Spiciness And Aggressionin The Context Of Chinese Culture ——From The Embodied Metaphor Perspective

In early ages,sensory experience allows humans to feel the environment around them.Since things cannot be visualized all the time,and the transmission of information does not simply rely on direct experience,language and thinking emerge as times require.However,with the rapid advancement and development of human society,cognitive process includes but no limited,sensory experience,language,thinking and learning.From the concrete,low-order concepts to abstract,high-order concepts,humans gradually achieve the transition from representative learning to concept learning,which completely differentiates humans from animals.Conceptual metaphor is a set of mapping,with the help of basic information provided by sensory experience,humans learn how to use familiar concepts to project on those abstract concepts that cannot be visualized in order to understand them.With the in-depth research of metaphor and the development of embodied cognition theory,researchers figure out that metaphor is the fusion of embodiment and culture,which exists ubiquitously in daily life,such as the metaphor of gustatory sense,the metaphor of location,the metaphor of weight,the metaphor of temperature,the metaphor of space and etc.It is said that taste all the taste of life,see the world bustling.No matter sour,sweet,bitter,spicy or salty,the taste of food is the epitome of the taste of life.In China,food is the paramount necessity of the people,long dietary culture shapes rich humanistic connotation.Mao Zedong once said “no chili,no revolution”（you can’t be a revolutionary if you don’t eat chilies）,chili pepper is one of the popular seasonings that most Chinese prefer.Moreover,words with “spicy” words have been widely used in many Chinese literature works of modern times and local dialect.For instance,the word“la mei zi”（spicy girl）stands for females who are straightforward but not pretentious,“po la”（acrid or pungent）is used to describe those who are rude and unreasonable.The flavor of chili pepper is pungent,so that spicy flavor is often associated with adjectives like straightforward,fierce,easily irritated in Chinese,which indicates that embodiment probably exists in spiciness metaphor.Besides,there is a Chinese common saying: “jiang hai shi lao de la”（old gingers taste spicier）,which literally means that old gingers taste spicier than tender gingers,but actually means that an experienced person handles affairs tactfully and safely.It is apparent that distinct cultural characteristics also exist in the spiciness metaphor in China.Thus,researches of spiciness metaphor have cultural significance and applied value.Recently,researches towards the metaphor of gustatory sense emerge in an endless stream.Western researchers successively find out that sourness,sweetness,bitterness,spiciness is related to jealousy,prosocial behavior（or agreeableness）,antisociality（or strictness）,sensation seeking（or aggression）,respectively.This study aims to explore whether spicy-aggression metaphor effect exists in the context of Chinese culture by conducting three experiments to discuss the effect of gustatory sense experience on the formation of spiciness metaphor.Study 1 focused on the psychological reality of the semantic processing level of spicy-aggression metaphor,which used words containing aggression to detect whether the embodied cue of aggressive cognition（spicy flavor）could shorter the reaction time（RT）and increase the reaction accuracy in the semantic processing process.Study 2 focused on how spicy-aggression metaphor affected the emotional sensitivity of aggression by using an adapted vignette of a protagonist behaving in an ambiguous aggressive manner to detect whether the embodied cue of aggressive cognition（spicy flavor）could enhance the emotional sensitivity of aggression.Study 3 focused on the reverse relationship between spicy flavor and aggression in spicy-aggression metaphor,which used classical aggressive cognitive priming paradigm to detect whether the priming of aggressive cognition could improve the sensitivity of spicy flavor.In addition,the influence of the frequency of spicy food intake was taken into account in all three studies,and the effect of gender difference was considered in Study 2 and 3.Results shown as below:（1）There is no spicy-aggression metaphor effect at the semantic processing level;（2）Spicy flavor stimulus is unable to enhance the emotional sensitivity to others’ aggression,that is,spicy-aggression metaphor effect has no embodiment at the emotional sensitivity level of others’ aggression;（3）Priming aggressive cognition can improve individuals’ sensitivity of spicy flavor;（4）The frequency of spicy food intake is a weak influential factor in spicyaggression metaphor effect,for it can affect individuals’ emotional perception under different taste stimulations to some extents.Nevertheless,the frequency of spicy food intake has no effect neither on reaction time（RT）nor on reaction accuracy of emotional words.Meanwhile,the frequency of spicy food intake has no effect on the sensitivity of spicy flavor of those who are successfully primed aggressive cognition;（5）Gender difference is a weak influential factor in spicy-aggression metaphor effect,for it can affect individuals’ emotional perception under different taste stimulations to some extents.Nevertheless,gender difference has no effect neither on reaction time（RT）nor on reaction accuracy of emotional words.Meanwhile,gender difference has no effect on the sensitivity of spicy flavor of those who are successfully primed aggressive cognition.