The role of knowledge gained through bodily experience in the processing of insults.

The purpose of this research was to examine whether knowledge gained through bodily experience influences the processing of insults. I presented embodied insults (e.g., asswipe'), non-embodied insults (e.g., cheapskate'), and other non-insults (e.g., armband') or compliments (e.g., eyeful') in four insult detection task experiments (is the stimulus an insult or not?'). After each experiment, participants were given a surprise recall task. In all four experiments, a facilitatory bodily experience effect was observed, such that the embodied insults were responded to more rapidly and were recalled more often than the non-embodied insults. I propose that knowledge gained through bodily experience is an integral component of the conceptual knowledge people possess for insults. My results are also consistent with the idea that embodied insults are understood by creating mental simulations of underlying bodily experiences. --P. ii.