A metaphor-enriched social cognition.

TLDR

Social cognition studies how people process social information, traditionally framed by schema and embodied cognition theories that assume interpretation relies on knowledge of similar stimuli, but cognitive linguistics shows that conceptual metaphors also shape understanding by mapping abstract concepts onto concrete ones. The authors aim to enrich social cognition by explicitly recognizing conceptual metaphor as a distinct mechanism and introduce the metaphoric transfer strategy to empirically test its influence beyond schemas, while outlining future research directions. They distinguish conceptual metaphor from embodied simulation and propose the alternate source strategy to empirically disentangle these mechanisms, using the metaphoric transfer strategy to assess metaphor effects. Empirical evidence demonstrates that metaphors influence a broad array of social psychological phenomena, and a metaphor‑enriched perspective offers benefits for integrating and generating research and bridging social cognition with related fields.

Abstract

Social cognition is the scientific study of the cognitive events underlying social thought and attitudes. Currently, the field's prevailing theoretical perspectives are the traditional schema view and embodied cognition theories. Despite important differences, these perspectives share the seemingly uncontroversial notion that people interpret and evaluate a given social stimulus using knowledge about similar stimuli. However, research in cognitive linguistics (e.g., Lakoff & Johnson, 1980) suggests that people construe the world in large part through conceptual metaphors, which enable them to understand abstract concepts using knowledge of superficially dissimilar, typically more concrete concepts. Drawing on these perspectives, we propose that social cognition can and should be enriched by an explicit recognition that conceptual metaphor is a unique cognitive mechanism that shapes social thought and attitudes. To advance this metaphor-enriched perspective, we introduce the metaphoric transfer strategy as a means of empirically assessing whether metaphors influence social information processing in ways that are distinct from the operation of schemas alone. We then distinguish conceptual metaphor from embodied simulation--the mechanism posited by embodied cognition theories--and introduce the alternate source strategy as a means of empirically teasing apart these mechanisms. Throughout, we buttress our claims with empirical evidence of the influence of metaphors on a wide range of social psychological phenomena. We outline directions for future research on the strength and direction of metaphor use in social information processing. Finally, we mention specific benefits of a metaphor-enriched perspective for integrating and generating social cognitive research and for bridging social cognition with neighboring fields.