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Issue #16

Ethos (1/5): Why We Trust the Speaker Before the Speech

You’re watching a YouTube video titled “How I Built My Startup at 22”. The thumbnail has a young guy in a hoodie, sitting in a modern office, laptop open, a casual smile. Within the first thirty seconds, you’re pulled in. You’re nodding along, half-convinced he knows what he’s talking about before he’s actually explained a single detail. I remember watching a video like that and catching myself nodding before the kid even spoke.

Why?

It’s not because he’s said anything groundbreaking yet. It’s because of him. The hoodie. The office backdrop. The casual confidence. The fact that he looks like the kind of person who has actually lived the story he’s about to tell. Your brain, without asking for permission, already puts him in the category of credible.

That snap judgment has a name. The ancient Greeks called it Ethos — the power a speaker holds not through arguments or emotion, but through who they appear to be.

Since the time I started learning about ancient and modern Rhetoric, I’ve seen how Ethos changes how my own words land, and how every conversation worth listening to has a layer of Ethos hidden in plain sight.

Ethos, Before Everything Else ⌛

Aristotle named three pillars of persuasion: Ethos (character), Pathos (emotion), and Logos (reasoning). But here’s the trick —

Think about it. When someone begins speaking, you don’t sit patiently waiting for logic or statistics. You’re scanning the person. Their voice. Their body language. Their vibe. Your brain is silently asking: Do I trust this person? Do I believe them? Do they deserve my attention?

Psychologists call this “thin slicing” — forming lasting judgments about someone within seconds. Long before we’re conscious of it, we decide whether to lean in or tune out. That subconscious filter is Ethos at work.

If Ethos sets the stage, Pathos and Logos only walk on after. You could have the best reasoning in the world, but if the listener thinks you’re insincere, irrelevant, or unqualified, your argument won’t land. The power of Ethos is that it frames how everything else is heard.

Everyday Ethos 🌞

This isn’t limited to TED talks or viral videos.

You feel it when your manager introduces a new idea in a meeting — and you find yourself nodding. Do you trust her because she is smart, or because she has shown good judgement before?

You feel it when your doctor tells you to make a lifestyle change — you weigh their tone, their confidence, their own health, before the advice itself. Would you consider an unhealthy person as your gym trainer?

Ethos slips into daily life so naturally that we barely notice. But it’s there, shaping how words are received.

I started noticing it everywhere — in classrooms, boardrooms, even in the smallest family conversations. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

Why Ethos Outweighs Pathos and Logos 🔨

Ethos doesn’t compete with Pathos (emotions) or Logos (reason). It governs them.

• Pathos without Ethos can feel manipulative — why should I trust your emotion?
• Logos without Ethos feels dry or suspicious — why should I trust your reasoning?

With Ethos, both Pathos and Logos land more powerfully because the speaker is already seen as credible.

That hoodie-wearing founder? He had you leaning in before he opened his slides. Ethos works the same way in every room you’ll walk into. Before the speech, there’s always the speaker.

Where We’re Headed Next 🔀

This is Part 1 of a five-part series on Ethos. We’ve started by noticing how subtle and subconscious it really is — how it works on us before we realise it.

Why are we spending time on this? Because Ethos isn’t just an abstract concept from Aristotle’s playbook. It’s a tool you can use. By the end of this series, you’ll see how Ethos shapes the way people listen to you at work, at home, and in everyday conversations. You’ll understand how credibility can be built, how trust can be lost, and how small shifts in the way you present yourself can completely change the impact of your words.

In the next issue, we’ll ground Ethos further. We’ll step into a dinner table conversation: a father trying to convince his teenage kids about the importance of routine. We’ll see how his words might fall flat without Ethos, and how different they sound once Ethos is woven in. From there, we’ll trace the roots of Ethos back to ancient Greece and Rome, and understand why it remains as relevant today as it was 2,500 years ago.

For now, remember this: every time you find yourself trusting the speaker before the speech, that’s Ethos quietly working in the background.

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See you next week!