The Association Between Space and Valence in Chinese Sighted and Blind Left-Handers

The body-specificity hypothesis posits that individuals implicitly associate positive attributes more strongly with the space corresponding to their dominant hand and negative attributes with the nondominant side. However, the body-specificity effect is more pronounced in left-handers than in right-handers. A proposed mechanism is rooted in observational realities: left-handers observe predominantly right-handed others interacting more fluently with the right side (the observer's left side), potentially enhancing their own fluency with the left side and strengthening the association between "good" and the left. To test this account, we examined a large sample of Chinese sighted left-handers (N = 152; 57.89% female; mean age = 39.31) and blind left-handers (N = 144; 59.02% female; mean age = 37.50). Consistent with the observation-based account, the strength of the body-specificity effect was significantly weaker among blind participants than among sighted counterparts. We then pooled our data with available data on blind right-handers and found no reliable interaction effect between handedness and visual experience. However, this null finding is inconclusive given potential imbalances across cells and limited statistical power. Together, our results highlight a possible interaction between handedness and visual experience in shaping implicit space-valence mappings and motivate further, tightly controlled and well-powered cross-group research.