Metaphors we think with: the role of metaphor in reasoning

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 singl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2011-02, Vol.6 (2), p.e16782-e16782
Main Authors: Thibodeau, Paul H, Boroditsky, Lera
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
18th century
21st century
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Biology
Cognition & reasoning
Crime
Crime prevention
Criminal investigations
Decision Making - physiology
Decisions
Dissent and Disputes
Electricity
Experiments
Female
Forage
Forages
Humans
Information
International conferences
Language
Male
Medicine
Metaphor
Metaphors
Middle Aged
Motivation
Personality
Political parties
Politics
Problem solving
Problem Solving - physiology
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Social conditions
Social policy
Social problems
Social psychology
Studies
Surveys and Questionnaires
Thinking - physiology
Trends
Young Adult
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Summary: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.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0016782