Data_Sheet_1_A Dual Mechanism of Cognition and Emotion in Processing Moral-Vertical Metaphors.pdf

A moral concept involves two main factors: moral cognition (indicated by morality) and emotion (indicated by emotionality). The cognitive mechanism underlying moral metaphors on the vertical dimension (e.g., moral-up, immoral-down) was investigated in three experiments using implicit association tests. The results of Experiment 1 show a stronger association of “moral-up, immoral-down” between words high in morality and vertical space than between words low in morality and vertical space, which indicates that cognitive factors of morality facilitate the processing of vertical spatial metaphors of moral concepts. Experiment 2, employing moral words different in emotionality, reveals a stronger association of “moral-up, immoral-down” between words high in emotionality and vertical space than between words low in emotionality and vertical space, which shows that emotional factors of morality facilitate the processing of vertical spatial metaphors of moral concepts. A comparison between the two experiments suggests a faster response to emotion than to moral cognition and similar association strengths of the two factors with verticality. Using words high in morality and emotionality, Experiment 3 shows that a combination of the two conditions (i.e., high morality and high emotionality) leads to a stronger tie with verticality than either condition. The above three experiments indicate that both moral cognition and emotion facilitate the processing of vertical spatial metaphor of moral concepts, and the forces of the two, which jointly affect the metaphorical connection between morality and verticality, are basically equal, although the processing of emotionality is faster than that of morality.

道德观念涉及两大要素：道德认知（以道德性表征）与情感（以情感性表征）。本研究通过三项实验，运用隐含联想测试，探讨了道德隐喻在垂直维度（例如，道德-上，不道德-下）背后的认知机制。第一项实验结果显示，道德性较高的词汇与垂直空间的关联性显著强于道德性较低的词汇，此现象表明道德认知的内在因素促进了道德概念垂直空间隐喻的处理。第二项实验，通过使用情感性不同的道德词汇，揭示了情感性较高的词汇与垂直空间的关联性显著强于情感性较低的词汇，此发现显示出道德情感的内在因素促进了道德概念垂直空间隐喻的处理。对比两项实验，情感反应的速度快于道德认知，且两者与垂直性的关联强度相似。第三项实验，使用道德性和情感性均较高的词汇，表明两种条件（即高道德性和高情感性）的结合相较于单一条件，与垂直性的联系更为紧密。上述三项实验表明，道德认知与情感均促进了道德概念垂直空间隐喻的处理，两者共同影响道德与垂直性之间的隐喻联系的力量基本上是相等的，尽管情感性的处理速度比道德认知更快。