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Key points
- Metaphors such as “time is money” are a common feature of human language and often go unnoticed.
- They compare two seemingly unrelated objects and highlight similarities, thereby changing the way we think.
- For example, describing ideas either as lightbulbs or seeds can influence our attitudes towards innovation.
Language has the power to shape the way we think. The words we use to communicate can influence our perceptions, ideas and subsequent choices. One example is the use of metaphors, figures of speech that compare two seemingly unrelated objects and highlight similarities between them.
Most of us use metaphors all the time, often without realising. We talk about the world being an oyster, life being a journey and time being money. We describe people as gold-diggers, heart-breakers or rising stars.
Often, these seemingly innocuous deviations from literal language are more powerful than we might think. The use of metaphors is far more than a poetic embellishment of factual statements. Indeed, metaphors can serve to “frame” people’s perceptions, thereby shaping their reasoning and subsequent actions.
Lightbulbs vs. Seeds: Metaphorical Framing of Ideas
A powerful illustration of metaphorical framing effects is the use of figurative speech when describing new ideas. A common metaphor in this context is that of a lightbulb. New thoughts are said to appear during a sudden flash of clarity or brilliance. Just like a light switch being turned on, we experience a rapid shift of perspective and—hey, presto—a new idea forms before our eyes.
The lightbulb metaphor is so pervasive that it has found its way into a range of different media. Cartoon drawings, advertisements and clipart make frequent use of the illuminated bulb to illustrate new thoughts and creativity. It certainly is no coincidence that Disney’s clever mastermind Gyro Gearloose has a lightbulb-headed Little Helper to assist him.
While intuitively pleasing and familiar, the lightbulb metaphor comes with several important caveats. The sudden change from darkness to light seems to suggest an effortless Eureka moment that happens to the genius mind almost by accident. It thereby plays into existing narratives, which celebrate history’s great thinkers as prodigies blessed with rare moments of inspiration. One such wunderkind was Isaac Newton, who reportedly derived his theory of universal gravitation during the fraction of a second it took for an apple to fall from a tree.
By likening ideas to lightbulbs, our language shapes a mental image of ideas as exceptional occurrences that present themselves to a selected few. Inadvertently, it also reinforces cultural stereotypes of effortless (and usually masculine) genius, which is commonly associated with humankind’s great inventors. The lightbulb metaphor may lead people to question their own capability for generating news ideas. A behavioural consequence can be the discouragement of hard work and sustained effort to bring about change.
An alternative way to describe ideas is by drawing on a picture of a plant seed. This involves comparing new thoughts to seeds that fall on fertile ground and—if nurtured—will grow and develop over time. In contrast to the lightbulb metaphor, the seed metaphor entails an understanding that generating new ideas is a laborious process, which requires time and effort. It also suggests that anybody can be the cultivator of ideas as long as they put their mind to it.
The Power of Metaphors: Experimental Evidence
The surprising influences of these different approaches to metaphorical language have been evidenced in experimental research. A three-part study compared the effects of lightbulb and seed metaphors on participants’ judgements about Alan Turing’s idea for the first computing machine.
Participants were randomly divided into different groups presented with one of three narratives that described Turing’s creative process. The first group were informed that Turing had “a bright idea” that “struck him” like “a lightbulb that had suddenly turned on.” The second group read about “the seed of an idea” that “took root” like “a growing seed that had finally borne fruit.” The third group were given a neutral description of Turing’s invention, which did not use any metaphorical language.
The study results suggest that the type of wording had a significant effect on people’s judgements of Turing’s ideas. Participants who had been exposed to the lightbulb metaphor perceived Turing’s invention of the computing machine as more exceptional.
In subsequent parts of the study, the researchers dug deeper into the way that language affects gender perceptions of genius. Describing ideas as seeds increased participants’ ratings of female abilities to generate new ideas. This left the researchers to conclude that seed metaphors are more compatible with cultural perceptions around traditional feminine characteristics such as nurturing tendencies.
Incidentally, the 2014 film The Imitation Game paints an interesting picture of Turing's longstanding personal struggles with bullying and homosexuality. Turing led a team that sought to decode messages exchanged by enemy forces during the Second World War. The film outlined an epiphany which inspired Turing to feed its computing machine known letters from the routine “Heil Hitler” greeting that concluded every German message. While this itself might qualify as sudden lightbulb-type idea, the Eureka moment was part of a long and challenging creative process.
The nuanced influences of language outlined above are an example of the surprising power of words, which often goes unnoticed. Who’d have thought that the innocuous use of a simple lightbulb comparison could have such a profound effect on the way we perceive innovation?
What metaphors do you use in everyday language and how might they affect your thinking?
References
Elmore, K. C., & Luna-Lucero, M. (2017). Light bulbs or seeds? How metaphors for ideas influence judgments about genius. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 8(2), 200-208.
