Metaphors of the Mind: Why Loneliness Feels Cold and Sins Feel Dirty…
A social psychologist explains how abstract concepts can create physical feelings
Excerpts:
Geoffrey Leonardelli and I found that people not only use coldness-related terms to describe social rejection (for example, “cold shoulder”), but also experience rejection as physical coldness: feeling cold becomes an integral part of our experience of being socially isolated. This research is consistent with recent theories on embodied cognition as well as general research on the connection between mind and body.
In my early work “Washing Away Your Sins: Threatened Morality and Physical Cleansing“, we discussed how metaphors such as “dirty hands” or “clean records” may have a psychological basis such that people make sense of morality through physical cleanliness.
We found that unconscious thought (such as being distracted while still holding a goal in mind) can facilitate the search for creative solutions. These creative solutions may not be consciously recognizable, however. This research was motivated by early psychological research on the “incubation effect,” a hypothesis that a period of inattention can facilitate problem solving.
The development of identity is a fluid process. Although people certainly differ in how they view themselves, their identity can also be primed or manipulated.