Jostmann Nils B, Lakens Daniël, Schubert Thomas W
University of Amsterdam, 1081 WB Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Psychol Sci. 2009 Sep;20(9):1169-74. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02426.x. Epub 2009 Aug 14.
Four studies show that the abstract concept of importance is grounded in bodily experiences of weight. Participants provided judgments of importance while they held either a heavy or a light clipboard. Holding a heavy clipboard increased judgments of monetary value (Study 1) and made participants consider fair decision-making procedures to be more important (Study 2). It also caused more elaborate thinking, as indicated by higher consistency between related judgments (Study 3) and by greater polarization of agreement ratings for strong versus weak arguments (Study 4). In line with an embodied perspective on cognition, these findings suggest that, much as weight makes people invest more physical effort in dealing with concrete objects, it also makes people invest more cognitive effort in dealing with abstract issues.
四项研究表明，重要性这一抽象概念基于重量的身体体验。参与者在手持重或轻的写字板时提供重要性判断。手持重写字板会增加对货币价值的判断（研究1），并使参与者认为公平决策程序更重要（研究2）。这也会引发更详尽的思考，相关判断之间更高的一致性（研究3）以及对强弱论点的赞同评级的更大两极分化（研究4）都表明了这一点。与认知的具身观一致，这些发现表明，正如重量会让人们在处理具体物体时投入更多体力一样，它也会让人们在处理抽象问题时投入更多认知努力。
