The Power of Metaphors: How to Talk So Others Will Listen
The only thing spreading more quickly than COVID-19 is information about it. If you are anything like myself, you probably struggle to keep up with the news. You might also find it difficult to tell apart evidence-based facts, half-baked hearsay and plain fake news. With the crisis response crucially dependent on people’s beliefs and consequent health behaviours, effective health communication has been more important than ever. Nevertheless, many bizarre COVID-19 myths have emerged and resisted repeated attempts of debunking.
It seems that despite all our best efforts, successful communication often remains a challenge. Indeed, within the discipline of psychology, an entire subdivision of risk communication is devoted to improving the way we share important information with people from diverse backgrounds.
The Three-Step Approach to Successful Communication
Effective communication relies on a three-step process.
1. Know your audience
Before sharing any information, it is essential to determine your target audience and identify their baseline level of knowledge. Psychologists can do so by assessing people’s “mental models” of particular subjects. This term refers to mental representations that people create to make sense of complex subjects. They typically consist of a mix of beliefs and attitudes, which are assembled and integrated over time. Depending on people’s previous experiences, analytical skills, attention to and interest in the topic, these mental models may be incomplete or partially inaccurate representations of the actual facts. Through careful interviews, researchers can identify key aspects of people’s existing models and better understand different perspectives on the topic. For example, previous research explored people’s mental models of cancer. In-depth interviews suggested that even though most people appeared well-informed on the surface, they held serious misconceptions about the causes of cancer, its detection and different treatment options.
2. Identify specific communication needs
After assessing the information baseline, it is essential to pinpoint existing inaccuracies and knowledge gaps. This can be achieved by comparing people’s mental models to actual facts. In particular, it involves identifying specific information that people need to improve understanding. Previous research sought to identify information needs relating to vaccinations. People's mental models were found to contain misunderstandings about the way that vaccines work, which led them to question their safety and effectiveness. Consequently, researchers identified clearer information about vaccine mechanisms as an essential communication need.
3. Use information tools to engage
Finally, we need to consider the most appropriate communication tools. Research shows that complicated messages containing technical language or requiring background knowledge often fail to reach audiences of diverse backgrounds. Such complicated messages can be improved through metaphors, which compare abstract subject matters to familiar items or issues. Comparisons have been shown to make difficult topics more accessible and interesting, thereby improving understanding and memorability of the message contents. Remember the quote at the start of this post? A member of the CDC compared COVID-19 to a giant tube of glitter. This metaphor is likely to resonate with a large number of people because many will be familiar with the astonishingly fast spread of glitter used for crafting or decoration. Scientific studies have provided evidence for the surprising effectiveness of metaphors, for example in the context of climate change. People’s understanding of the complicated subject matter was shown to improve when provided with metaphors. A helpful example compared the rising concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to a bathtub filling up with water.
Are All Metaphors Useful?
It seems like illustrative metaphors are a promising tool to engage people. They also help to communicate facts in a simple way that is likely to resonate with diverse communities of varying educational backgrounds. However, not all metaphors are useful. It is important to design metaphors carefully to consider the conclusions that people might draw from them. A prominent recent example of inappropriate metaphors was Donald Trump’s comparison of COVID-19 to seasonal influenza. A survey amongst US citizens showed that people who associated COVID-19 with the common flu were less likely to take the disease seriously and consequently failed to engage in the recommended protective behaviours of social distancing and increased hand hygiene. On the other hand, mental associations of COVID-19 with pneumonia, SARS/MERS, or Ebola were related to a significantly higher following of health recommendations. Similarly, scholars raised concerns about the frequent use of war metaphors in the context of COVID-19. Comparing the disease to a "deadly enemy" that needs to be "beaten" to "win the fight," for example, could interfere with people's compliance with guidelines for passive behaviours including staying at home and engaging in social distancing .
Taken together, all these findings suggest that metaphors can be a great communication tool if they are chosen wisely . What are your favourite metaphors and what makes them so effective?