The Effect of Metaphor on Political Attitudes
- 1 December 1981
- journal article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Basic and Applied Social Psychology
- Vol. 2 (4) , 305-316
- https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324834basp0204_6
Abstract
An experiment was conducted to investigate the impact of metaphors embedded in news articles involving political figures and events. Seventy-two subjects read four brief articles which varied, according to condition, in the valence of the metaphor. It was hypothesized that subjects reading a positively valenced metaphor, which cast the subject of the comparison in a desirable light, would rate. both the person and the issue mentioned in the news article more favorably than would subjects reading a negative metaphor. This hypothesis was confirmed, but only for more politically sophisticated subjects — those more attentive to political news were significantly more influenced by the experimental manipulation. It is suggested that these individual differences may be explained by a schema-based account of metaphor comprehension.Keywords
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