Market Metaphors 1 Running head: STOCK MARKET METAPHORS Metaphors and the Market: Consequences and Preconditions of Agent and Object Metaphors in Stock Market Commentary

We investigated two types of metaphors in stock market commentary. Agent metaphors describe price trends as volitional actions, whereas object metaphors describe them as movements of inanimate objects. Study 1 examined the consequences of metaphoric description for the investor audience. Agent metaphors, compared with object metaphors and nonmetaphoric descriptions, caused investors to expect price trend continuance. The remaining studies examined preconditions, the features of a trend that evoke agent versus object metaphors. We hypothesized that the rate of agentic metaphors would depend on the trend direction (upday vs. downday) and steadiness (steady vs. unsteady). Two archival studies tracked the metaphoric content in end-of-day CNBC commentary as a function of daily price trajectories. As predicted, agent metaphors were more likely for uptrends than downtrends and especially so when the trends were relatively steady. This held for both bull (Study 2) and bear market periods (Study 3). Study 4 replicated these findings in a laboratory study where participants took the role of a stock market commentator.