Metaphors Link Emotions and Senses
Sunday, December 15th, 2013Metaphors play an important role in learning, communication, creativity, decision-making and all nearly all of our mental processes. Metaphors are a power tool for cognitive designers.
They are a window in how our minds are actually working and when properly designed they can shift behaviors and bring cognitive performance to new levels.
That’s why I am always on the lookout for new scientific results on cognition and metaphors.
Take for example the article, What do love and jealously taste like? just published in the journal Emotion. Interestingly, the researchers found that those primed for the emotion of love reported that water tasted sweeter than normal or when they are primed for another emotion such as jealously or happiness. This provides some evidence that the metaphor “Love is sweet” impacts our perception of taste. Another case of expectations and psychology shaping senses and physiology.
