Valenzuela, J. 1 & Sullivan, K. 1, 2
1 University of Murcia (Spain)
2 University of Brisbane (Australia)
Recent studies have shown that some abstract domains receive embodied grounding through their connection to sensorimotor domains (e.g, Affection/temperature, Morality/Cleanliness, Control/Verticality, to name a few). All these metaphors are based on experiential correlates, such as the simultaneous experience of affection and warmth or upright stance and control. However, in language we often find metaphors which are based on structural correspondences rather than experiential correlates.
The current study examines a correspondence without experiential correlates, the one that connects INTELLIGENCE to LIGHT-EMISSION, which is said to underlie expressions such as "bright thinker" and "dim student". In the world, intelligent people do not tend to emit light, so the mapping between INTELLIGENCE and LIGHT-EMISSION is not experientially based.
In this study, we showed subjects a series of photographs of faces in which the backgrounds had been digitally lightened or darkened (though the faces themselves remained identical); we then measured how this background influenced their evaluation about the “goodnes” and the “intelligence” of the faces. Four stories were supplied, with smart-and-good, smart-and-bad, stupid-and-good and stupid-and-bad protagonists. Subjects had to rate on a 1 to 7 scale the likelihood that the face to be evaluated could be one of the protagonists of the story.
As predicted by the INTELLIGENCE AS LIGHT-EMISSION correspondence, subjects rated the intelligence of faces with lightened backgrounds higher than the same faces against darkened backgrounds. The people who appear surrounded by light seem “brighter”, i.e., more intelligent. Interestingly, these results were modulated by both the sex of the participant and of the face to be evaluated. Overall, these results suggest that, as seem to be the case with experientally correlated metaphors, structurally based metaphors are also active in cognition