Metaphor, cognitive elaboration and persuasion.

摘要

Metaphors have long been a subject of interest to philosophers, scholars and researchers. Recent insights into the nature and function of metaphor have spurred new interest in the persuasive effects of metaphor. To date, research on the relation between metaphors and attitudes has produced mixed findings. This paper argues that there are several limitations in previous models and designs and this work attempted to resolve several of them. The rationale for the study is based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) of persuasion, which argues that cognitive elaboration is a strong predictor of attitudes. Researchers have posited that metaphors should evoke more cognitive elaboration than literal counterparts. This paper reports the results of a study that tested the relationship between metaphors, cognitive elaboration, and attitudes. Participants were exposed to one of 72 message conditions and responded to a set of psychological and attitude scales. Many of the hypotheses were not supported, including tests of the amount of cognitive effort that subjects reported and results related to attitude change by metaphor type. Results indicated that attitudes were stable across time, which is consistent with the ELM.