Volume 12, Issue 6 (2022)
LRR 2022, 12(6): 299-337 |
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Panahinejad H, Safavimanesh F, Purmohammad M, Jahanitabesh A, Hajimoladarvish N. The Role of Conceptual Metaphors in Economics Phenomena from Behavioral Economics Aspect. LRR 2022; 12 (6) :299-337
URL: http://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article-14-46689-en.html
URL: http://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article-14-46689-en.html
Hoda Panahinejad1 
, Farzaneh Safavimanesh2 , Mehdi Purmohammad * 3, Azra Jahanitabesh4 , Narges Hajimoladarvish5
, Farzaneh Safavimanesh2 , Mehdi Purmohammad * 3, Azra Jahanitabesh4 , Narges Hajimoladarvish5
1- PhD in Cognitive Science- Linguistics, Institute for Cognitive Science Studies, Tehran, Iran
2- Assistant Professor, PhD in Statistics and Mathematics, Shahid Beheshti College, Institute of Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Tehran, Iran
3- Assistant Professor, Language Psychology, Research Institute of Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran , M_purmohammad@sbu.ac.ir
4- Lecturer and Postdoctoral Researcher, PhD in Psychology with a focus on Social Cognition, School of Psychology, University of California, Davis, USA
5- Assistant Professor, PhD in Behavioral Economics and Laboratory, Faculty of Economics, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran
2- Assistant Professor, PhD in Statistics and Mathematics, Shahid Beheshti College, Institute of Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Tehran, Iran
3- Assistant Professor, Language Psychology, Research Institute of Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran , M_purmohammad@sbu.ac.ir
4- Lecturer and Postdoctoral Researcher, PhD in Psychology with a focus on Social Cognition, School of Psychology, University of California, Davis, USA
5- Assistant Professor, PhD in Behavioral Economics and Laboratory, Faculty of Economics, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract: (2781 Views)
This article investigates the role of Conceptual Metaphors of 3 behavioral economics biases, including Irrational Evaluation, Labeling, and Replacing market values with social values on Willingness to Pay (WTP) and Willingness to Accept (WTA) of Participants. To extract experimental, conceptual metaphors, the results of field studies were checked on a group of 30 participants in the first phase. In the second phase, we used the semi-pilot method on 30 other participants through 2 stages for investigating conceptual metaphors. Analysis of variances showed that that the conceptual metaphors used in this article do not influence Willingness to Pay and Willingness to Sell. However, in Willingness to Pay status, among other biases, the impact of irrational evaluations conceptual metaphors has stronger effects, whereas, in Willingness to Accept status, replacing market values with social values is stronger than other biases. The results of this research showed that three mentioned behavioral principles that were implemented through conceptual metaphors, couldn't influence buying or selling decisions of participants significantly, but the efficacy of these behavioral principles were different in buying and selling decisions.
1. Introduction
Cognitive linguistics is a new school of linguistics that emerged in the early 1970s due to objections to formal linguistic approaches in Chomsky's views. Cognitive linguistics, like other types of linguistics, studies language and tries to describe the systematics, structure, and function of the language system. One of the most fundamental concepts in cognitive linguistics goes back to conceptual metaphor. Conceptual metaphors mean recognizing one domain through the characteristics of another domain. A simple definition of conceptual metaphor is that "conceptual domain A is conceptual domain B". The conceptual domain itself is any coherent organization of experiences. In this regard, one of the interdisciplinary approaches that has received much attention today is the focus on cognitive linguistics through conceptual metaphors in other areas. It seems that by using conceptual metaphors and examining their effect on perception, judgment and reasoning of individuals, a deeper understanding of cognitive processes can be achieved.
Accordingly, and according to previous research that shows that conceptual metaphors can subconsciously affect the way of thinking of people in various fields, in this study, the role of conceptual metaphors in the background of behavioral economics was investigated. The reason for choosing behavioral economics over neoclassical economics is the objections to the two main pillars of neoclassical economics, "The emphasis on individual rationality and General equilibrium". Individual rationality means that in neoclassical economics it is assumed that people do not include emotions in their decisions, while behavioral economics is based on anthropological studies with psychological methods based on the inclusion of emotions in economic decisions.
This article examines the effect of conceptual metaphors on the rules of behavioral economics. For this purpose, with reference to cognitive linguistics, we introduce some rules of behavioral economics in the form of conceptual metaphor theory and then in a quasi-laboratory study, we examine the effectiveness of presenting behavioral economics rules through conceptual metaphors in statistical form. In the first phase of the research, we select conceptual metaphors related to the three behavioral rules of irrational valuation, labeling and replacing market values with social values. Then, in the form of the fourth hypothesis, we examine the effect of the relevant conceptual metaphors on the willingness to pay and the willingness to Accept as two factors representing economic decisions.
Research Hypothesis instead of questions
(s)
Hypothesis 1: Conceptual metaphors related to the best examples of goods in this paper affect the implementation of the behavioral rule of irrational valuation.
Hypothesis 2: Conceptual metaphors related to femininity labeling used in this article, affect the implementation of the labeling rule.
Hypothesis 3: Conceptual metaphors related to social values used in this paper, affect the implementation of the rule of replacing market values with social values.
Hypothesis 4: The use of conceptual metaphors in implementing the rules of behavioral economics considered in this paper (irrational valuation, labeling and substitution of market values with social values) affects the willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to receive (WTA) of the test subjects.
2. Literature Review
The main reason for studying cognitive linguistics is the assumption that language expresses patterns of thinking. Therefore, the study of language from this perspective is the study of conceptualization patterns. In this approach, language is a window to cognitive function and through language, the nature, structure and organization of thinking and mental ideas of individuals can be studied (Evans, Green, 2006). In cognitive linguistics, language is a tool for organizing, processing and transmitting information (Dehghan et al., 1399). One of the most fundamental concepts in cognitive linguistics goes back to conceptual metaphor.
Conceptual metaphor has been extensively studied in linguistic texts but recently, cognitive linguistics has taken a new direction and is examining conceptual metaphors and their role in other sciences as well.
Among these studies are researches that have examined conceptual metaphors in economics. There are two general approaches to the introduction of cognitive linguistics into economic discourses: The first approach is that linguists try to identify the dominant metaphors used in these texts by examining the main and fundamental books of economics in order to find out what metaphors in the foundation of economics is used to provide insight to economics students, and another approach is for linguists to try to show the results of applying these metaphors in practice by selecting up-to-date corpus of economic texts and extracting the dominant metaphors used in them. In view of the above, in order to conduct a joint research between cognitive linguistics and economics with a forward-looking view, in this study, we examined the role of conceptual metaphors in representing the rules of behavioral economics. Before presenting the report of the present study, we will first explain why behavioral economics was chosen as well as its basic foundations.
2.1. Why choose behavioral economics (negation of neoclassical economics):
The main feature of neoclassical economics is its commitment to the theory of rational choice. This practice assumes that people behave in the way they should. If we want to argue according to the neoclassical economics assumption, one hundred percent rational people should not be influenced by emotions. However, financial decisions are generally subject to multiple biases (Guastello, 2016).
Behavioral economics, in fact, came into being by violating the basic hypotheses of neoclassical economics based on the rationality of individuals and the cumulative equilibrium of the market. From the perspective of behavioral economics, individuals are not always rational, but their irrationality is not without rules but with recognizable rules (Walliser, 2008; Bourgine & Nadal, 2004). At the same time, prices are not simply derived from the intersection of supply and demand in the market, but the price that the consumer is willing to pay may have been completely manipulated by the supplier. Findings of behavioral economics in the field of irrational behavior as well as the way prices are set in the market are the same principles and rules of behavior, such as the effect of ownership, labeling and deterrence (Ariely, 2008). Behavioral economics, in fact, seeks to achieve a more accurate study and prediction of consumer behavior by guiding these rules. In order to get acquainted with behavioral economics, it is necessary to introduce some of its rules:
3. Theoretical framework
3.1. Rules of Behavioral Economics
A) Irrational valuation
People seldom consider the absolute and independent value of goods and services in their choices. There is no tool within humans to measure the value of options. Rather, we focus on the relative value of one thing over another and estimate value in this way (Ariely, 2008).
B) Difference in look - labeling
Expectations also shape the headlines. One example is how to classify information in order to predict experiences. The brain cannot evaluate any new situation from scratch, and grouping or categorization helps the brain a lot in the meantime (ibid).
C) Social relations and market relations
We live in two worlds at the same time. One is a world in which social norms prevail and the other is a world in which market norms prevail. Social norms include friendly demands that people make (ibid).
In view of the rules of behavioral economics presented above, in this study we explored whether it is possible to represent the rules of behavioral economics through conceptual metaphors.
3. Methodology
This research was designed and implemented in two phases as follows.
4.1. Phase I subjects
This experiment was performed in two separate phases. Thus, the results of the first phase were indicative of the materials of the second phase of the experiment. Participants in the first phase initially consisted of 30 female students (because gender affects the dependent variable in the form of an independent variable of conceptual metaphors of labeling bias) studying in academic disciplines other than economics between the ages of 18 and 35.
4.2. Tools and process in the second phase of testing
In the second phase of the research, the conceptual metaphors selected from the first phase were used in three ways to prepare the main experimental materials.
4.3. Design of the second phase of the experiment
The method of designing the test materials was that the C-Sharp software was used to design the tests in order to be able to view the goods, specifications and also their prices along with the possibility of selecting the price desired by the subject by clicking on the Yes or No option for each price step.
4. Results
Finally, the study of hypotheses one to three of the present article on the effect of conceptual metaphors in implementing the behavioral rules of irrational valuation, labeling and replacing market values with social values showed that these three hypotheses are rejected by univariate analysis of variance but the forth hypothesis was not rejected.
The reasons might be as follow: The first category of reasons included the method of selecting our conceptual metaphors in the first phase, as well as the way in which they were explicitly displayed at the beginning of the introduction of the goods. At the same time, considering the achievement of examining the fourth hypothesis that conceptual metaphors related to irrational valuation are more effective in the task of purchasing and conceptual metaphors related to replacing market values with social values can be used in future research in these two areas to produce conceptual metaphors. He acted in a different way.
5. Discussion
In this study, we tried to find out whether it is possible to implement the three rules of irrational behavioral valuation, labeling and replacing market values with social values through the use of related conceptual metaphors. No further study has been done on the application of conceptual metaphors in behavioral economics. Examination of Hypotheses 1 to 3 of the present article on the effectiveness of conceptual metaphors in implementing behavioral rules of irrational valuation, labeling and replacing market values with social values showed that these three hypotheses are rejected. The reasons for rejecting these three hypotheses can be examined in two areas: First, the way our conceptual metaphors are selected in the first phase does not affect their Maximum Payout (WTP) and Minimum Receipt (WTA) decisions, respectively. It has been traded in assignments, and thus it can be stated that choosing different conceptual metaphors in this field in different ways can bring us different results. At the same time, in this area, the use of our conceptual metaphors explicitly at the beginning of the introduction of goods may have made the subjects aware of our purpose and has caused resistance to changing the decision to buy or sell. The second reason that can be stated to refute these three hypotheses could be that for our subjects, only purely technical information of the goods was important in the decision to buy and sell, and the sentences we used at the beginning to introduce the goods with metaphors, has had no effect. Examination of our fourth hypothesis on the effectiveness of conceptual metaphors related to the three types of irrational valuation bias, labeling and replacement of market values with social values showed that this hypothesis is not rejected, while the post hoc test showed that conceptual metaphors are most effective in buying when being related to irrational valuation, and while in the case of sales, the most effective were the conceptual metaphors related to the replacement of market values with social values, while the conceptual metaphors related to labeling were not significant in this area
6. Conclusion
our results show that in order to influence the rules of behavioral economics through conceptual metaphors, one must either use another method to extract conceptual metaphors or introduce conceptual metaphors implicitly rather than explicitly into the economic presentation of goods. At the same time, the greater effectiveness of conceptual metaphors of irrational valuation in the task of buying and the effect of conceptual metaphors of replacing market values with social values in the task of selling can be promising. And therefore could be further explored in future research.
1. Introduction
Cognitive linguistics is a new school of linguistics that emerged in the early 1970s due to objections to formal linguistic approaches in Chomsky's views. Cognitive linguistics, like other types of linguistics, studies language and tries to describe the systematics, structure, and function of the language system. One of the most fundamental concepts in cognitive linguistics goes back to conceptual metaphor. Conceptual metaphors mean recognizing one domain through the characteristics of another domain. A simple definition of conceptual metaphor is that "conceptual domain A is conceptual domain B". The conceptual domain itself is any coherent organization of experiences. In this regard, one of the interdisciplinary approaches that has received much attention today is the focus on cognitive linguistics through conceptual metaphors in other areas. It seems that by using conceptual metaphors and examining their effect on perception, judgment and reasoning of individuals, a deeper understanding of cognitive processes can be achieved.
Accordingly, and according to previous research that shows that conceptual metaphors can subconsciously affect the way of thinking of people in various fields, in this study, the role of conceptual metaphors in the background of behavioral economics was investigated. The reason for choosing behavioral economics over neoclassical economics is the objections to the two main pillars of neoclassical economics, "The emphasis on individual rationality and General equilibrium". Individual rationality means that in neoclassical economics it is assumed that people do not include emotions in their decisions, while behavioral economics is based on anthropological studies with psychological methods based on the inclusion of emotions in economic decisions.
This article examines the effect of conceptual metaphors on the rules of behavioral economics. For this purpose, with reference to cognitive linguistics, we introduce some rules of behavioral economics in the form of conceptual metaphor theory and then in a quasi-laboratory study, we examine the effectiveness of presenting behavioral economics rules through conceptual metaphors in statistical form. In the first phase of the research, we select conceptual metaphors related to the three behavioral rules of irrational valuation, labeling and replacing market values with social values. Then, in the form of the fourth hypothesis, we examine the effect of the relevant conceptual metaphors on the willingness to pay and the willingness to Accept as two factors representing economic decisions.
Research Hypothesis instead of questions
(s)
Hypothesis 1: Conceptual metaphors related to the best examples of goods in this paper affect the implementation of the behavioral rule of irrational valuation.
Hypothesis 2: Conceptual metaphors related to femininity labeling used in this article, affect the implementation of the labeling rule.
Hypothesis 3: Conceptual metaphors related to social values used in this paper, affect the implementation of the rule of replacing market values with social values.
Hypothesis 4: The use of conceptual metaphors in implementing the rules of behavioral economics considered in this paper (irrational valuation, labeling and substitution of market values with social values) affects the willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to receive (WTA) of the test subjects.
2. Literature Review
The main reason for studying cognitive linguistics is the assumption that language expresses patterns of thinking. Therefore, the study of language from this perspective is the study of conceptualization patterns. In this approach, language is a window to cognitive function and through language, the nature, structure and organization of thinking and mental ideas of individuals can be studied (Evans, Green, 2006). In cognitive linguistics, language is a tool for organizing, processing and transmitting information (Dehghan et al., 1399). One of the most fundamental concepts in cognitive linguistics goes back to conceptual metaphor.
Conceptual metaphor has been extensively studied in linguistic texts but recently, cognitive linguistics has taken a new direction and is examining conceptual metaphors and their role in other sciences as well.
Among these studies are researches that have examined conceptual metaphors in economics. There are two general approaches to the introduction of cognitive linguistics into economic discourses: The first approach is that linguists try to identify the dominant metaphors used in these texts by examining the main and fundamental books of economics in order to find out what metaphors in the foundation of economics is used to provide insight to economics students, and another approach is for linguists to try to show the results of applying these metaphors in practice by selecting up-to-date corpus of economic texts and extracting the dominant metaphors used in them. In view of the above, in order to conduct a joint research between cognitive linguistics and economics with a forward-looking view, in this study, we examined the role of conceptual metaphors in representing the rules of behavioral economics. Before presenting the report of the present study, we will first explain why behavioral economics was chosen as well as its basic foundations.
2.1. Why choose behavioral economics (negation of neoclassical economics):
The main feature of neoclassical economics is its commitment to the theory of rational choice. This practice assumes that people behave in the way they should. If we want to argue according to the neoclassical economics assumption, one hundred percent rational people should not be influenced by emotions. However, financial decisions are generally subject to multiple biases (Guastello, 2016).
Behavioral economics, in fact, came into being by violating the basic hypotheses of neoclassical economics based on the rationality of individuals and the cumulative equilibrium of the market. From the perspective of behavioral economics, individuals are not always rational, but their irrationality is not without rules but with recognizable rules (Walliser, 2008; Bourgine & Nadal, 2004). At the same time, prices are not simply derived from the intersection of supply and demand in the market, but the price that the consumer is willing to pay may have been completely manipulated by the supplier. Findings of behavioral economics in the field of irrational behavior as well as the way prices are set in the market are the same principles and rules of behavior, such as the effect of ownership, labeling and deterrence (Ariely, 2008). Behavioral economics, in fact, seeks to achieve a more accurate study and prediction of consumer behavior by guiding these rules. In order to get acquainted with behavioral economics, it is necessary to introduce some of its rules:
3. Theoretical framework
3.1. Rules of Behavioral Economics
A) Irrational valuation
People seldom consider the absolute and independent value of goods and services in their choices. There is no tool within humans to measure the value of options. Rather, we focus on the relative value of one thing over another and estimate value in this way (Ariely, 2008).
B) Difference in look - labeling
Expectations also shape the headlines. One example is how to classify information in order to predict experiences. The brain cannot evaluate any new situation from scratch, and grouping or categorization helps the brain a lot in the meantime (ibid).
C) Social relations and market relations
We live in two worlds at the same time. One is a world in which social norms prevail and the other is a world in which market norms prevail. Social norms include friendly demands that people make (ibid).
In view of the rules of behavioral economics presented above, in this study we explored whether it is possible to represent the rules of behavioral economics through conceptual metaphors.
3. Methodology
This research was designed and implemented in two phases as follows.
4.1. Phase I subjects
This experiment was performed in two separate phases. Thus, the results of the first phase were indicative of the materials of the second phase of the experiment. Participants in the first phase initially consisted of 30 female students (because gender affects the dependent variable in the form of an independent variable of conceptual metaphors of labeling bias) studying in academic disciplines other than economics between the ages of 18 and 35.
4.2. Tools and process in the second phase of testing
In the second phase of the research, the conceptual metaphors selected from the first phase were used in three ways to prepare the main experimental materials.
4.3. Design of the second phase of the experiment
The method of designing the test materials was that the C-Sharp software was used to design the tests in order to be able to view the goods, specifications and also their prices along with the possibility of selecting the price desired by the subject by clicking on the Yes or No option for each price step.
4. Results
Finally, the study of hypotheses one to three of the present article on the effect of conceptual metaphors in implementing the behavioral rules of irrational valuation, labeling and replacing market values with social values showed that these three hypotheses are rejected by univariate analysis of variance but the forth hypothesis was not rejected.
The reasons might be as follow: The first category of reasons included the method of selecting our conceptual metaphors in the first phase, as well as the way in which they were explicitly displayed at the beginning of the introduction of the goods. At the same time, considering the achievement of examining the fourth hypothesis that conceptual metaphors related to irrational valuation are more effective in the task of purchasing and conceptual metaphors related to replacing market values with social values can be used in future research in these two areas to produce conceptual metaphors. He acted in a different way.
5. Discussion
In this study, we tried to find out whether it is possible to implement the three rules of irrational behavioral valuation, labeling and replacing market values with social values through the use of related conceptual metaphors. No further study has been done on the application of conceptual metaphors in behavioral economics. Examination of Hypotheses 1 to 3 of the present article on the effectiveness of conceptual metaphors in implementing behavioral rules of irrational valuation, labeling and replacing market values with social values showed that these three hypotheses are rejected. The reasons for rejecting these three hypotheses can be examined in two areas: First, the way our conceptual metaphors are selected in the first phase does not affect their Maximum Payout (WTP) and Minimum Receipt (WTA) decisions, respectively. It has been traded in assignments, and thus it can be stated that choosing different conceptual metaphors in this field in different ways can bring us different results. At the same time, in this area, the use of our conceptual metaphors explicitly at the beginning of the introduction of goods may have made the subjects aware of our purpose and has caused resistance to changing the decision to buy or sell. The second reason that can be stated to refute these three hypotheses could be that for our subjects, only purely technical information of the goods was important in the decision to buy and sell, and the sentences we used at the beginning to introduce the goods with metaphors, has had no effect. Examination of our fourth hypothesis on the effectiveness of conceptual metaphors related to the three types of irrational valuation bias, labeling and replacement of market values with social values showed that this hypothesis is not rejected, while the post hoc test showed that conceptual metaphors are most effective in buying when being related to irrational valuation, and while in the case of sales, the most effective were the conceptual metaphors related to the replacement of market values with social values, while the conceptual metaphors related to labeling were not significant in this area
6. Conclusion
our results show that in order to influence the rules of behavioral economics through conceptual metaphors, one must either use another method to extract conceptual metaphors or introduce conceptual metaphors implicitly rather than explicitly into the economic presentation of goods. At the same time, the greater effectiveness of conceptual metaphors of irrational valuation in the task of buying and the effect of conceptual metaphors of replacing market values with social values in the task of selling can be promising. And therefore could be further explored in future research.
Keywords: Conceptual metaphors, behavioral economics, irrational evaluation bias, labeling bias, replacing market values with social values, mapping
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