›› 2020, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (6): 1327-1332.

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The Characteristics, Effect Factors and Future Directions of the Clean and Dirty Metaphor of Moral Concepts from an Embodied Perspective

  

  • Received:2019-10-28 Revised:2020-03-27 Online:2020-11-15 Published:2021-01-03

具身视角下道德概念净脏隐喻的特征、影响因素与未来展望

丁凤琴,孙逸舒   

  1. 宁夏大学教育学院
  • 通讯作者: 丁凤琴

Abstract: Abstract Conceptual metaphor theory emphasizes that individuals connect the concrete concepts from physical experience with the abstract and complex concepts automatically. Embodied cognition theory also argues that the cognition of individuals originated from the body. Both of them highlight the role of embodied experience in cognitive formation. In recent years, the research in the field of moral concept also pays attention to solving the problem of moral concept metaphor based on the embodied perspective. In particular, the clean and dirty metaphor of moral concepts has attracted the wide attention of researchers. First, there is psychological reality about the clean and dirty metaphor of moral concepts. That is, individuals tend to associate clean embodied experience with moral words and dirty with immoral words. Moreover, the clean and dirty metaphor of moral concepts affect moral judgment, which we called consistent and compensatory effect. The above reveals the characteristics of the clean and dirty metaphor of moral concepts. Secondly, the clean and dirty metaphor of moral concepts is affected by mediating and moderating factors: the mediating effects include disgust emotion and moral self-image. The initiation of physical cleanliness accompanied with the start of disgust emotion. Moral self-image which means an individual’s perception and evaluation of their moral level. The enhanced moral self-image makes an effect on individual's moral judgment. And the moderating effects include moral sensitivity and physical sensitivity. Moral sensitivity signifies the ability of whom to judge and obtain the moral meaning through embodied experiences. Individuals with higher moral sensitivity are more likely to distinguish between clean and dirty information and have a stronger connection effect of the metaphor. Physical sensitivity is called the physical sensitivity of individuals to the experience of being dirty or clean. Those who with higher physical sensitivity license a severer judgment on immoral stories. Finally, it is necessary to look into the future directions of clean and dirty metaphor of moral concepts from the following aspects. Firstly, we should pay attention to the neural mechanism to provide the physiological basis of empirical research of the clean and dirty metaphor of moral concepts; the second one is to reveal its contextual and investigate the effect of embodied experience in different situations on the clean and dirty metaphor of moral concepts; the third one is directionality, and whether pointing to oneself or pointing to the surrounding environment has different influences on moral concept; the fourth is to conduct the intervention research on the clean and dirty metaphor of moral concepts; and the last one is to explore the cultural difference and reveal the moderating role of culture in the metaphorical relationship between embodied cleanliness and moral concepts. In a word, this paper summarizes characteristics, effect factors and future directions of clean and dirty metaphor of moral concepts, to provide theoretical research and practical reference for the research of the clean and dirty metaphor of moral concepts, which may be enriched and improved in future research.

Key words: the metaphor of moral concepts, clean and dirty metaphor of moral concepts, effect factors, future directions

摘要: 摘 要 基于概念隐喻理论与具身认知理论,身体净脏与道德概念存在隐喻联结;道德概念净脏隐喻具有心理现实性,并对道德判断产生一致性和补偿性效应;道德概念净脏隐喻的中介因素有厌恶情绪和道德自我意象,调节因素有身体敏感性和道德敏感性;未来研究应在道德概念净脏隐喻的神经机制、情境性、指向性、干预机制、文化差异等方面进行丰富和完善。

关键词: 具身认知, 道德概念净脏隐喻, 影响因素, 未来展望