Metaphors we think with: the role of metaphor in reasoning

Abstract

The way we talk about complex and abstract ideas is suffused with metaphor. In five experiments, we explore how these metaphors influence the way that we reason about complex issues and forage for further information about them. We find that even the subtlest instantiation of a metaphor (via a single word) can have a powerful influence over how people attempt to solve social problems like crime and how they gather information to make "well-informed" decisions. Interestingly, we find that the influence of the metaphorical framing effect is covert: people do not recognize metaphors as influential in their decisions; instead they point to more "substantive" (often numerical) information as the motivation for their problem-solving decision. Metaphors in language appear to instantiate frame-consistent knowledge structures and invite structurally consistent inferences. Far from being mere rhetorical flourishes, metaphors have profound influences on how we conceptualize and act with respect to important societal issues. We find that exposure to even a single metaphor can induce substantial differences in opinion about how to solve social problems: differences that are larger, for example, than pre-existing differences in opinion between Democrats and Republicans.

Figure 1. Proportion of proposed solutions to crime by metaphor frame.

Figure 2. Proportions of responses to “solve the crime problem in Addison” (with “increase police” disambiguated).

The left panel displays results from Experiment 2 (with a one-word metaphor frame); the right panel displays results from Experiment 3 (in which a synonyms task preceded the non-metaphorically framed paragraph).

Figure 3. Seeking additional information.

The left panel displays results from Experiment 4 (with a one-word metaphor frame at the beginning of the report); the right panel displays results from Experiment 5 (with the same one-word frame but at the end of the report).