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Abstract
This article first offers a cognitive semantic analysis of a few conceptual metaphors as instantiated in popular economic discourse advocating a free market ideology. Main attention is given to a cluster of metaphors related to the notions of health, fitness, and racing. Applying tools developed by Lakoff (1987) and Johnson (1987), it is argued that the use of these metaphors may reflect and consolidate certain thought patterns about general economic processes. The cognitive semantic analysis is then put to the test in a problem-solving experiment with university students of business and economics. The experiment reveals that exposure to particular metaphors to describe an economic scenario can indeed affect participants' decision-making processes in accordance with the cognitive semantic expectations.
