The Consistency Effects of the Clean Metaphor of Moral Concept and Dirty Metaphor of Immoral Concept

Abstract

Abstract. Morality is clean, while immorality is dirty, and these metaphors use concrete clean and dirty experiences to express moral and immoral concepts; specifically, they are the clean metaphor of moral concept and dirty metaphor of immoral concept. The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to explore the consistency effects of the clean metaphor of moral concept and dirty metaphor of immoral concept, the experiment recorded the reaction times (RTs) and ERP waves in a metaphor consistency condition and a metaphor inconsistency condition. The behavioral results showed that the RTs in the metaphor consistency condition were significantly faster than the RTs in the metaphor inconsistency condition. The ERP results showed that the P300, N400, and late negative component (LNC) amplitudes were higher in the metaphor inconsistency condition than in the metaphor consistency condition.