When Black and White Aren’t Black and White

http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture_society/when-black-and-white-aren%E2%80%99t-black-and-white-1490
Two psychologists show that our concepts of morality and sin are mentally associated with lightness and darkness, with potentially troubling implications for criminal justice


Morality and sin are mentally associated with lightness and darkness, researchers show, with potentially troubling implications for criminal justice.


Quick! What color is sinfulness? What about moral purity?

If you're like most people, you naturally see sinfulness as tinged in black, while moral purity comes through in soft whites. And if you are the kind of person who really values cleaning products, or, for some reason, you were just thinking about immorality, the mental coloration of these abstract concepts is even stronger. So demonstrates doctoral student Gary D. Sherman and professor Gerald L. Clore, both of the University of Virginia Psychology Department, in a recent article from Psychological Science.

But why? Is this just a product of conditioning? Or is this something deep-seated within human psychology? And if so, why should purity and sinfulness be tinted in black and white, as opposed to, say, green and orange or any color at all? And moreover, if it is deep-seated, is there anything we could or should do about it, especially in places like courtrooms where immorality is on everyone's mind and might impair the ability of jurors to be impartial?

To understand why abstract concepts like these might be associated with colors at all requires an understanding of how the mind processes abstract concepts. Almost 30 years ago, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson developed the idea of "grounded metaphors," which suggests that since our mind can only experience the world through sensory information, abstract concepts can only be understood using metaphors based on sensory experiences. So, for example, status is represented as being up or being down, and it's always better to be on top.

"The only way we can think abstractly is by having something concrete to liken it to," explained Clore.

In 2004, he co-authored an article with North Dakota State psychology professors Brain P. Meier and Michael D. Robinson that examined the extent to which goodness and lightness and evil and darkness were linked in people's brains, building on this idea of grounded metaphors. "You can think of primordial associations with lightness being safety and darkness being danger," said Clore. "And you can see this if you look at all world religions."

snip

:evilgrin:

Reminds me of shadow hand puppets.

*shrugs*

our sense of justice in this country would change dramatically.

and the geek shall inherit the earth!

context matters