Assessing attitudes indirectly through conceptual metaphors of size and distance in an interactive software

Abstract

Traditional methods of measuring attitudes usually consist of expressing the degree of agreement with a series of statements. In this paper, we test a new method to express attitudes through interactive metaphors. Primary school students set the distance and physical size of objects (visual representations of school subjects) using a digital application. During this task, they communicated their understanding of the distance and physical size of the object. Distance was most often interpreted by respondents as a metaphorical expression of liking, with objects closer perceived as more likeable. Size was most often interpreted as a metaphor expressing importance and usefulness, with positively rated objects being expressed as larger. Additionally, we investigated whether increasing the size and decreasing the distance are related to a more positive verbal evaluation of the object. The results supported our predictions, and they are also consistent with previous research findings on metaphor mapping, primary metaphors, and the relationship between physical size and importance.