title: Starting off on the right foot: strong right-footers respond faster with the right foot to positive words and with the left foot to negative words.
abstract: Recent studies have provided evidence for an association between valence and left/right modulated by handedness, which is predicted by the body-specificity hypothesis (Casasanto, 2009) and also reflected in response times. We investigated whether such a response facilitation can also be observed with foot responses. Right-footed participants classified positive and negative words according to their valence by pressing a key with their left or right foot. A significant interaction between valence and foot only emerged in the by-items analysis. However, when dividing participants into two groups depending on the strength of their footedness, an interaction between valence and left/right was observed for strong right-footers, who responded faster with the right foot to positive words, and with the left foot to negative words. No interaction emerged for weak right-footers. The results strongly support the assumption that fluency lies at the core of the association between valence and left/right.
authors: Department of Psychology, Language and Cognition, University of Tübingen Tübingen, Germany.
authors: Irmgard
authors: I
authors: de la Vega
authors: Department of Psychology, Language and Cognition, University of Tübingen Tübingen, Germany.
authors: Julia
authors: J
authors: Graebe
authors: Department of Psychology, Language and Cognition, University of Tübingen Tübingen, Germany.
authors: Leonie
authors: L
authors: Härtner
authors: Department of Psychology, Language and Cognition, University of Tübingen Tübingen, Germany.
authors: Carolin
authors: C
authors: Dudschig
authors: Department of Psychology, Language and Cognition, University of Tübingen Tübingen, Germany.
authors: Barbara
authors: B
authors: Kaup
keywords: body-specificity hypothesis; embodiment; emotional valence; fluency; footedness; handedness