The power of conceptual metaphors in the age of pandemic: The influence of the WAR and SPORT domains on emotions and thoughts

Conceptual metaphors are used to conceptualise the world and are often employed in political discourse and media to refer to important social issues, such as crises, political questions or diseases (Nerghes et al., 2015; Semino et al., 2018). Previous work has shown that the use of different metaphors can lead people to reason, feel and act differently (Cienki and Muller 2008; Gibbs 2014; Lee and Schwarz, 2014; Nicaise 2014; Thibodeau and Boroditsky 2015). Recently, much has been said about the social impact of the metaphors used to refer to the COVID-19 pandemic (Oswick et al., 2020; Rohela et al., 2020; Sabucedo et al., 2020). This research explores how two metaphorical domains, WAR and SPORT, influence people's opinions, decision making, emotions and perceptions of threats regarding the pandemic. The results obtained after surveying 711 native Spanish speakers show that the metaphorical frame influences the intensity of negative emotions and fears experienced by the participants. The data confirm that metaphor, as a cognitive mechanism, goes far beyond language and has an important impact on the psychological state of the population. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.