people do not believe in any changes to their faith.