Can you feel meaning? Spirituality involves stronger sensorimotor associations with abstract concepts

Abstract

Understanding abstract phenomena is a fundamental human need. Emerging evidence increasingly points to the multidimensionality of abstract knowledge representations, with theories emphasizing the importance of both embodied and linguistic influences. In the present paper, we argue that the strength with which embodiment is associated with abstract concepts is moderated by cultural beliefs about ontological meaning. Specifically, we predicted that self-identified spirituality—a belief system guided by an experiential approach to understanding reality—contributes to greater sensorimotor associations with abstract concepts. As hypothesized, across four studies (n = 729; in the USA and the UK), Western spiritual beliefs involved stronger sensorimotor associations for highly abstract compared to concrete concepts. Importantly, religious beliefs that conceptually overlap with spirituality did not contribute to these associations. Altogether, individual differences in belief systems guide people's conscious attendance to sensorimotor features when thinking about abstract concepts, with spiritual individuals likely feeling the meaning of words through linking abstract thought with bodily experiences.