The Embodied Metaphor Perspective Of Spicy And Anger:the Psychological Mechanism Of Spicy Girl

People are born with gustatory sensation, and this is critical to human survival. Gustatory experiences can influence our everyday expression in a metaphorical way. In China,"spicy girl" is used to describe females who are easily angered. The cross-domain mapping of metaphors plays a vital role in such conceptualizations. In comparison with bitter and sweet related metaphors, spicy relevant metaphors have rarely been investigated. Scientifically, because of the lack of specific taste receptors, spicy is not one of the five basic tastes which consist of sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami, but a mixed sensation of burning irritation and other tastes. However, spicy foods are an important part of China’ food culture. Therefore, spicy taste is worthy of attention for its cultural significance. Based on the perspective of the embodied metaphor, there are many interesting questions about spicy girl. For example, physiologically, eating spicy food and getting angry share the same physical responses: the increase of body heat, a red face and even sweat. Does the similarity of the physical responses between eating spicy food and getting angry is responsible for the formation of spicy-anger metaphor? Is there any difference of the effect of spicy-anger metaphor between people who rarely eat spicy food and people who have spicy food frequently? Does individual difference play a vital role in spicy-anger metaphor?In this study, we systematically explored the Psychological Mechanism of Spicy Girl in four aspects. Firstly, whether spicy-anger metaphor is processed at the abstract semantic phase or the specific perceptual processing? Secondly, how spicy taste experience affects spicy-anger metaphor effects. Thirdly, how spicy-anger metaphor effects are influenced by sensation seeking traits. Lastly, according to compare the physiological indexes such as skin conductance (SC) and heart rates (HR), we investigate how spicy-anger metaphor affects emotional sensitivity.In order to solve the problems above, we systematically explored the spicy-anger metaphor in three studies. Study1focused on the perceptual processing level of spicy-anger metaphor. We detected whether embodied cues of anger (spicy taste) can prompt the cognitive processing of perceptual information of anger (emotion faces). Study2focused on the semantic processing level of spicy-anger metaphor. We detected whether embodied cues of anger (spicy taste) can prompt the cognitive processing of semantic information of anger (emotion words). Study3focused on how spicy-anger metaphor affects the emotional sensitivity of anger. We detected whether embodied cues of anger (spicy taste) can prompt the sensitivity of anger. In addition, in all three studies, we considered the influence of sensation seeking personality and spicy taste experience.We found that:(1) At the perceptual processing level, there was no spicy-anger metaphor effect.(2) At the semantic processing level, spicy-anger metaphor effect was existed which indicated that spicy taste stimuli accelerated the judgment of anger words.(3) There was a separation between physiological response and subjective judgment of anger emotion perception. Specifically, spicy taste increased the rate of change of SC when people watched anger movie. However, in the same situation, there were no significant changes of HR and state anger.(4) Spicy taste experience was a weak influence factor of spicy-anger metaphor for it affected the accuracy of emotional stimuli judgment.(5) Sensation seeking traits had no effect on spicy-anger metaphor.