The College Journey and Academic Engagement: How Metaphor Use Enhances Identity-Based Motivation Mark J. Landau University of Kansas Daphna Oyserman University of Southern California Lucas A. Keefer University of Kansas George C. Smith University of Michigan People commonly talk about goals metaphorically as destinations on physical paths extending into the future or as contained in future periods. Does metaphor use have consequences for people’s motivation to engage in goal-directed action? Three experiments examine the effect of metaphor use on students’ engagement with their academic possible identity: their image of themselves as academically successful graduates. Students primed to frame their academic possible identity using the goal-as-journey metaphor reported stronger academic intention, and displayed increased effort on academic tasks, compared to students primed with a nonacademic possible identity, a different metaphoric framing (goal-as-contained- entity), and past academic achievements (Studies 1–2). This motivating effect persisted up to a week later as reflected in final exam performance (Study 3). Four experiments examine the cognitive processes underlying this effect. Conceptual metaphor theory posits that an accessible metaphor transfers knowl- edge between dissimilar concepts. As predicted in this paradigm, a journey-metaphoric framing of a possible academic identity transferred confidence in the procedure, or action sequence, required to attain that possible identity, which in turn led participants to perceive that possible identity as more connected to their current identity (Study 4). Drawing on identity-based motivation theory, we hypothesized that strengthened current/possible identity connection would mediate the journey framing’s motivating effect. This mediational process predicted students’ academic engagement (Study 5) and an online sample’s engagement with possible identities in other domains (Study 6). Also as predicted, journey framing increased academic engagement particularly among students reporting a weak connection to their academic possible identity (Study 7). Keywords: academic achievement, conceptual metaphor theory, goals, identity-based motivation, possible selves College orientation materials commonly describe an undergrad- uate career metaphorically as if it were a physical journey. Duke University, for example, tells students, “You are about to begin the journey of undergraduate education”; Carnegie Mellon University reminds students that “ahead of you lay unlimited possibilities”; and the University of Hawai‘i offers suggestions for “what hap- pens if you hit a road block.” Of course, college is not literally a journey, and academic activities such as studying are superficially quite unlike the experiences of moving forward on a physical path, choosing a direction, and navigating difficult terrain. Why is the journey metaphor used so widely to inspire students to care about and invest effort into academic activities? One possibility is that such communications tap into metaphor’s undiscovered potential to spur action. Encouraging students to imagine themselves as academically accomplished graduates can be insufficient to boost academic engagement, and it may be uniquely motivating to frame that “accomplished graduate” possi- ble identity metaphorically as a destination on a journey that they actively take. The journey metaphor cues a sense that one knows how to reach a goal and fosters identity connection. In this article we propose that these elements are essential to understanding how the journey metaphor uniquely influences students’ understanding of their academic future and hence their motivation to achieve academic goals. In the current studies we integrate conceptual metaphor theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980) and identity-based motivation theory (Oyserman, 2007, 2013) to test these propositions. We do so in two parts. First, we test whether priming a journey-metaphoric framing of an academic possible identity increases academic engagement, Mark J. Landau, Department of Psychology, University of Kansas; Daphna Oyserman, Department of Psychology, University of Southern California; Lucas A. Keefer, Department of Psychology, University of Kansas; George C. Smith, Department of Psychology, University of Mich- igan. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant BCS-1222047 (Mark J. Landau), the Humboldt Foundation (Daphna Oyserman), and the National Science Foundation (George C. Smith). Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Mark J. Landau, Department of Psychology, University of Kansas, 1415 Jayhawk Boulevard, Fraser Hall, Room 426, Lawrence, KS 66045-7556. E-mail: mjlandau@ku.edu This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology © 2014 American Psychological Association 2014, Vol. 106, No. 5, 679 – 698 0022-3514/14/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0036414 679