You have just heard someone discuss how harmful germs can penetrate the body. You then read an essay describing the United States as a body (e.g., it experienced growth spurts) or in more literal terms (e.g., it experienced unprecedented advances). Would how the U.S. is framed influence your attitudes toward immigration?
According to recent research, the answer is "yes." Specifically, you (and I, and that guy over there) would be more negative towards immigration when the U.S. is described as a body and you were just thinking of germs harming the body. Your prior thoughts and mental representations would "spillover" into your subsequent evaluations.
A wide range of research shows that the language we use influences our subsequent moral and social evaluations. For instance, holding a warm cup of coffee, compared to a cold drink, makes people rate others as having more warm personalities. Imagine if the word "cold" maintained it's sensation meaning (ice is cold) but, instead of also meaning cold and indifferent, it meant kind and nice. If this was true, then it is probable that holding a cold cup of tea would make people think others are more kind and gentle.
That is, the sensation we experience (hot or cold) would lead us to like people less (instead of more) if the word "warm" meant that a person is indifferent and impolite. But, it causes us to like people more because the word warm (which we are feeling) is a metaphor for kindess.
If you asked someone if they would rate people more warmly while holding hot coffee, very few people would say "why, yes, I believe this. I would like people more simply because I am holding a cup of java." But yet, several studies support that they would do just that.
This work has interesting implications for how language shapes our attitudes and behavior. For instance, war terminology likely makes people more likely to view something - like football, or drug laws - in more war-like terms. And because of this, if something war-like would happen during sports or law enforcement, people would be more accepting of it because it has previously been framed as war-like in their minds.
References:
Landau, M., Sullivan, D, & Greenberg, J. (2010). Evidence that self-relevant motivations and metaphoric framing interact to influence political and social issues. Psychological Science, 20, 1421-1427.
Meier, B.P., Hauser, D.J., Robinson, M.D., Friesen, C.K., & Schjeldahl, K. (2007). What's ''up'' with God? Vertical space as a representation of the divine. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 699-710.
Williams, L.E., & Bargh, J.A. (2008). Experiencing physical warmth influences interpersonal warmth. Science, 322, 606-607.
