The ways in which analogy was used in a nonexperimental environment-politic
s-was investigated. We used the framework developed in analogy research to
analyze the selection of analogical sources in political discourse. We took
all the analogies reported in newspapers hiring the final week of a refere
ndum campaign in Canada and analyzed the features of the different analogie
s used. We identified 234 analogies and analyzed the range over which analo
gies were used, semantic categories of analogies, goals of the analogizer,
and emotional connotation of the analogies. Our results reveal that analogy
was frequently used, that over two-thirds of the analogical sources were n
onpolitical, and that many of the sources had strong emotional connotations
. Furthermore, the goal of the analogizer influenced the selection of sourc
es. We conclude that characteristics of the audience and emotionality of th
e source analog are important features in the selection of source analogs.