Small means immoral? The impact of spatial size metaphor on moral judgment.

This study aims to explore the unconscious relationship between moral concepts and the spatial dimension of size, as well as to examine whether the unknown size of a room influences participants' moral cognitive judgments within the framework of embodied cognition. Study 1 and Study 2 investiga...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Weirui Xiong, Jiaxin Wang, Jiayi Li
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2025-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0324991
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850128462996570112
author Weirui Xiong
Jiaxin Wang
Jiayi Li
author_facet Weirui Xiong
Jiaxin Wang
Jiayi Li
author_sort Weirui Xiong
collection DOAJ
description This study aims to explore the unconscious relationship between moral concepts and the spatial dimension of size, as well as to examine whether the unknown size of a room influences participants' moral cognitive judgments within the framework of embodied cognition. Study 1 and Study 2 investigate participants' unconscious biases. Specifically, participants exhibited faster response times when judging moral concepts presented in large fonts and sizes and immoral concepts presented in small fonts and sizes, compared to when moral concepts were presented in small fonts and sizes and immoral concepts in large fonts and sizes. Study 3 employed a moral dilemma task, revealing that participants placed in a large room evaluated characters in a story more morally under the embodiment effect than those in a small room. Collectively, these three studies demonstrate that the unconscious psychological relationship between moral concepts and the spatial dimension of size influences individuals' abstract moral judgments under embodied cognition.
format Article
id doaj-art-42150fef426343d59c0c2fafb398dc51
institution OA Journals
issn 1932-6203
language English
publishDate 2025-01-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
record_format Article
series PLoS ONE
spelling doaj-art-42150fef426343d59c0c2fafb398dc512025-08-20T02:33:18ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032025-01-01205e032499110.1371/journal.pone.0324991Small means immoral? The impact of spatial size metaphor on moral judgment.Weirui XiongJiaxin WangJiayi LiThis study aims to explore the unconscious relationship between moral concepts and the spatial dimension of size, as well as to examine whether the unknown size of a room influences participants' moral cognitive judgments within the framework of embodied cognition. Study 1 and Study 2 investigate participants' unconscious biases. Specifically, participants exhibited faster response times when judging moral concepts presented in large fonts and sizes and immoral concepts presented in small fonts and sizes, compared to when moral concepts were presented in small fonts and sizes and immoral concepts in large fonts and sizes. Study 3 employed a moral dilemma task, revealing that participants placed in a large room evaluated characters in a story more morally under the embodiment effect than those in a small room. Collectively, these three studies demonstrate that the unconscious psychological relationship between moral concepts and the spatial dimension of size influences individuals' abstract moral judgments under embodied cognition.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0324991
spellingShingle Weirui Xiong
Jiaxin Wang
Jiayi Li
Small means immoral? The impact of spatial size metaphor on moral judgment.
PLoS ONE
title Small means immoral? The impact of spatial size metaphor on moral judgment.
title_full Small means immoral? The impact of spatial size metaphor on moral judgment.
title_fullStr Small means immoral? The impact of spatial size metaphor on moral judgment.
title_full_unstemmed Small means immoral? The impact of spatial size metaphor on moral judgment.
title_short Small means immoral? The impact of spatial size metaphor on moral judgment.
title_sort small means immoral the impact of spatial size metaphor on moral judgment
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0324991
work_keys_str_mv AT weiruixiong smallmeansimmoraltheimpactofspatialsizemetaphoronmoraljudgment
AT jiaxinwang smallmeansimmoraltheimpactofspatialsizemetaphoronmoraljudgment
AT jiayili smallmeansimmoraltheimpactofspatialsizemetaphoronmoraljudgment