Assessing the Use of Metaphors to Facilitate and Improve the Effectiveness of Climate Change Communication

Abstract:

Metaphors are sometimes used in science communication to explain unfamiliar scientific concepts and processes in more familiar terms. Empirical research has shown that metaphors can help audiences better understand complicated scientific concepts. A growing number of metaphors are used to explain various climate science concepts, but the only empirical evaluation of climate metaphors to date (van der Linden et al, 2014, Climatic Change) found that medical and bridge safety metaphors did not enhance the effectiveness of a simple corrective statement about the scientific consensus on human-caused climate change. Drawing on a recent meta-analysis by Sopory and Dillard (2002, Hum Commun. Res.), we will briefly review what is known about appropriate metaphor usage in communicating scientific concepts. We will also present preliminary findings from an experiment currently underway to further explain the conditions in which metaphors are likely to help in communicating climate science concepts. We hypothesize that metaphors will be more effective in communicating high complexity climate science concepts that are less easily understood by the public than more easily understood low complexity concepts (such as scientific consensus on climate change). We also hypothesize that the more familiar people are with the referent (performance enhancing drugs in baseball is a metaphor about “the climate system on steroids”), the more effective the metaphor will be. To test these hypotheses, we are randomly assigning ~1000 adults – approximately representative of the US adult population – to read one brief passage in which one of four relatively simple or complex climate concepts is presented and explained with or without a metaphor. The outcome measures will include climate change belief, concern, knowledge, and involvement. This study is intended to add to the knowledge base about use of metaphors in science communication, and provide practical advice to climate communicators.