Argumentum in terrorem

Appeals to fear seek to build support by instilling anxieties and panic in the general population. An appeal to fear is a fallacy in which a person attempts to create support for an idea by attempting to increase fear towards an alternative.

This fallacy has the following argument form:

1. Either P or Q is true.
2. Q is frightening.
3. Therefore, P is true.

The argument is invalid. The appeal to emotion is used in exploiting existing fears to create support for the speaker's proposal, namely P. Also, often the false dilemma fallacy is involved, suggesting Q is the proposed idea's sole alternative.

An appeal to fear is related to the broader strategy of fear appeal and is a common tactic in marketing, politics, and media (communication). For example, Joseph Goebbels exploited Theodore Kaufman's "Germany Must Perish!" to claim that the Allies sought the extermination of the German people.