![\"\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/images\/blogpics\/LightSwitch.jpg\" "\\"light")
From sacred religious texts to books to movies, light and darkness have always symbolized good and evil.<\/p>\n
But is it possible that abstract concepts such as good and evil can actually influence our perception of light and darkness in the environment around us<\/strong>?<\/p>\n According to University of Kansas business professor Promothesh Chatterjee, the answer is yes. In an upcoming article, Chatterjee reports that individuals who were asked to recall a time that they did a good deed judge their immediate surroundings to be brighter than individuals who were asked to recall an unethical deed from their past<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Additionally, Chatterjee finds that when offered a selection of random objects, individuals who recalled an unethical deed \u2013 and therefore perceived the room to be darker \u2013 preferred light-producing objects such as flashlights and candles, as opposed to non-light-producing objects likes crackers or apples.<\/p>\n \u201cWe find that when individuals think about an abstract concept \u2013 for example, a good deed \u2013 it influences their perception of a concrete concept such as brightness<\/strong>,\u201d said Chatterjee, an assistant professor of marketing in the KU School of Business. \u201cMoreover, those individuals thinking about a bad deed demonstrate a preference for objects that will add light to the environment<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n Chatterjee\u2019s article, \u201cIs It Light or Dark? Recalling Moral Behavior Changes Perception of Brightness,\u201d will appear in the upcoming edition of Psychological Science<\/em>. His co-authors are Pronobesh Banerjee from Winston-Salem State University and Jayati Sinha from the University of Arizona.<\/p>\n According to Chatterjee, previous researchers have found that individuals mentally link abstract concepts (like evil) to concrete concepts (like darkness). But Chatterjee\u2019s findings go further by showing that these linkages go beyond mere linguistic coupling to actually influence an individual\u2019s perception of the physical world.<\/p>\n \u201cWe already knew that evil makes people think of the dark,\u201d Chatterjee said. \u201cBut our research is unique because we find that evil not only makes people think of the dark, but it makes people see, feel and perceive the environment to be darker. That\u2019s a powerful finding.\u201d<\/p>\n How does Chatterjee explain the preference for light-inducing objects among those individuals primed with memories of unethical deeds?<\/p>\n Responses to moral transgression may be influenced by emotions such as guilt or shame, he said. Past research indicates that when people experience guilt, they are motivated to alleviate their prevailing negative feelings, but the instinctive response to shame is to escape or hide. Chatterjee\u2019s results are in line with responses to the experience of guilt: Participants who recalled their own past unethical deeds, which might trigger guilt, preferred products that would make the room brighter \u2013 that is, products that would reduce darkness and thereby reduce the negative feelings associated with darkness.<\/p>\n Chatterjee\u2019s findings open some interesting avenues for future research. For example, can experiencing brightness in an environment increase ethical behavior? And given that light and dark appear to be linked to moral behavior, can ambient light affect the perception and evaluation of morally ambiguous behaviors?<\/p>\n \u201cThose are some fun and intriguing questions,\u201d Chatterjee said. \u201cHow interesting it would be to discover that we can use light to influence people\u2019s behavior or their perception of behaviors. That could have some incredible real-world applications.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the University of Kansas press release: From sacred religious texts to books to movies, light and darkness have always symbolized good and evil. 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