title: Interpersonal choice: The advantage on the left or on the right?
abstract: This study explored whether body specificity unconsciously influenced preferences for certain people. Participants were presented pictures of the heads of 2 persons who were described as having the similar personality, profession and family background. They were instructed to choose 1 in each pair as the preferred date, preferred friend, more charismatic boss or as the better national leader. The results showed body specificity had an influence on the selection preference on first impression. Participants tended to choose the character on their dominant-hand side. This study not only provided the first social psychological evidence for the body-specificity hypothesis, but also first demonstrated a role for body specificity in impression formation and selection preference.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Xueru
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Xianyou
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.|School of Architecture, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Journalism and Communication College, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Guangyao
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Lixiang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006225:Hand; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Body specificity; Interpersonal choice; Left-handers; Right-handers