宗教是人类社会特有的文化现象，它深远影响着不同社会情景下生活的群体。关于基督教的研究发现，宗教的表征方式与垂直空间隐喻关系密切，空间方位“上”隐喻宗教的神圣性。然而，虽然东西方宗教有着诸多共通的地方，但是佛教在宗教教义和对人思想行为的塑造方面与西方宗教有着本质区别。前人研究证实隐喻结构存在跨文化的差异性，而且关于隐喻映射的方向是单向的还是双向的暂时也没有定论。因此，本文利用信仰佛教的藏族人，通过3个研究在意识和无意识层面探讨佛教与垂直空间位置的隐喻关系及其映射方向性。为了进一步探究这种隐喻结构是否普遍存在，本文选取了无宗教信仰的汉族人作为对照组。 研究1采用迫选法在意识层面上探究这种联系是否存在，明确告知藏族被试和汉族被试把佛教词或中性词放置于空间方位“上”或者“下”。研究2和研究3采用Stroop范式进一步在无意识层面上探讨这种联系及其方向性。具体而言，研究2首先在屏幕中央呈现词汇启动项，随后在屏幕上方或下方呈现字母反应项；研究3的步骤刚好相反，首先在屏幕上方或下方呈现方位启动项，随后在屏幕中央呈现词汇反应项。结果发现，研究1中藏族被试和汉族被试都明显将更多的佛教词置于空间方位“上”，表明在意识层面上信仰佛教的人群和无宗教信仰的人群都认为佛教是上；研究2中佛教词出现后，藏族被试对呈现在屏幕上方字母的反应时显著快于下方字母，而在无宗教信仰的汉族被试身上并没有发现这一特点。这表明佛教词只易化了藏族被试对空间方位“上”的判断，证明“藏传佛教是上”的隐喻结构只在其信众群体中存在，并且这种隐喻映射的方向从佛教概念到空间位置；研究3中圆环出现在电脑屏幕上方后，藏族被试对随后出现的佛教词的反应速度明显比中性词更快，而在无宗教信仰的汉族人身上并没有发现这一特点。这表明空间方位“上”的启动只易化了信仰佛教的藏族人对于佛教词理解，证明“藏传佛教是上”的隐喻结构映射的方向也可以从空间位置向佛教概念。 综上所述，本研究的结果证明藏传佛教的垂直空间隐喻对于其信徒是存在的并且这种隐喻映射方向是双向的，这不仅表明空间方位“上”是藏传佛教表征的物理基础，而且发现宗教信徒会以垂直空间隐喻这种特殊的认知方式来理解其信仰, 为宗教信仰向上提供了实证证据。
Religion is a universal and natural phenomenon in human society, which deeply influences the groups living under different social cultures. Prior research reveals that the encoding of divinity-related cognitions or affect link to vertical metaphors, the space orientation "up" generally metaphors the sanctity of religion. However, although there are many similarities between eastern and western religions, Tibetan Buddhism is essentially different from Western religions in religious doctrines and shaping people's thoughts and behaviors. Previous studies have confirmed that there are cross-cultural differences in metaphorical structure, and whether the mapping direction is unidirectional or bidirectional is still unclear. Therefore, it is not clear whether vertical spatial metaphor of Tibetan Buddhism exists or not and the direction of metaphorical mapping. To further explore whether this metaphorical structure is universal, this paper selects Han people without religious belief as the control group Study 1 was a paper-pencil forced-choice task in which participants saw a cartoon character and two square boxes(one above and one below the character), and were asked to place religious and neutral words into the top or the bottom box of their own will. A matching effect appeared both between the religious terms and the above/up space. Study 2 was a computerized categorization task carried out in E-prime, participants were first asked to evaluated words presented at the center of the screen(prime trial), and then respond to a spatial probe that appeared at the top or bottom of the screen. The results revealed that indigenous Tibetan subjects encode the letter “p” or “q” in the up faster following religious-related concepts than neural-related concepts, showing that evaluations bias spatial attention in a metaphor-consistent direction (e.g., religious concepts activate up)，but this trait was not found in Han subjects. Oppositely, study 3 asked participants first to respond to a spatial probe that appeared at the top or bottom of the screen, so that ‘‘up’’ or ‘‘down’’ would be activated(prime trial). Subsequently, participants evaluated words presented at the center of the screen (target trial). The results showed that indigenous Tibetan subjects encode religious concepts in the up faster following the symbol“○” in the up than in the low, suggesting that the activation of areas of visual space does also prime evaluations (e.g., up does activate religious concepts),. but this trait was also not found in Han subjects. These studies suggest that the vertical spatial metaphor of Tibetan Buddhism exists for its followers, and the mapping direction of this metaphor is bidirectional, which not only shows that the spatial orientation "up" is the physical basis of Tibetan Buddhism representation, but also finds that religious believers will understand their beliefs by the special cognitive way of vertical spatial metaphor.
