Exploring Body-Specific Associations in Swipe Gestures: A Study on Hand Dominance and Emotional Valence

The Body-Specificity Hypothesis suggests that the area around the dominant hand is perceived positively, contrasting with a negative perception around the non-dominant hand. Given the pervasive use of interactive technologies, our study aimed to investigate body-specific associations in real-world settings, examining whether these are modulated by mainstream digital gestures like swiping. N = 30 right-handed participants (Experiment 1) and N = 30 left-handed participants (Experiment 2) were asked to make valence judgements on 28 valence-laden images on a tablet, with each hand in separate sessions, engaging in a congruent task (swipe towards the dominant side—positive, swipe towards the non-dominant side—negative) and an incongruent task (the opposite response pattern). Following the valence judgement task, participants assessed the intensity of their responses using a 9-point Likert scale. Results indicated that right-handers were faster in the congruent condition than in the incongruent condition and showed faster responses when swiping for negative images with the non-dominant hand. Left-handed participants did not show differences in response times but evaluated images as more positive/negative in the congruent condition compared to the incongruent. Overall, these findings support the Body-Specificity Hypothesis and underscore the importance of considering the embodied-cognition-framework as susceptible to the influence of technology use.