The Black and White Metaphor Representation of Moral Concepts and Its Influence on Moral Cognition

Rong, Yin; Hao-sheng, YE

doi:10.3724/sp.j.1041.2014.01331

Cited by 12 publications

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“…Previous studies have used the Stroop task to demonstrate the connection between morality and the colours of black and white and have found that participants’ speed of judgement was faster when words in black related to immorality rather than morality and when words in white related to morality rather than immorality, indicating the existence of black-immoral and white-moral associations2025. These associations were found in English and in Chinese26. Previous findings have highlighted the relationships among morality and the colours black and white.…”

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confidence: 95%

“…We used a variant of the Stroop task (the Moral Stroop task), which has been employed by other researchers. In this type of Stroop task, the experimenter asks the participants to judge the different types or valences of the words instead of the colour2026 to evaluate the way colour influences processing in the judgement of moral words. We conducted the Moral Stroop task with ERPs to explore the neural correlates of the effects of colours on moral judgement.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Colours’ Impact on Morality: Evidence from Event-related Potentials

Gan

Fang

2016

Sci Rep

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Black and white have been shown to be representations of moral concepts. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether colours other than black and white have similar effects on words related to morality and to determine the time course of these effects. We presented moral and immoral words in three colours (red, green and blue) in a Moral Stroop task and used the event-related potential (ERP) technique to identify the temporal dynamics of the impact of colours on moral judgement. The behavioural results showed that it took longer for people to judge immoral words than moral words when the words were coloured green than when they were red or blue. The ERP results revealed the time course of these effects. Three stages were identified in the significant effects of P200, N300 and LPC. These findings suggest a metaphorical association between the colour green and moral information.

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Colours’ Impact on Morality: Evidence from Event-related Potentials

Gan

Fang

2016

Sci Rep

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“…Metaphors map one conceptual domain (i.e., source domain) to another (i.e., target domain), the essence of which is that people use familiar and concrete representations to construct abstract and unfamiliar concepts. Research on conceptual metaphors mainly focuses on time metaphors (e.g., Boroditsky, 2000 , 2018 ; Casasanto and Boroditsky, 2008 ; Fuhrman et al, 2011 ; Li and Zhang, 2017 ), power metaphors (e.g., Schubert et al, 2009 ; Zanolie et al, 2012 ; He X. et al, 2018 ; He and Chen, 2020 ), moral metaphors (e.g., Meier et al, 2007 ; Wang and Lu, 2013 ; Yin and Ye, 2014 ; Siev and Zuckerman, 2018 ), emotion (e.g., Meier and Robinson, 2004 ; Williams and Bargh, 2008a , b ; Day and Bobocel, 2013 ), and so on.…”

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confidence: 99%

A Three-Dimensional Spatial Metaphorical Representation of Generation Implied in Han Kin Terms

Jijia

Zhang

2021

Front. Psychol.

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concepts can be represented in the brain by means of metaphors. Generation refers to seniority in the family or clan, implies the implementation of different attitudes required by kinship, and contains profound psychological, emotional, and social factors. Generation as an abstract concept is related to concepts such as power, social status, importance, and time. The conceptual metaphor theory based on the embodied theory proposes that abstract concepts are represented by actual sensorimotor experiences. Generation implied in Han kin terms is often represented by multiple spatial terms. According to conceptual metaphor theory, the current study predicted that generation could be represented by multiple spatial metaphors. We designed six experiments to investigate this issue. The results showed that (1) the up–down and left–right positions in which kinship words were presented affected the processing of the concept of generation; (2) the processing of kinship words also affected up–down and left–right spatial information perception; and (3) the processing of the concept of generation could also automatically activate the front–back spatial operation and induce the embodied simulation of body movement. In sum, the results suggested that generation might be represented by the three-dimensional spatial metaphor of vertical, horizontal, and sagittal axes, which are influenced by the sensorimotor system.

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“…Color indeed is not just about aesthetics but carries meanings (Hutchings, 1997;Mollon, 1989), which might similarly be absorbed into consumers' self-concept. Given the meanings of white and black colors "linked" to morality (Adams & Osgood, 1973;Meier et al, 2004Meier et al, , 2007Sherman & Clore, 2008;Stabler & Johnson, 1972;Yin & Ye, 2014), we thus would formally predict the following:…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, individuals see gray colors as lighter when the words are “good” rather than “bad” (Meier et al, 2007). When moral words in Greek are in white, those who do not know Greek guess more moral words than the same ones written in black (Yin & Ye, 2014). These associations about white and black colors are likely ingrained in the developmental years since even children in the Western world have been shown to believe that white boxes contain good objects and black boxes hold bad ones (Stabler & Johnson, 1972).…”

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Color me moral: White and black product colors influence prosocial behaviors

Chan

Meng

2020

Psychology and Marketing

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There are "moral meanings" that people ascribe to objects in white and black colors. Namely, it seems that people have been conditioned to see objects in white color as potentially "morally good" and those in black color as potentially "bad." In the current inquiry, we would therefore hypothesize that consumers see buying a product in white color as an act that is morally good and buying a product in black color as an act that is morally bad. If so, then, in accordance with the moral regulation theory, those who buy white-colored products should feel licensed to behave less prosocially afterward, while those who buy black-colored products should be more prosocial as they feel a need to compensate for their initial misconduct. We investigate such a hypothesis in six studies, examining prosociality after buying white-or blackcolored products. The results are consistent with our hypothesizing and highlight a moral credentials framework in particular in explaining why the effect occurs. Consequently, product colors do not only satisfy the diversity of consumer tastes but they also impact consumers' prosocial behavior well-beyond product choice and outside of retail domains.

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The Black and White Metaphor Representation of Moral Concepts and Its Influence on Moral Cognition

Cited by 12 publications

References 0 publications

Colours’ Impact on Morality: Evidence from Event-related Potentials

Colours’ Impact on Morality: Evidence from Event-related Potentials

A Three-Dimensional Spatial Metaphorical Representation of Generation Implied in Han Kin Terms

Color me moral: White and black product colors influence prosocial behaviors

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