hot button meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

hot-button

adjalso spelled hot-button

Arousing intense reactions; eliciting strong emotion or controversy.

a hot-button issue
The newspaper published articles on the hot-button issues on the front page to attract attention.

4 more examples

It was too hot-button, too controversial for the athlete.2005, Dave Zirin, What's My Name, Fool?: Sports and Resistance in the United States, →ISBN:
This would be hot-button if Slade lived in Alaska.2014, Roland L. Bessette, The Empress of Graniteport, →ISBN:
Her platform was AIDS awareness—a big deal for an organization whose representatives usually embraced less hot-button causes.2017, Jennifer Weiner, Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing, page 284:
We’re only a few months into the Congress, and there are plenty of opportunities for bigger gulfs to appear; partisans agree on most things most of the time because most votes aren’t on hot-button issues.2019 July 12, David A. Graham, “The Overhyped Feud Between Nancy Pelosi and AOC”, in The Atlantic:

hot button

noun

Etymology Registered as a trademark by American sales trainer Jack Lacy in 1956, first used in the 1940s.

A central issue, concern or characteristic, especially one that motivates people to make a choice; sometimes also one that people seek to delay taking sides on.

That issue was mostly solved in the modern forces, but it was still a hot button for every student of modern military history.2014, M. L. Buchman, Light Up the Night, →ISBN:

Business, Marketing The principal desire that a salesman needs to "hit" in order to make a sale.

Jack Lacey^([sic]), a top rating salesman, says that sales are made by touching off a “hot button” within the prospect’s mind.’1944, Dental Items of Interest, volume 66, Dental Items of Interest Publishing Company, page 866:
So one way of producing conviction is to “find the hot button”— something the other person is currently interested in—and show him how your idea can help him get that.1965, John D. Yeck, How to Get Profitable Ideas, McGraw-Hill, page 197:

1 more example

Therefore, when a prospect is considering buying something, his main concern is what's in it for him. And he always has a dominant desire. There is something he is trying to do which is important to him. We call this dominant desire his “Hot Button.” Once you have found the Hot Button of your prospect, you build your presentation around it.1975, Paul J. Micali, Hot Button Salesmanship, Dow Jones-Irwin, →ISBN, page 8:

An emotional trigger; something that arouses strong emotion or opinions.

Because when you recognize your main hot button, you can take the necessary steps to diffuse anger and reestablish connectedness in a healthy relationship.2009, Gary Smalley, Ted Cunningham, From Anger to Intimacy Study Guide, →ISBN:
“The sooner he gets rid of those children, the better it will be. He is too busy to be encumbered with orphans,” Delleah said. That struck Melissa's hot button. “2014, Barbara McMahon, The Nanny and the Sheikh, →ISBN:

Related terms: hot potato, not touch something with a ten-foot pole