The Power of Metaphors

The Power of Metaphors

Aside from researching for my senior thesis, I assisted Paul with his work on metaphors. Paul studies how metaphors can frame or shape our thought about certain issues. For instance consider the metaphor "crime is a wild beast preying on the city" vs. "crime is a virus infecting the city". Amazingly, when these metaphors are embedded in paragraphs about crime in a city, participants choose to solve the crime problem differently.

For the "wild beast" metaphor, people tend to look towards stopping crime through stricter enforcement of the law, adding more police, or harsher sentences for criminals.

For the "virus" metaphor, people tend to look towards the cause of the problem, and crime prevention. They suggest crime can be reduced through more community programs, and better education.

Amazingly these differences occur without the explicit awareness of the participant. In other words, participants do not know their conceptualization of the issue is affected by the metaphor.

Metaphors can serve as tools to help us understand new issues and are often extremely helpful. For example if I told you than an argument is like a building, you might realize that you need support for your ideas, and to make sure there is a strong fact base. This is obviously helpful, just as the crime metaphors are helpful; however, there are limitations to how much a metaphor can aid our understanding.

If policy makers believe that crime is a wild beast they will focus their attention on stopping crime rather than preventing it, and may neglect the prevention aspect. Furthermore, when crime is conceptualized within a particular metaphorical frame, it becomes difficult to argue against that conception because it makes sense to stop a wild beast. But prevent a wild beast attack isn't as natural a conclusion from the wild beast metaphor.

A real world example comes from Buffalo, New York, where a serial rapist was harassing the city. Police had a good description of the perpetrator, who had already committed several acts of rape. Was it their resposibility to prevent more rapes or catch the criminal? The two may seem one and the same; however, they are clearly different. The police chose to catch the criminal themselves, rather than release the perpetrator's picture to the public and educate them on how they could avoid further attacks. The rapist struck three more times before he was caught. A job well done?

Well the police had done their job, they had caught the criminal, but only after he attacked again. And it seems that society's definition of police "doing their job" isn't enough. The focus on stopping crime needs to be centered around prevention.

I know a person who teaches in the juvenile detention system in Los Angeles. She said that it costs $ 120,000 per year per student in LA county. She said that if only half of that money were spent on community development there were be fare less crime and the tax payers would get a break. And as a taxpayer, would you rather spend less money developing a community that will likely have a more positive impact on people's lives; or spend more money on a system of punishment? Do we want a proactive positive approach, or a response approach to the problem?

Two great articles that discuss this issue are:

George kelling - taking back the streets: http://www.city-journal.org/article01.php?aid=1428

Kotlowitz - blocking the transmission of violence: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/magazine/04health-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin

There will be more discussion on how metaphors shape our understanding of our world; how they can both enhance and hinder our ability to problem solve. Think about your life and what metaphors or concepts shape the way you think. Teachers are constantly using metaphors to teach students. I would love to know how people think about different issues, and I invite you all to think about how an alternative understanding could shape your opinion differently. I would also like to know of any teachers experience using metaphors in their classroom. Feel free to comment.

Also if you would like to know more about Paul's research email him at pthibod1@stanford.edu