Analogies

Why analogies make us smarter, and how to practice making them.

Analogies — as defined by psychologists — are useful when it comes to understanding difficult issues. What exactly are analogies, and how do we improve our skills in using them?

Similarities between occurring events and what we have memorized from the past help us think about future events. If we see dark clouds gathering and the wind is picking up, we know from past experience that rain is likely to fall pretty soon. If we see an object that has keys with symbols on them, we know from similarities with keyboards we’ve seen in the past, that we can most probably type in some information to interact. The ability to recognize similarities defines a large portion of our capacity to reason.

Psychologists use the term analogy slightly differently from everyday use, in a sense that the similarity should not be that obvious. For instance, a sneaker and a boot are not considered by psychologists to fall under the category analogous, for they are too similar. But they do find an analogy between a sneaker and a car tire since both share the similar function of touching the ground and giving grip for better and more comfortable movement, even though their physical appearance is quite different.