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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 28, 2026

Conditions Affecting Social Space in Drosophila melanogaster

Conditions Affecting Social Space in Drosophila melanogaster

Published on: November 5, 2015

High and Mighty: Implicit Associations between Space and Social Status.

Stephanie A Gagnon¹, Tad T Brunyé, Cynthia Robin

¹Department of Psychology, Tufts University Medford, MA, USA.

Frontiers in Psychology

|October 21, 2011

Summary

People implicitly link social status to physical space. Studies show associations between social rank and concepts like land level/mountainous terrain and cardinal directions (north/south).

Keywords:

IAT embodiment metaphor north–south bias social status spatial cognition

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Social Psychology
Spatial Cognition

Background:

Social status is often metaphorically linked to physical space in language and perception.
Understanding these associations is key to comprehending how abstract social concepts are grounded in spatial experiences.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the implicit associations between abstract social status and concrete spatial representations.
To determine if these associations extend to more abstract spatial dimensions like cardinal directions.

Main Methods:

Three experiments utilizing the implicit association test (IAT) were conducted.
Participants implicitly associated social status indicators (e.g., average, high, powerful) with spatial concepts (e.g., level vs. mountainous topography, north vs. south).

Main Results:

Experiment 1 showed faster reaction times when average status was paired with level topography and high status with mountainous topography.
Experiments 2 and 3 revealed similar implicit associations between social status and cardinal directions (south/north).

Conclusions:

Abstract social status concepts are implicitly mapped onto spatial dimensions.
These spatial associations influence how we perceive and potentially act upon social hierarchies.