Vowel sounds in words affect mental construal and shift preferences for targets.

Abstract

A long tradition in sound symbolism describes a host of sound-meaning linkages, or associations between individual speech sounds and concepts or object properties. Might sound symbolism extend beyond sound-meaning relationships to linkages between sounds and modes of thinking? Integrating sound symbolism with construal level theory, we investigate whether vowel sounds influence the mental level at which people represent and evaluate targets. We propose that back vowels evoke abstract, high-level construal, while front vowels induce concrete, low-level construal. Two initial studies link front vowels to the use of greater visual and conceptual precision, consistent with a construal account. Three subsequent studies explore construal-dependent tradeoffs as a function of vowel sound contained in the target's name. Evaluation of objects named with back vowels was driven by their high- over low-level features; front vowels reduced or reversed this differentiation. Thus, subtle linguistic cues appear capable of influencing the very nature of mental representation.

Toward a deeper understanding of the ecological origins of distance construal

“…We believe that language constitutes a major part of the information environment, affording a versatile instrument for distance framing and distance regulation (see also Maglio, Rabaglia, Feder, Krehm, & Trope, 2014). We suspect that verbal framing may be a more common source of distance manipulation in everyday life than actual locomotion in time, space, and social circles.…”

Psychological distance in consumer psychology: Consequences and antecedents

“…City names containing a front vowel are intuited as being located spatially closer (Rabaglia, Maglio, Krehm, Seok, & Trope, ) and people with names containing a front vowel feel socially closer (Maglio & Feder, ). The latter investigation built from inference of social distance to downstream judgments and decisions (see also Maglio, Rabaglia, Feder, Krehm, & Trope, ), finding that vowel‐derived closeness benefits certain consumer interactions (tipping servers in a restaurant) but compromises others (therapists helping patients gain perspective on an emotionally disturbing event).…”

Other People’s Money: Money’s Perceived Purchasing Power Is Smaller for Others Than for the Self

“…In fact, considering the range of product-stimuli that have been found to relate to construal level (such as colors, sounds, shapes, smells, and measurement units; see Elder, Schlosser, Poor, and Xu 2017;Lee, Deng, Unnava, and Fujita 2014;Maglio, Rabaglia, Feder, Krehm, and Trope 2014;Maglio and Trope 2011), we expect that cross-dimensional subadditivity effects could apply to many non-distance dimensions that are instantiated at the same time. For example, when thinking about a heavier lawnmower, people might be less sensitive to its loudness, as though using a 50-lb lawnmower that produces 90 decibels of sound feels quieter than a 60-lb lawnmower that produces the same number of decibels.…”