When do Metaphorical Frames Exhibit Psycholinguistic Effects? The Case of the Ego-Moving and Time-Moving Metaphor in Climate Change

Mateusz-Milan Stanojević, Mirjana Tonković, Anita Peti-Stantić

Abstract


In this paper we discuss the framing effects of the ego- vs. time-moving metaphor in relation to climate change. Previous studies have found that time-moving metaphors (e.g., climate disaster is approaching us) led participants to assess the urgency and perceived risk of climate change as higher than ego-moving metaphors (e.g., we are approaching climate disaster). Our results did not show the framing effect of metaphor, but observed individual differences in participants’ political orientation. We discuss factors that may influence framing and argue for a non-reductionist perspective of discourse or experimental studies.

Keywords


framing effects; metaphor; ego-moving; time-moving; climate change

Full Text:

PDF

References


Boeynaems, A. (2019). Figurative Framing in Political Discourse. (Publication No. 1091071616) [Doctoral dissertation, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam]. Research and graduation internal. https://hdl.handle.net/1871/55966

Boeynaems, A., Burgers, C., Konijn, E. A., & Steen, G. J. (2017a). The Effects of Metaphorical Framing on Political Persuasion: A Systematic Literature Review. Metaphor and Symbol, 32(2), 118–134.

https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2017.1297623

Boeynaems, A., Burgers, C., Konijn, E. A., & Steen, G. J. (2017b). The Impact of Conventional and Novel Metaphors in News on Issue Viewpoint. International Journal of Communication, 11, 2861–2879.

Brugman, B. C., Burgers, C., & Vis, B. (2019). Metaphorical framing in political discourse through words vs. concepts: A meta-analysis. Language and Cognition, 11(1), 41–65. https://doi.org/10.1017/langcog.2019.5

Burgers, C., Konijn, E. A., Steen, G. J., & Iepsma, M. A. R. (2015). Making ads less complex, yet more creative and persuasive: The effects of conventional metaphors and irony in print advertising. International Journal of Advertising, 34(3), 515–532. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2014.996200

Flusberg, S. J., Matlock, T., & Thibodeau, P. H. (2017a). Metaphors for the War (or Race) against Climate Change. Environmental Communication, 11(6), 769–783. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2017.1289111

Flusberg, S. J., Matlock, T., & Thibodeau, P. H. (2017b). Thinking about the future: The role of spatial metaphors for time. In G. Gunzelmann, A. Howes, T. Tenbrink, & E. J. Davelaar (Eds.), Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 361–366). Cognitive Science Society. https://cogsci.mindmodeling.org/2017/papers/0077/

Gentner, D., Imai, M., & Boroditsky, L. (2002). As time goes by: Evidence for two systems in processing space? Time metaphors. Language and Cognitive Processes, 17(5), 537–565. https://doi.org/10.1080/01690960143000317

Goffman, E. (1986). Frame analysis: An essay on the organization of experience. Northeastern University Press.

Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (2003). Metaphors we live by (2nd ed.). University of Chicago Press.

Landau, M. J., Cameron, L. D., Arndt, J., Hamilton, W. K., Swanson, T. J., & Bultmann, M. (2019). Beneath the surface: Abstract construal mindset increases receptivity to metaphors in health communications. Social Cognition, 37(3), 314–340. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2019.37.3.314

Lee, A., & Ji, L.-J. (2014). Moving away from a bad past and toward a good future: Feelings influence the metaphorical understanding of time. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(1), 21–26. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032233

Margolies, S. O., & Crawford, L. E. (2008). Event valence and spatial metaphors of time. Cognition and Emotion, 22(7), 1401–1414. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930701810335

Mikša, T., & Tonković, M. (2018). Tko pobjeđuje u utrci s vremenom?: Individualne razlike u mentalnoj reprezentaciji vremena. Psihologijske teme, 27(3), 385–408. https://doi.org/10.31820/pt.27.3.3

Musolff, A. (2015). Dehumanizing metaphors in UK immigrant debates in press and online media. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, 3(1), 41–56. https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.3.1.02mus

Panzeri, F., Paola, S. D., & Domaneschi, F. (2021). Does the COVID-19 war metaphor influence reasoning? PLOS ONE, 16(4), Article e0250651.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250651

Piata, A., & Soriano, C. (2022). The affect bias in the metaphorical representation of anticipated events: The case of approach. Metaphor and the Social World, 12(1), 115–137. https://doi.org/10.1075/msw.18034.pia

Richmond, J., Clare Wilson, J., & Zinken, J. (2012). A feeling for the future: How does agency in time metaphors relate to feelings? European Journal of Social Psychology, 42(7), 813–823. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.1906

Saad, L. (2017, March 14). Global Warming Concern at Three-Decade High in U.S. Gallup.com. https://news.gallup.com/poll/206030/global-warming-concern-three-decade-high.aspx

Saad, L. (2021, October 5). Are Americans Concerned About Global Warming? Gallup.com. https://news.gallup.com/poll/355427/americans-concerned-global-warming.aspx

Semino, E., Demjén, Z., & Demmen, J. (2018). An Integrated Approach to Metaphor and Framing in Cognition, Discourse, and Practice, with an Application to Metaphors for Cancer. Applied Linguistics, 39(5), 625–645. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amw028

Stanojević, M.-M. (2019). Metaphorical and non-metaphorical dimensions of the term nacija in Croatian online discourse. In L. Šarić, & M.-M. Stanojević (Eds.), Metaphor, Nation and Discourse (pp. 259–286). John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.82.11sta

Stanojević, M.-M., & Šarić, L. (2019). Metaphors in the discursive construction of nations. In L. Šarić & M.-M. Stanojević (Eds.), Metaphor, Nation and Discourse (pp. 1–32). John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.82.01sta

Stanojević, M.-M., Tralić, I., & Ljubičić, M. (2014). Grammatical information and conceptual metaphors: The case of anger. In A. Peti-Stantić, & M.-M. Stanojević (Eds.), Language as information: Proceedings from the CALS Conference 2012 (pp. 131–154). Peter Lang Verlag.

Sullivan, K. (2007). Grammar in metaphor: A construction grammar account of metaphoric language (Publication No. AAI3311687) [Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley]. UC Berkely Deposit. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9d9222f9

Thibodeau, P. H. (2017). The function of metaphor framing, deliberate or otherwise, in a social world. Metaphor and the Social World, 7(2), 270–290.

https://doi.org/10.1075/msw.7.2.06thi

Thibodeau, P. H., & Boroditsky, L. (2015). Measuring Effects of Metaphor in a Dynamic Opinion Landscape. PLOS ONE, 10(7), Article e0133939. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0133939

Thibodeau, P. H., Fleming, J., & Lannen, M. (2019). Variation in methods for studying political metaphor: Comparing experiments and discourse analysis. In J. Perrez, M. Reuchamps, & P. H. Thibodeau (Eds.), Variation in Political Metaphor (pp. 177–194). John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.85

Thibodeau, P. H., Hendricks, R. K., & Boroditsky, L. (2017). How linguistic metaphor scaffolds reasoning. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 21(11), 852–863. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2017.07.001

Tsakiris, M., Azevedo, R., Beukelaer, S. D., Jones, I., & Safra, L. (2019). When the lens is too wide: The political consequences of the visual dehumanization of refugees. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/y69sq

Van Stee, S. K. (2018). Meta-Analysis of the Persuasive Effects of Metaphorical vs. Literal Messages. Communication Studies, 69(5), 545–566.

https://doi.org/10.1080/10510974.2018.1457553

Vandeleene, A., Randour, F., Dodeigne, J., Heyvaert, P., Legein, T., Perrez, J., & Reuchamps, M. (2022). Metaphors, political knowledge and the basic income debate in Belgium: An experimental study of the framing impact of metaphors on political representations. Metaphor and the Social World. Online first. https://doi.org/10.1075/msw.20015.van

Vasquez, E. A., Loughnan, S., Gootjes-Dreesbach, E., & Weger, U. (2014). The animal in you: Animalistic descriptions of a violent crime increase punishment of perpetrator. Aggressive Behavior, 40(4), 337–344. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21525




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/lsmll.2023.47.2.97-107
Date of publication: 2023-07-19 13:53:58
Date of submission: 2022-11-08 11:25:19


Statistics


Total abstract view - 562
Downloads (from 2020-06-17) - PDF - 308

Indicators



Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2023 Mateusz-Milan Stanojević, Mirjana Tonković, Anita Peti-Stantić

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.