I'm Seeing Red!Literally: The Effect of Metaphoric Representation on Perception

Abstract

Metaphor is often used to represent abstract concepts using concrete domains (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). One set of metaphors that has long been of interest, but seldom studied, is the set of those linking color and emotion. Specifically, red and anger are often linked in everyday language and popular media. There is a recent body of work on metaphoric representation processes, yet none of it has focused on color perception. The present studies investigate the effects of priming anger-related concepts and experiences on the visual perception of color. It was predicted that participants would perceive degraded color screens as red following the activation of anger-related thoughts (Study 1) and when made angry (Study 2), consistent with the "seeing red" metaphor for anger. Both hypotheses were supported. Implications of the findings are discussed.