What Directions Do We Look at Power from? Up-Down, Left-Right, and Front-Back.

Abstract

Three experiments were carried out to investigate whether the the kinship concept had spatial representations along up-down (Experiment 1), left-right (Experiment 2), and front-back (Experiment 3) orientation. Participants identified the letter P or Q after judging whether kinship words were elder or junior terms. The results showed that participants responded faster to letters placed at the top, right side, and front following elder terms, and faster at the bottom, left side, and back following junior terms. The regression results further confirmed that these shifts of attention along up-down, right-left, and front-back dimensions in external space were uniquely attributed to the power construct embedded in the kinship concept, but not number or time. The results provide evidence for the multiple spatial representations in power, and can be explained by the theoretical construct of structural mapping.