Department of Marketing, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2012 Nov;103(5):737-49. doi: 10.1037/a0029708. Epub 2012 Aug 20.
Metaphorical effects are commonly assumed to be unidirectional, running from concrete to abstract domains but not vice versa. Noting that metaphorical effects are often found to be bidirectional, we explore how they may be mediated and moderated according to the principles of knowledge accessibility and applicability. Using the example of "something smells fishy" (a metaphorical expression of social suspicion), 7 experiments tested for the behavioral effects of fishy smells on social suspicion among English speakers, the reversed effects of suspicion on smell labeling and detection, and the underlying mechanism. Incidental exposure to fishy smells induced suspicion and undermined cooperation in trust-based economic exchanges in a trust game (Study 1) and a public goods game (Study 2). Socially induced suspicion enhanced the correct labeling of fishy smells, but not other smells (Studies 3a-3c), an effect that could be mediated by the accessibility and moderated by the applicability of metaphorically associated concepts (Studies 4-6). Suspicion also heightened detection sensitivity to low concentrations of fishy smells (Study 7). Bidirectionality, mediation, and moderation of metaphorical effects have important theoretical implications for integrating known wisdom from social cognition with new insights into the embodied and metaphorical nature of human thinking. These findings also highlight the need for exploring the cultural variability and origin of metaphorical knowledge.
隐喻效应通常被认为是单向的，从具体领域到抽象领域，但不是相反。注意到隐喻效应通常是双向的，我们根据知识可及性和适用性原则来探讨它们是如何被中介和调节的。以“某事有可疑之处”（一种表示社会怀疑的隐喻表达）为例，7 项实验测试了鱼腥味对英语使用者社会怀疑的行为影响、怀疑对气味标记和检测的反向影响，以及潜在的机制。偶然接触到鱼腥味会在信任博弈（研究 1）和公共物品博弈（研究 2）中引起怀疑并破坏基于信任的经济交换中的合作。社会诱导的怀疑增强了对可疑气味的正确标记，但不能增强对其他气味的标记（研究 3a-3c），这种效应可以通过隐喻相关概念的可及性来中介，也可以通过隐喻相关概念的适用性来调节（研究 4-6）。怀疑还提高了对低浓度鱼腥味的检测敏感性（研究 7）。隐喻效应的双向性、中介和调节对整合社会认知中的已知智慧与人类思维的具身性和隐喻性的新见解具有重要的理论意义。这些发现还强调了需要探索隐喻知识的文化变异性和起源。
