The Clean And Dirty Metaphors Of The Moral Concepts And Its Influence On Moral Judgments

Conceptual metaphor refers to the process in which an individual expresses an abstract,intangible target domain concept with the help of a concrete and tangible source domain concept(Lakoff&Johnson,1980).Based on conceptual metaphors,individuals can express abstract moral concepts with the help of a specific body cleans and dirty experiencesto form the clean and dirty Metaphors of the moral concepts(Cramwinckel,Cremer&Dijke,2013;Lee,Tang,Wan,Mai,&Liu,2015).The clean and dirty metaphors of the moral concepts not only have psychological reality,but also affects people’s moral judgments(Zhong,Strejcek&Sivanathan,2010).Due to the different degree of self-involvement of the subjects,there should be a difference between the perspectives of the self and others in the impact of the clean and dirty Metaphors of the moral concepts on moral judgments(Tobia,2014).Empirical research also found that self-cleaning and others have different impacts on moral judgment,and there are still differences in the results(Tao Xinlei,2018;Ye Hongyan,2016).Comprehensive analysis of existing research shows that the moral concept of self-cleaning and self-dirty metaphors have psychological reality,but it is unclear how this metaphorical connection corresponds to neural activity in the brain;on the other hand,in theory,the moral concept Dirty metaphors have different influences on moral judgment,but there is still controversy in empirical research,in particular,there is no empirical support from clean and dirty aspects.Based on this,this study uses ERP technology to examine the mutual verification of the moral concept of the clean and dirty metaphors of the moral concepts and the neurological activity of the brain,and from the perspective of the difference between self and others to investigate the moral concept of clean and dirty metaphors of the moral concepts and its impact on moral judgments.This study uses three closely related experiments to conduct empirical research.Experiment 1 explores the metaphorical connection between self-cleanliness or self-dirty and moral concepts under imagination.On the basis of Experiment 1,Experiment 2 explores whether there is a difference between the perspectives of self and others in the impact of the clean and dirty metaphors of the moral concepts on moral judgments.Experiment 3 further explores whether the imagination priming effect will extend to behavioral priming,that is,whether there is a difference between the perspectives of self and others in the impact of the clean and dirty metaphors of the moral concepts on moral judgments.under behavioral priming.The main findings are as follows:(1)Under the imagination,there is a metaphorical connection between self-cleaning or self-dirty and moral concepts,that is,self-cleaning sentences are connected with moral words,self-dirty sentences are connected with unethical words,and metaphorical inconsistencies induce greater P300 and N400 volatility than metaphorical consistency.(2)Under the imagination start,the clean and dirty metaphors have differences between self and others in judging the moral dilemma.Compared with imagining the clean start of others,the subjects under the imaginary self-clean start are more strict in judging the moral dilemma;Imagine the subject’s self-dirty start to make the judgement of moral dilemma more relaxed.(3)Under the action start,the clean and dirty metaphors have differences between self and others in judging the moral dilemma.Compared with the start of others’ clean behavior,the subjects under the self-cleansing behavior start are more strict in judging the moral dilemma;When self-dirty behavior was initiated,the subjects were more lenient in their judgment of moral dilemma.(4)The comprehensive comparison of Experiment 2 and Experiment 3 found that the moral concept the clean and dirty metaphors have differences between self-imagination and self-behavior to the judgment of moral dilemma.Compared with the start of imaginary self-cleaning,the judgment of moral dilemma is stricter after self-cleaning;Imagine the self-dirty start,the moral dilemma is more relaxed after the self-dirty behavior is started.The above research shows that there is a metaphorical connection between self-cleaning or self-dirty and moral concepts,and that concept the clean and dirty metaphors affect moral judgment and there are differences in the perspectives of self and others.This research will help strengthen the moral consciousness and moral behavior of individuals through the implementation of moral cleansing education interventions in the future,and reduce or prevent the bias of moral judgments caused by the differences of perspectives of self or others.