How Beautiful is the Goal and How Violent is the Fistfight? Spatial Bias in the Interpretation of Human Behavior

Abstract

We argue that the direction in which language is written in a given culture produces a subtle bias in the interpretation of human action. The same action (e.g., athletic performance or aggression) will be perceived as more forceful when the spatial trajectory corresponds to the habitual writing direction. In Study 1 (n= 72) Italian participants perceived the same athletic performance (a soccer goal) as stronger, faster, and more beautiful if presented with a left–to–right rather than right–to–left trajectory. In Study 2 (n= 60) they interpreted aggressive film scenes as more violent and more harmful to the victim when shown with a left–to–right trajectory. Study 3 (n= 40), involving both Italian– and Arabic–speaking participants, found opposite directional biases in the two cultures, suggesting that scanning habits due to writing direction are mainly responsible for the directional bias in person perception.

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