The Psychological Mechanism Of The"Anger As Seeing Red" Metaphor

Humans can only see certain wavelengths of light, which are limited but constitute the colorful world around us. As the world background of human existence, color is of importance in psychological significance. For example, green conveys the mean of creation, while blue implies depression. The red color has attracted a large amount of attention due to its various meanings. In the achievement context, red signals attack and control and improves the carrier’s competitiveness. In the relational context, red is associated with love and sex. In Chinese culture, red has diverse meanings, such as happiness, luckiness, exorcising evil spirits and revolution.Some of these manifold psychological functions of red are endowed by evolution, while others are obtained by experience. However, where are these functions derived from and how these functions are associated with specific contexts are still unknown. Recently, Fetterman and colleagues investigated the mental mechanism of the "anger as seeing red" metaphor using carefully controlled experiments. The authors suggested that the "anger as seeing red" metaphor was processed at the abstract semantic phase rather than the specific perceptual processing.We, however, know little about the mental mechanism of the "anger as seeing red" metaphor yet.The present study investigated the mental mechanism of the "anger as seeing red" metaphor from both macro and micro aspects.Study1focused on the macro mechanism of this metaphor, that is to say, which of the evolution and the experience contributes more to the metaphor? Study2aimed to explain the micro mechanism of the metaphor: was it driven by abstract semantic processing or by concrete perception? The results of study1showed the "anger as seeing red" metaphor in Chinese participants as was shown in western participants. The cross-cultural homogeneity indicated that evolution contributed more than experience to this metaphor, given the very different culture and experience between two groups of people. In study2, we observed the interaction of color and emotion only in the semantic processing from the true and falsified evidence. This was in line with Fetterman et al.’s results and implied an abstract processing of this metaphor.Generally, the current study demonstrated the fundamental role of evolution in the "anger as seeing red" metaphor, meanwhile, abstract semantic processing played an important role in the micro-level of mental mechanism of this metaphor. This findings shed light on embodied metaphor, color perception and emotional processing. Future studies need to clarify the role of approach motivation and avoidance motivation in the "anger as seeing red" metaphor and mental mechanisms of various metaphors.