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Upright/skew metaphorical associations of moral concepts and their effects on face recognition

Current Psychology (2022)Cite this article

Abstract

In Chinese language and culture, there are many metaphorical habits that use upright or skew shapes to express morality. Three experiments were conducted to determine whether there is a psychological metaphor in the cognition of Chinese people. To explore the psychological metaphorical associations between moral concepts and upright/skew shapes, the Stroop-like paradigm was used in Experiment 1, which showed that participants responded faster to positive moral words. There are some disputes regarding whether the metaphorical association is unidirectional or bidirectional in mapping. In Experiment 2, the priming paradigm was adopted, and the results showed that the priming of upright/skew shapes affected the judgment of moral words, and the priming of moral words also affected the judgment of upright/skew shapes, indicating bidirectional mapping between moral concepts and upright/skew shapes. We also wanted to determine whether this metaphorical association had any effect on face recognition. In Experiment 3, participants were asked to judge neutral faces presented with quadrilateral or oblique quadrilateral faces. We found that participants tended to think that upright faces were more moral, while skew faces were more immoral. Our study found a psychological metaphorical association between moral concepts and upright/skew shapes, bidirectional mapping, and its effect on face cognition.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Editage (www.editage.cn) for English language editing.

Funding

This research is supported by the following project: The Project of Central Leading Local “Fujian Mental Health Human-Computer Interaction Technology Research Center”, Project Number 2020L3024.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, China

    Cong-xing Wang, Yu-qin Yang, Jin-yun Wu & Yi-duo Ye

  2. Middle School NO. 1, Sanming, Fujian, China

    Yu-qin Yang

  3. School of Design and Innovation, Fujian Jiangxia University, Fuzhou, China

    Zi-qing Ye

  4. College of Computer and Control Engineering, Minjiang University, Fuzhou, China

    Ge Xu

Authors
  1. Cong-xing Wang
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Contributions

Cong-xing Wang and Yu-qin Yang developed the study concept. All authors contributed to the study design. Testing and data collection were performed by Yu-qin Yang. Cong-xing Wang and Yu-qin Yang performed the data analysis and interpretation under the supervision of Yi-duo Ye. Cong-xing Wang and Yu-qin Yang drafted the manuscript, Zi-qing Ye, Jin-yun Wu and Ge Xu revised and polished the English version of the manuscript and Yi-duo Ye provided critical revisions. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript for submission.

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Correspondence to Yi-duo Ye.

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Our school does not have an ethics committee specifically designed to evaluate human participants, but we have obtained their consent before conducting the experiment.

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Appendices

Appendix 1: The lexical material in Experiment 1 and 2

Immoral words

Words

Number of strokes

Word frequency

Valence

卑劣(despicable)

14

0.003

1.84

失信(break one’s word)

14

0.0008

2.55

阴险(insidious)

15

0.0038

2.55

徇私(favouritism)

16

0.0003

2.27

虐待(abuse)

18

0.0086

1.86

污辱(insult)

16

0.0027

1.95

狡诈(cunning)

16

0.0016

2.36

贪污(corruption)

14

0.0083

2

挑拨(drive a wedge)

17

0.0038

2.52

受贿(taking bribes)

18

0.0023

2.18

抄袭(plagiarism)

18

0.003

2.48

背叛(betrayal)

18

0.0055

2.02

欺诈(fraud)

19

0.0018

1.93

蛊惑(bewitch)

23

0.0012

2.09

污蔑(slander)

20

0.0048

1.73

诋毁(defame)

20

0.0024

2.25

偷窃(steal )

20

0.0024

2.27

强奸(rape)

18

0.0051

1.41

挑衅(provocation)

20

0.0038

2.91

陷害(framed)

20

0.0041

2.09

下流(dirty)

13

0.0036

2.02

乱伦(incest)

13

0.0014

2.52

欺人(deceiving others)

14

0.0012

2.41

勾结(collusion)

13

0.0159

2.25

Moral words

Words

Number of strokes

Word frequency

Valence

正派(decent)

14

0.0039

7.32

爱心(love)

14

0.0012

7.75

无私(selfless)

11

0.008

8.07

忠贞(loyal and steadfast)

14

0.0021

7.55

仁爱(kindheartedness )

14

0.0013

7.5

友善(amicable)

16

0.0014

7.86

守信(keep faith)

15

0.0012

7.98

奉献(dedication)

21

0.0127

7.68

忠孝(filial piety )

15

0.0019

7.95

正直(Integrity)

13

0.0087

7.7

清正(entrusted)

16

0.0005

7.73

刚正(upright)

11

0.0005

7.25

公道(fair )

16

0.0043

7.36

谦让(humility)

17

0.0019

7.5

善心(benevolence)

16

0.0015

8

坚贞(faithful )

13

0.0022

7.89

孝敬(show filial obedience)

19

0.004

7.86

信义(good faith)

12

0.0017

8.09

仁慈(benevolent)

17

0.0027

7.55

宽容(tolerant)

20

0.0048

7.55

贤良(virtuous)

15

0.0016

7.7

清廉(honest and upright)

24

0.0012

7.84

奋勇(courageously)

17

0.0072

7.5

友爱(friendlyaffection)

14

0.0081

7.52

Appendix: 2 Face material in Experiment 3

Men face

Serial number

Pleasantness

Arousal

Dominance

Attractiveness

1

5.45

3.67

4.95

4.82

2

3.93

3.33

4.98

4.20

3

4.45

4.00

4.98

3.70

4

3.84

4.00

4.68

4.23

5

4.34

2.67

4.39

4.20

6

4.09

3.67

5.00

4.14

7

4.30

3.67

4.93

3.86

8

4.45

3.33

4.61

3.82

9

4.57

3.67

4.89

4.20

10

3.95

3.33

4.16

3.57

11

4.55

4.00

4.84

3.70

12

4.18

4.33

4.82

4.02

13

4.16

2.67

4.66

4.02

14

3.84

3.67

4.82

3.91

15

4.14

3.33

4.89

3.66

16

4.32

2.00

4.89

3.36

17

3.86

3.33

4.82

3.77

18

4.39

3.00

4.93

4.02

19

4.09

3.67

5.14

4.32

20

4.50

3.67

4.39

4.64

21

5.50

4.33

5.43

4.85

22

4.43

3.00

4.68

4.07

23

5.59

3.67

5.66

4.66

24

4.07

3.33

4.66

3.73

Women face

Serial number

Pleasantness

Arousal

Dominance

Attractiveness

1

3.25

3.67

4.75

3.95

2

4.32

3.67

5.05

4.14

3

5.14

3.67

5.57

5.23

4

4.77

3.33

5.25

4.68

5

4.98

3.00

5.27

4.27

6

4.82

4.00

5.00

4.57

7

4.80

3.33

4.95

4.34

8

4.80

4.67

5.59

4.89

9

5.66

2.67

5.70

4.95

10

4.41

3.33

4.82

4.34

11

4.77

4.33

5.14

4.25

12

4.59

4.00

5.16

4.52

13

4.43

4.67

4.95

4.70

14

4.73

3.00

5.34

4.27

15

5.18

3.33

5.41

5.07

16

4.48

3.67

4.84

4.16

17

4.68

3.33

5.14

4.84

18

4.61

3.67

5.23

4.41

19

5.02

4.33

5.16

4.45

20

3.86

5.33

4.77

4.43

21

5.07

3.00

5.32

4.43

22

5.05

3.33

5.27

4.02

23

4.70

3.67

4.95

4.30

24

4.95

5.67

5.11

4.70

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Wang, Cx., Yang, Yq., Ye, Zq. et al. Upright/skew metaphorical associations of moral concepts and their effects on face recognition. Curr Psychol (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03594-x

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Keywords

  • Upright
  • Skew
  • Morality
  • Metaphorical association
  • Face cognition
  • China