PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Mind reading thanks to metaphors

Metaphor usage highlights social bonds and increases understanding of others' emotions

2015-03-12
(Press-News.org) Observe whether two people use metaphors in conversation with each other if you want to guess how close they are as friends. Or sharpen your ability to tune into other people's emotional or mental states by observing the metaphors they use. Why is this? Because metaphors can in fact help one to 'mind read,' report Andrea Bowes and Albert Katz of the University of Ontario in Canada in Springer's journal Memory & Cognition.

Metaphor is a type of language that forms part of our daily conversations and communication. In this type of language, the literal or usual meaning of words and phrases is altered to convey some other, typically non-literal meaning. For instance, Juliet wasn't literally the sun - Shakespeare had other intentions in mind. Although once considered an intentionally misleading and mentally taxing form of language, current research shows that metaphors are commonly used in conversation and are understood with relative ease.

Through three experiments, Bowes and Katz showed that people were better able to infer the mental and emotional state of others after reading metaphors, whether embedded in passages or just by themselves.

The ability to understand what another person might be feeling or thinking is called Theory of Mind by experts. It is found to differing degrees with each person, and is often impaired in autistic populations. One way that Theory of Mind is tested is through the Reading the Mind in the Eye Test (RMET), in which participants have to correctly identify the emotions or mental state displayed in black and white photographs of 36 pairs of eyes. Bowes and Katz showed that reading metaphors led to better performance on the RMET than reading literal sentence counterparts.

In one of the experiments, 39 participants first read either metaphorical or literal sentences as part of a story. They were then given a surprise Theory of Mind task. The participants who read the metaphorical sentences were significantly better at identifying the correct emotions in the sets of pictures they were presented with in the Reading the Mind in the Eye Test.

In another study, they were given short stories and asked to rate the speakers on a variety of interpersonal and social characteristics. Speakers who used metaphors in conversation with one another were also judged to be closer friends than those who did not use this figure of speech. The evidence suggests that the mere act of reading metaphors activates embodied social experiences as part of the act of comprehension. This helps a person to be more sensitized to the mental states of others - and to a greater extent than when they are reading literal sentences.

"The research explains why we speak differently with friends and family than with strangers, and shows how we make friends and meet partners simply with the style of language we use," says Bowes. "It provides novel evidence that metaphor plays a special role in orientating one to the mental state of others."

"Our findings, along with some others, also stress the importance of literature in fostering and understanding human empathy," adds Katz. "Reading fiction in general, and metaphors specifically, indeed promotes people's ability to identify the emotions or mental state of others."

INFORMATION:

Reference: Bowes, A. & Katz, A. (2015). Metaphor creates intimacy and temporarily enhances Theory of Mind, Memory and Cognition. DOI 10.3758/s13421-015-0508-4 END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Social status has impact on overall health of mammals

Social status has impact on overall health of mammals
2015-03-12
EAST LANSING, Mich. - High social status has its privileges -- when it comes to aging -- even in wild animals. In a first-of-its-kind study involving a wild species, Michigan State University researchers have shown that social and ecological factors affect animal health. The results, published in the current issue of Biology Letters, focused on spotted hyenas in Kenya. "High-ranking members in hyena clans reproduce more, they live longer and appear to be in better overall health," said Nora Lewin, MSU doctoral student of zoology and co-lead author. "If you want to see ...

The ACA may reduce ER visits (slightly) but doesn't affect hospitalizations

2015-03-12
WASHINGTON - Two patient groups created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) - Medicare patients enrolled in federally designated patient-centered medical homes and people under age 26 who are allowed to remain on their parents' health insurance - had slightly fewer emergency department visits than they had before health care reform. However, there was no change in the rate of the most expensive types of emergency visits: those that lead to hospitalization. One study examined the rate of emergency department visits and hospitalizations for Medicare patients treated by ...

Predicting which African storms will intensify into hurricanes

2015-03-12
Hurricanes require moisture, the rotation of the earth, and warm ocean temperatures to grow from a mere atmospheric disturbance into a tropical storm. But where do these storm cells originate, and exactly what makes an atmospheric disturbance amp up full throttle? A new study published in Geophysical Research Letters by Tel Aviv University's Prof. Colin Price and his graduate student Naama Reicher of the Department of Geosciences at TAU's Faculty of Exact Sciences finds most hurricanes over the Atlantic that eventually make landfall in North America actually start as ...

Engineers create chameleon-like artificial 'skin' that shifts color on demand

Engineers create chameleon-like artificial skin that shifts color on demand
2015-03-12
WASHINGTON, March 12, 2015--Borrowing a trick from nature, engineers from the University of California at Berkeley have created an incredibly thin, chameleon-like material that can be made to change color -- on demand -- by simply applying a minute amount of force. This new material-of-many-colors offers intriguing possibilities for an entirely new class of display technologies, color-shifting camouflage, and sensors that can detect otherwise imperceptible defects in buildings, bridges, and aircraft. "This is the first time anybody has made a flexible chameleon-like ...

Secret of how plants regulate their vitamin C production revealed

2015-03-12
A QUT scientist has helped unravel the way in which plants regulate their levels of vitamin C, the vitamin essential for preventing iron deficiency anaemia and conditions such as scurvy. Professor Roger Hellens, working with Dr William Laing from New Zealand's Plant and Food Research, has discovered the mechanism plants use to regulate the levels of Vitamin C in each of their cells in response to the environment. "Understanding these mechanisms may help in plant breeding programmes to produce hardier plant crops and improve human health because iron deficiency anaemia ...

In pursuit of the perfectly animated cloud of smoke

2015-03-12
This news release is available in German. Simulations of impressive landscapes and alien creatures have become commonplace, especially in fantasy and science fiction films. But simulations are also appearing in ever more medical and engineering applications. However, the road to a perfect illusion is complex and time-intensive. Nils Thürey, professor at the Technische Universität München and his colleagues have developed a methodology that could accelerate these calculations. The attack takes place at the climax of the blockbuster "Avatar": Rockets slam ...

Government corruption in South Africa contributes to overfishing

2015-03-12
"When I interviewed inspectors they are surprisingly open about this. They tell me that they get a box of fish or just some money from fishermen in exchange for being allowed to break the rules that apply to protected areas or catches," says Aksel Sundström. Many of South Africa's marine fish stocks are overexploited. At the same time, the government actors that are meant to ensure that fishers abide to rules may be a part of the problem. For example, one anonymous inspector is quoted to say: "A Chinese captain that was arrested last week called someone who arrived ...

Liver-sparing operation associated with higher survival rates in cancer patients

2015-03-12
CHICAGO (March 12, 2015): A surgical approach in which a surgeon removes less than a lobe of the liver in a patient undergoing an operation for liver cancer is associated with lower mortality and complication rates, according to new study results published online as an "article in press" in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons (JACS). The article will appear in print in the April issue of the Journal. Historically, the most common surgical method of treatment for liver cancer was a major hepatectomy in which a lobe (hemi-liver) is removed in order to remove ...

Low breast density in mammography worsens breast cancer prognosis

2015-03-12
Very low mammographic breast density worsens the prognosis of breast cancer, according to a recent study from the University of Eastern Finland. Disease free survivals as well as overall life expectancies were significantly shorter in women with very low-density breasts in comparison to women with high density breast tissue. The lower the breast tissue density, the less fibroglandular tissue there is compared to fat tissue. In the future, these findings may prove significant for the assessment of breast cancer prognosis and treatment planning. The study involved 270 ...

Actresses must be picky about with whom they work to survive in movie industry

2015-03-12
WASHINGTON, DC, March 12, 2015 -- Actresses need to be pickier than men about with whom they work if they want to survive in the movie industry, suggests a new study. "My research indicates that women in the film industry suffer a lack of access to future career opportunities when they tend to work with people who have collaborated frequently in the past," said Mark Lutter, lead author of the study and head of the "Transnational Diffusion of Innovation" Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (MPIfG) in Germany. Titled, "Do Women Suffer ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

SwRI-built instruments to monitor, provide advanced warning of space weather events

Breakthrough advances sodium-based battery design

New targeted radiation therapy shows near-complete response in rare sarcoma patients

Does physical frailty contribute to dementia?

Soccer headers and brain health: Study finds changes within folds of the brain

Decoding plants’ language of light

UNC Greensboro study finds ticks carrying Lyme disease moving into western NC

New implant restores blood pressure balance after spinal cord injury

New York City's medical specialist advantage may be an illusion, new NYU Tandon research shows

Could a local anesthetic that doesn’t impair motor function be within reach?

1 in 8 Italian cetacean strandings show evidence of fishery interactions, with bottlenose and striped dolphins most commonly affected, according to analysis across four decades of data and more than 5

In the wild, chimpanzees likely ingest the equivalent of several alcoholic drinks every day

Warming of 2°C intensifies Arctic carbon sink but weakens Alpine sink, study finds

Bronze and Iron Age cultures in the Middle East were committed to wine production

Indian adolescents are mostly starting their periods at an earlier age than 25 years ago

Temporary medical centers in Gaza known as "Medical Points" (MPs) treat an average of 117 people daily with only about 7 staff per MP

Rates of alcohol-induced deaths among the general population nearly doubled from 1999 to 2024

PLOS One study: In adolescent lab animals exposed to cocaine, High-Intensity Interval Training boosts aversion to the drug

Scientists identify four ways our bodies respond to COVID-19 vaccines

Stronger together: A new fusion protein boosts cancer immunotherapy

Hidden brain waves as triggers for post-seizure wandering

Music training can help the brain focus

Researcher develop the first hydride ion prototype battery

MIT researchers find a more precise way to edit the genome

‘Teen’ pachycephalosaur butts into fossil record

Study finds cocoa extract supplement reduced key marker of inflammation and aging

Obesity treatment with bariatric surgery vs GLP-1 receptor agonists

Nicotinamide for skin cancer chemoprevention

Novel way to ‘rev up’ brown fat burns calories, limits obesity in mice

USC Stem Cell-led team makes major advance toward building a synthetic kidney

[Press-News.org] Mind reading thanks to metaphors
Metaphor usage highlights social bonds and increases understanding of others' emotions