Words you type with your right hand are happier
By Paul Adams Posted 03.07.2012 at 4:19 pm 6 Comments

Keyboard Felipe Micaroni Lalli

According to a new study exploring the interrelation of language and emotion, if a word consists of letters typed with predominantly the right hand, it is felt to be more positive in meaning; a word typed predominantly with the left hand is associated more with negative emotion.

The study included speakers of English, Spanish, and Dutch, both left- and right-handed, but all users of QWERTY keyboard layouts. Even made-up words like boshe, cheethe, plake, and throog were given value judgments that aligned with how they'd be typed.

What this seems to mean is that the everyday action of typing on our keyboards has infiltrated how we perceive and feel about the world.

Accordingly, the saddest story ever written is "Dexter Weaver Serves Breaded Crested Grebe" by Dallas Wiebe, which he wrote on only the left-hand side of his typewriter in the 1960s. An excerpt follows:

dear secret fasters #
easter exacts vast rewards # screw fasts # feasts create a freer texas # crab rears fast # water bearer deceases # stars agree a sweet taste averts graves # set feet faster # sweetwater deserves carvers stabbers eaters carafe drawers steadfast feeders # wear fast rags at 5 # 2 # 45 caveat regrets regarded bad#
dexter fred weaver # sweetwater texas

6 Comments

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reedz1
03/07/12 at 5:07 pm

kill, nuke, pious, nigh, junk, inrepid

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myfootisnumb
03/07/12 at 6:47 pm

I'm very glad to read this. I'd always figured it was an OCD thing that when I saw a word, I'd think "how do I type that," and have always hated words that weren't at least half typed with my right hand. Wieeeerd...

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matsci1
03/08/12 at 8:22 am

What kind of story is that? Written in the 1960´s you say? It looks like some kind of English translation of a run on Haiku that was written by some leftover, stoned beatnik in a coffee house.

Also a point. There are three letters almost to the far left end of the keyboard that are recognized in more than the three languages mentioned that usually have quite pleasant thoughts associated with them…S, E and X.

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1luckymike
03/08/12 at 11:04 am

Left -
we are free

Right -
i kill you

Left -
we are dead

Right -
i lol

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tyler555
03/08/12 at 1:11 pm

I don't know about anyone else but any word that I can type with only my left hand, preferably around the "wsad" keys is positive :P



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