The (Ir)relevance of Metaphorical Framing in Reasoning About the Covid-19 Problem

Previous research has shown that different metaphorical framings lead people to reason differently, even about important social issues. Critics of such investigations argue that there is no empirical evidence to show that framing significantly influences how people think about real-world problems. In our experiment, we investigated the effects of different metaphorical framings on reasoning about possible solutions to the Covid-19 pandemic to verify the results of previous studies investigating hypothetical situations and showing the powerful influence of metaphor on people’s attempts at solving social problems. Randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions (war, football, and dance framing), participants were asked to imagine themselves as members of the government and, having read a short report about the current pandemic situation in Croatia, they were asked to answer questions regarding their proposed solutions. We found that different framings do not elicit different responses from the participants in terms of reform vs. enforce, local vs. global, and dominance vs. cooperation. The proposed solutions did not differ as a function of metaphorical framing. This result calls for sceptical scrutiny and additional in-depth and more extensive studies of the relevance and power of metaphorical framings in real-life situations. Istraživanja pokazuju da metaforičko uokvirivanje može utjecati na način na koji ljudi razmišljaju i donose odluke, čak i o važnim društvenim temama. Kritičari takvih istraživanja smatraju da nema empirijskih dokaza koji bi upućivali na to da uokvirivanje ima bitan utjecaj na naše razmišljanje u stvarnim životnim situacijama. U ovome radu prikazani su rezultati eksperimenta kojim smo provjeravali utječu li zbilja različiti metaforički okviri na razmišljanja i stavove o mogućim rješenjima za problem pandemije virusa Covid-19 kako bismo u realnim uvjetima provjerili nalaze prethodnih istraživanja u kojima su korištene hipotetske situacije. Sudionici u istraživanju raspodijeljeni su po slučaju u jednu od tri eksperimentalne situacije (metaforički okvir rata, nogometa ili plesa). Nakon što su pročitali kratak tekst o pandemiji u Hrvatskoj, oblikovan u skladu s jednim od tri metaforička okvira, zamolili smo ih da se zamisle u ulozi člana Vlade i odgovore na nekoliko pitanja o tome kako bi oni pristupili rješavanju problema koje je donijela pandemija. Rezultati su pokazali da različiti metaforički okviri nisu doveli do različitih