magazine issue 4 2014 / Issue 20

What can metaphors tell us about personality?

• written by Adam Fetterman & Michael Robinson
• edited by Brian Meier

In sum, people solve the problem of representing the self by thinking about it in metaphoric terms – i.e., as a head-related or heart-related being. When they locate the self in the head (heart), the self becomes invested with attributes metaphorically linked to it such as greater rationality (emotionality). Although it is quite likely that a smart person will gravitate toward thinking that the self is in the head and a nice, emotional person will gravitate toward thinking of the self as in the heart, we also suggest that self-locations reinforce such differences between people. Additional studies are investigating other correlates of self-location such as empathy, the quality of personal relationships, and scholastic performance across time.

Is metaphoric thinking functional?

People presumably use metaphors because they help one to understand non-tangible concepts such as the self or its emotions (Lakoff & Johnson, 1999). An individual differences approach might be particularly useful in examining this idea. Specifically, it is almost certainly the case that people differ in the extent to which they use metaphors in their daily lives. If metaphoric thinking is functional, then people who use metaphors more often should be advantaged relative to their non-metaphorical counterparts. This direction of research was the focus of the first author’s dissertation. As an initial step, a 30-item metaphor use questionnaire was created. People had to choose a literal phrase (e.g., “she makes rational decisions”) or a corresponding metaphoric phrase (e.g., “she uses her head”) as one that the self would typically speak, write, or think. Responses to the questionnaire were quite reliable and people differed substantially along this metaphor use dimension.

To assess whether (greater) metaphor use is functional, two additional studies focused on potential relations with emotional intelligence. The rationale for this focus is that emotions are non-verbal, non-physical entities and metaphors are thought to help people understand them (Crawford, 2009; Meier & Robinson, 2005). Consistent with this idea, metaphor users scored higher on scenario-based measures of emotional intelligence (e.g., one requiring them to determine which two emotions would most likely co-occur in a particular situation). They were also less disrupted by the negative events of their daily lives. Although more work remains to be done, these results point to the functionality of metaphoric thought in the important domain of emotions. Armed with a well-performing metaphor use scale, the benefits and potential costs of metaphoric thinking can be more fully evaluated in future studies.

Conclusions

Social psychologists have focused on whether metaphor-related experiences (e.g., of physical warmth or coldness) affect people in general. Personality psychologists can answer a different sort of question – namely, whether metaphors matter in what makes us different from each other. The answer to the latter question appears to be yes. The extent to which people like or prefer certain types of experiences (e.g., sweet foods) provides important information concerning their personalities. Whether people locate the self in the heart or the head allows us to understand whether they are logical or emotional, friendly or distant, smarter or less smart, etc. People differ considerably in whether they think metaphorically or not and such individual differences may be important in appreciating the functions – both benefits and potential costs – of metaphoric thinking. We envision quite a few future insights along the present lines, insights that will be important to both the personality and metaphor literatures.

What advice might be made on the basis of the reviewed findings? Be wary of people who wear red or seem to surround themselves with this color. Avoid wearing red oneself as it might provoke hostility in others. Find out whether potential friends like sweet foods or not. The former are likely to be better friends. Seek a head-locator for an intellectual conversation, but a heart-locator for a shoulder to cry on. These are but a few of the sources of advice that might follow from treating metaphors seriously in the study of personality.     

References

Crawford, L. (2009). Conceptual metaphors of affect. Emotion Review, 1, 129-139.

Dovidio, J. F., Gaertner, S. L., Esses, V. M., & Brewer, M. B. (2003). Social conflict, harmony, and integration. In: T. Millon & M. J. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of psychology: Personality and social psychology (Vol. 5, pp. 485-506). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Feltman, R., & Elliot, A.J. (2011). The influence of red on perceptions of dominance and threat in a competitive context. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 33, 308-314.

Fetterman, A. K., Liu, T., & Robinson, M. D. (in press). Extending color psychology to the personality realm: Red preferences and perceptual biases predict interpersonal hostility. Journal of Personality.

Fetterman, A. K., & Robinson, M. D. (2013). Flag color influences perceptions of hostility for the citizens’ of the country. Manuscript in preparation.

Fetterman, A. K. & Robinson, M. D. (in press). Do you use your head or follow your heart? Self-location predicts personality, emotion, decision making, and performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.