Choose your metaphors with care – they are more powerful than you think

The precise words used to describe any given situation can have an enormous impact on its perception. Yet the power of language is often underestimated. Specifically, the immense, mind-changing force of metaphor. Brands should take note.

Let’s have a look at some evidence.

In 2011, Paul Thibodeau and Lera Boroditsky from Stanford University conducted a study exploring the impact of different crime-related metaphors.

They presented 1,482 participants with one of two reports about crime in the fictitious city of Addison. One report used metaphors describing crime as a “wild beast preying on the city” and “lurking in neighbourhoods”. The other report, otherwise identical, referred to crime as a “virus infecting the city” and “plaguing” neighbourhoods.

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Participants were asked to read the report and suggest solutions to the problem.
Those who saw crime described as a “beast” overwhelmingly suggested solutions based on enforcement: 74% proposed steps such as calling in the National Guard or building more jails. Just 26% suggested social reforms, such as better education or addressing economic issues.

In contrast, of those who read about crime as a “virus”, 56% proposed enforcement strategies, while 44% emphasised the need for social reforms.

That’s a 70% increase in support for social reform simply by switching the metaphor from “beast” to “virus”.

Keen to explore more deeply, Thibodeau and Boroditsky asked people to highlight the parts of the report that they believed had most influenced their suggestions. The vast majority – 97% – highlighted the data around crime and murder rates, indicating a strong belief that their decision was purely rational. Only 15 participants (3%) highlighted the metaphor as a key influence.

So, metaphors clearly work hard, but they do so covertly. We really don’t believe they influence us at all — which makes them even more powerful.

‘It’s the sugar to get it over the hill’: The behavioural science case for humour in advertisingAnd there’s another fascinating study that found similar results, this time in the field of health behaviour. In 2015, David Hauser from the University of Michigan and Norbert Schwarz at the University of Southern California explored the effect of metaphors on people’s health intentions.

They gave 313 participants a short paragraph about colorectal cancer. Half saw cancer described as an “imbalance”, while for others it was framed as an “enemy”. Here’s an excerpt:

“Colorectal cancer is cancer of the colon. This disease involves [an imbalance of / an enemy uprising of] abnormal cellular growth in the large intestine…. The average American faces a 5% lifetime risk of developing colorectal cancer as a result of [unbalanced / hostile] abnormal cellular growth.”

The researchers asked people to state what they would do to reduce their risk of developing colorectal cancer after reading the report, including restrictive steps such as not drinking alcohol excessively or avoiding high-calorie food, and positive behaviours like eating fruits and vegetables and eating foods high in fibre.

Those who saw cancer as an “enemy” were 11% less likely to say they would take restrictive steps than those who saw cancer described as an “imbalance”.

They were also 8% less likely to want to perform positive health-boosting behaviours. You can see the results in the table below.

	Message Metaphor
	Enemy	Imbalance
Restrictive behaviours	3.69	4.16
Positive behaviours	4.92	5.33

Results from Hauser and Schwarz’s (2015) study. Figures represent the average number of behaviours the participants claimed they would adopt.

It’s clear that the enemy metaphor was significantly less motivating than the imbalance one. Perhaps, in the face of enemy onslaught, we succumb to fatalism. But if the issue is an imbalance, well, that sounds like something we might be able to re-set with a few health tweaks.

So, choice of metaphor really matters — and taking health and crime as two examples here — might even be life-changing.

Marketing metaphors

Okay, so maybe you’re convinced that you need to choose your metaphors carefully – and consider testing to make sure they have the desired effect. But given that metaphors matter so much, it’s interesting to consider not just the language we as marketers use to communicate with our audience, but also the words we use among ourselves.

Have you ever stopped to consider how often the practice of marketing is described using military metaphors: campaign (first used in a military sense in the 17th century); target (derived from the French word for shield); launched (as in, missiles). We talk about “fighting for” market share, “winning” hearts and minds, and customer “loyalty”. And the word “slogan” itself was first a Gaelic word for a war cry.

Even the term “engagement” has military connotations, and misleadingly suggests a level of connection that most customers will never get close to, or want to.

‘Be concrete, focus on now and don’t try to change’: The final three ways to think like a behavioural scientistNow that we understand the difference a metaphor can make, should we reconsider our own language? War lingo suggests that marketing is a zero sum game, with a winner and a loser, in which we adopt an adversarial stance to our competition. This blinds us to opportunities for co-operation.

And it steers us to imagine our potential customer — the target — as something to be pounded into submission, rather than charmed towards making a purchase.

Being aware of the potential for metaphors to dictate decisions and behaviour should give us pause. Maybe we should frame things more thoughtfully. Or purposefully try using different metaphors to see if it steers us in another direction.

As Bertrand Russell, the philosopher and pacifist, said, “In all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.”

Richard Shotton is founder of the consultancy Astroten. His new book The Illusion of Choice, about applying behavioural science to marketing is now available. He tweets at @rshotton.