Abstract: Based on the perspective of conceptual metaphor theory, several recent empirical studies have suggested that there is a deeper psychological significance to the connection between temperature and social affection. Metaphor consistency effects and metaphor compensation effects are used to illustrate its mechanism. And this temperature-social affection metaphor is grounded on the early experience of the social world, and developed through scaffolding processes. In addition, the insula may be a key shared neural substrate that mediates the influence of temperature on social affection processes. Future researches on temperature-social affection metaphor should focus on the following aspects, such as improving the experimental paradigm of this metaphor, deepening our understanding of its action mechanisms, exploring the formation mechanisms from the perspective of development and at last carrying out the application work of temperature-social affection metaphor.

Key words: temperature-social affection metaphor, conceptual metaphor theory, metaphor effects, scaffolding theory, insula