The Influence of Metaphorical Frames on Americans’ Adherence to COVID-19 Public Health Guidelines

Abstract

Metaphors more-effectively influence people’s perceptions and behavior than normal language. The type of metaphor used is important in maximizing persuasion. Two common public health metaphors are family and war. War metaphors generally evoke more fear than family metaphors, and family metaphors generally evoke more empathy than war metaphors. The current study investigates whether family metaphors are more effective than war metaphors in promoting adherence to COVID-19 guidelines. Participants were assigned to a condition in which they read a single COVID-19-related paragraph. The paragraph included either family, war, or no metaphorical frame. All groups rated the extent to which reading the paragraph would change an average person’s adherence to a variety of public health guidelines. After reading the paragraph, participants reported their perceptions regarding the danger of COVID-19 and their feelings of unity with others to determine whether the metaphor manipulation effectively influenced fear and empathy. There was no observable effect of metaphor type on adherence to public health guidelines. Feelings of unity and fear were not higher, on average, in one group compared to another. Thus, one metaphorical condition or even the presence of a metaphor was not observed to be more effective in changing people’s adherence to public health guidelines. Additionally, the metaphors did not evoke their intended emotions, which may explain the lack of change in behavior. Future research investigating the effect of numbing on metaphor effectiveness may help explain these results and indicate whether metaphors should be used for persuasion in future public health crises.