Department of Psychology, Tufts University Medford, MA, USA.
Front Psychol. 2011 Oct 10;2:259. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00259. eCollection 2011.
Figurative language and our perceptuo-motor experiences frequently associate social status with physical space. In three experiments we examine the source and extent of these associations by testing whether people implicitly associate abstract social status indicators with concrete representations of spatial topography (level versus mountainous land) and relatively abstract representations of cardinal direction (south and north). Experiment 1 demonstrates speeded performance during an implicit association test (Greenwald et al., 1998) when average social status is paired with level topography and high status with mountainous topography. Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrate a similar effect but with relatively abstract representations of cardinal direction (south and north), with speeded performance when average and powerful social status are paired with south and north coordinate space, respectively. Abstract concepts of social status are perceived and understood in an inherently spatial world, resulting in powerful associations between abstract social concepts and concrete and abstract notions of physical axes. These associations may prove influential in guiding daily judgments and actions.
比喻语言和我们的感知运动经验经常将社会地位与物理空间联系在一起。在三个实验中，我们通过测试人们是否将抽象的社会地位指标与空间地形的具体表示（平坦与山地）以及相对抽象的 cardinal direction（南和北）的表示隐含地联系起来，来检验这些关联的来源和程度。实验 1 表明，在 Greenwald 等人（1998）的内隐联想测试中，当平均社会地位与平坦地形配对，高地位与山地地形配对时，速度会加快。实验 2 和 3 则证明了类似的效应，但使用了相对抽象的 cardinal direction（南和北）的表示，当平均和强大的社会地位分别与南和北坐标空间配对时，速度会加快。抽象的社会地位概念是在一个固有的空间世界中被感知和理解的，这导致了抽象的社会概念与具体和抽象的物理轴概念之间的强大关联。这些关联可能会在指导日常判断和行动方面产生影响。
