Surprising Experimental Results

Metaphors aren’t just how we talk and write; they’re how we think:

Subjects were casually asked to hold a cup of either iced or hot coffee [and] then a few minutes later asked to rate the personality of a person who was described to them. The hot coffee group, it turned out, consistently described a warmer person — rating them as happier, more generous, more sociable, good-natured and more caring — than the iced coffee group.

Subjects, after handling sandpaper-covered puzzle pieces, were less likely to describe a social situation as having gone smoothly…people who were told to move marbles from a lower tray up to a higher one while recounting a story told happier stories than people moving them down.

Subjects who were asked to recall an unethical act, then given the choice between a pencil and an antiseptic wipe, were far more likely to choose the cleansing wipe than people who had been asked to recall an ethical act.

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