Physical Distance and Negative Affect: A case Study in the Mechanisms of Embodiment Effects.

摘要

A well-known association between physical and emotional distance exists in everyday language, and previous research has shown that subtle, incidental exposure to physical distance cues (i.e., distance priming) can reduce self-reported negative affect. The present research investigates the mechanisms of such distance priming effects. Chapter One provides a theoretical overview of metaphor priming and embodiment and reviews previous empirical research on distance priming and other metaphor priming effects. Chapter Two describes three experiments that examine whether distance priming might reduce negative affect by activating a calculating mindset (Experiment I) or by facilitating the regulation of attention (Experiments 2-3). Chapter Three describes three experiments that examine whether distance priming reduces negative affect related to moral judgments of harm (Experiment 4), and whether this effect occurs by increasing the abstraction of how such moral judgments are mentally represented (Experiments 5-6). Chapter Four describes two experiments that examine whether distance priming reduces different components of negative affect differently (Experiments 7-8). Chapter Five discusses issues related to reliability and replicability of metaphor priming effects. Chapter Six discusses two unresolved issues related to metaphor priming effects, and identifies developmental and cross-cultural research as two key future directions in research on embodiment and metaphor priming effects.