Emotional Implications of Metaphor

Consequences of Metaphor Framing for Mindset about Cancer

Bibliographic Data

ID20413979
AuthorsRose K Hendricks (University of California San Diego), Rose Hendricks (0000-0001-5600-2257, University of California San Diego, corresponding author), Zsófia Demjén (0000-0002-3445-6861, University College London), Elena Semino (0000-0002-3421-2963, Lancaster University), Lera Boroditsky (University of California San Diego)
Year2018
Volume33
Issue4
Pages267-279
Publication date2018-10-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMetaphor and Symbol (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1092-6488 • E-ISSN: 1532-7868
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10926488.2018.1549835
OpenAlexW2913660551
LanguageEN
Citations received65
References cited25

When faced with hardship, how do we emotionally appraise the situation? Although many factors contribute to our reasoning about hardships, in this article we focus on the role of linguistic metaphor in shaping how we cope. In five experiments, we find that framing a person’s cancer situation as a “battle” encourages people to believe that that person is more likely to feel guilty if they do not recover than framing the same situation as a “journey” does. Conversely, the “journey” frame is more likely to encourage the inference that the person can make peace with their situation than the “battle” frame. We rule out lexical priming as an explanation for this effect and examine the generalizability of these findings to individual differences across participants and to a different type of hardship—namely, an experience with depression. Finally, we examine the language participants produced after encountering one of these metaphors, and we find tendencies to repeat and extend the metaphors encountered. Together, these experiments shed light on the influential role of linguistic metaphor in the way we emotionally appraise hardship situations

Battle · Cognitive psychology · Developmental psychology · Epistemology · Framing effect · Generalizability theory · Linguistics · Metaphor · Mindset · Persuasion · Superordinate goals · Categorization, perception, and language · Humor Studies and Applications · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Psychology · Social Psychology

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