Hope is a more influential and motivational emotion than fear

Fear is indeed is the emotion that makes people do want they don't want to do. Hope is the emotion that tells us to do what we want to do. It is impossible to coerce someone, but it can't make someone do something that has a small chance of success as hope can. Even if you force a subject to preform task with fear, if he doesn't believe he can do it he will fail or preform below what was required. If the task was something the subject wanted to do, or a reward was provided, and the subject was convinced the task wasn't hard he would preform at a higher level. Hope is at some level required in all task because we must believe we can accomplish goals before we actually do. In this manner all the examples you gave are examples of hope. Yes, the fat man might be concerned for his health but will he really try to go diet crazy if he doesn't think he'll succeed? That's why on advertisements for extreme exercise programs don't say things like, "you're going to die if you don't stop being lazy and start working out!" Instead they show people who lost 70 pounds saying that anyone can do this if they try hard. That's because they recognize hope is necessary for someone to attempt something. Hope also goes along with what we want. So fear has to be strong enough to override our instinct to obtain what we want and then convince us we can't obtain our need uprooting the hope of the achievement. Hope simply needs to give us the belief that we will be successful while fear must swim upstream and make us do something we don't want to do. Also, if fear and hope coexist hope wins. This is because despite their fears they now have decided the task is possible. So one must have no hope for fear to triumph. People also instinctively want to have hope. They always want to think things are better then they are. So people will cling to any hope in the face of desperation. In short term situations fear may initially compel someone, once given the time to think they will make things out to be better then they are. Hope is also different then fear in the fact that only hope can alter someones mind. A person using fear can make people do things but has trouble changing their beliefs. Unless you systematically destroy everything that the person believes in using logic and fear then provide an alternative with hope can you alter a persons belief. Fear is not enough because consequences alone won't change the way the person thinks. You must show that the thinking is wrong then find a alternative using hope. Example would be that in 2012 Republicans used fear logic but failed to use hope to provided a alternative. Hope however is very good at changing peoples opinion. If the world is falling down and you stand up and say, "I have the answer, people will follow you." Lets look at some examples. 2008 Election: McCain raises fears about terrorism, Obama literally runs on nothing but hope. 1984: Mondale runs a pessimistic campaign. Reagen promises morning in America again. Mondale carries one state. 1980: Reagen promises a way out of depression and wins by a large amount. 1964: Both sides use fear mongering , but while Goldwater talked about the fall of America, Johnson made the promise to totally eminent poverty. Strangely, Reagen ran on many of Goldwater's issues but used them in a far more hopeful tone. What politicians have used fear mongering as a way to get elected and that was the main theme of their campaign. I can only think of Nixon, and it only worked because his opponents were to far outside mainstream politics. Humphery was mainstream, but his supporters were to far left wing for America to swallow.