An appeal to flattery is a fallacious argument that uses compliments (flattery) to win over the audience. A red herring variant that disregards proof and shifts the argument with irrelevant statements.
This fallacy doesn’t occur when someone states something to be true or trying to prove something. It occurs when the speaker wants to convince or trick someone into doing something.
Example 1:
Speaker A: Will you make us a cup of coffee?
Speaker B: I’m up for it, it’s no problem. However, I really like it the way you make it. You’re like a coffee god or something.
Speaker A: Okay, I suppose I will do it.
Example 2:
A salesperson to a pregnant woman: “Wow, that dress looks good on you. Are you even pregnant? I have to say no one has looked better than you in that dress, it would be a sin.”
As you can see, the examples don’t really represent some kind of an argument. It’s just a clever way to persuade someone into doing something. In Example 1, Speaker A is tricked into doing what he/she wanted to be done in the first place. In Example 2, the pregnant woman is tricked into impulse shopping.
The appeal to flattery can occur as a form of an appeal to snobbery. That is, associating someone with an elite group in order to convince them into something. This appeal to flattery is best demonstrated with an example.
Example 3:
“I see that you, my audience, are elegant, educated, smart people. I think that people like you will like my version of the electric car.”
The speaker is associating elegant and educated people with the electric car. By doing this, he is implementing the idea in the audience that the electric car is made for them. Their status will be validated with the electric car.
Of course, genuine flattery is not a fallacy. If the compliments we give are not with some manipulative intent, we are not making an argument and certainly not a fallacious one.