Language helps people communicate and think. Precise and accurate language would seem best suited to achieve these goals. But a close look at the way people actually talk reveals an abundance of apparent imprecision in the form of metaphor: ideas are 'light bulbs', crime is a 'virus', and cancer is an 'enemy' in a 'war'. In this article, we review recent evidence that metaphoric language can facilitate communication and shape thinking even though it is literally false. We first discuss recent experiments showing that linguistic metaphor can guide thought and behavior. Then we explore the conditions under which metaphors are most influential. Throughout, we highlight theoretical and practical implications, as well as key challenges and opportunities for future research.

中文翻译：

---

语言隐喻如何支撑推理

语言帮助人们交流和思考。精确和准确的语言似乎最适合实现这些目标。但仔细观察人们实际谈话的方式，会发现大量明显的隐喻形式的不准确：思想是“灯泡”，犯罪是“病毒”，癌症是“战争”中的“敌人”。在本文中，我们回顾了最近的证据，即隐喻语言可以促进交流和塑造思维，即使它实际上是错误的。我们首先讨论最近的实验，这些实验表明语言隐喻可以指导思想和行为。然后我们探讨隐喻最有影响力的条件。在整个过程中，我们强调了理论和实践意义，以及未来研究的关键挑战和机遇。