The article by Daniel Casasanto from Stanford University and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics explores the relationship between handedness and the mental representation of abstract concepts with positive or negative valence. The *body-specificity hypothesis* posits that people with different physical environments and interactions should form different mental representations. Five experiments were conducted to test this hypothesis, focusing on how right- and left-handers associate spatial locations with emotional valence. Key findings include: 1. **Spatial Mapping**: Right-handers tend to associate rightward space with positive ideas and leftward space with negative ideas, while left-handers show the opposite pattern. 2. **Linguistic and Cultural Conventions**: While linguistic and cultural conventions often associate positive valence with the right side and negative valence with the left, these associations are not universal and can vary across cultures. 3. **Body-Specific Associations**: The body-specific mapping between spatial location and valence is not influenced by linguistic or cultural conventions. Right-handers and left-handers show opposite preferences, with right-handers associating good things with their dominant side and left-handers with their non-dominant side. 4. **Awareness of Handedness**: Participants were largely unaware of the purpose of the experiment, suggesting that the body-specific associations are not due to conscious awareness of handedness. 5. **Implications for Everyday Decisions**: The body-specific influences of spatial location extend to everyday decisions, such as hiring job candidates or choosing products. These results support the body-specificity hypothesis and provide evidence for the perceptuomotor basis of abstract concepts, suggesting that even abstract ideas are grounded in bodily experiences and motor skills.The article by Daniel Casasanto from Stanford University and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics explores the relationship between handedness and the mental representation of abstract concepts with positive or negative valence. The *body-specificity hypothesis* posits that people with different physical environments and interactions should form different mental representations. Five experiments were conducted to test this hypothesis, focusing on how right- and left-handers associate spatial locations with emotional valence. Key findings include: 1. **Spatial Mapping**: Right-handers tend to associate rightward space with positive ideas and leftward space with negative ideas, while left-handers show the opposite pattern. 2. **Linguistic and Cultural Conventions**: While linguistic and cultural conventions often associate positive valence with the right side and negative valence with the left, these associations are not universal and can vary across cultures. 3. **Body-Specific Associations**: The body-specific mapping between spatial location and valence is not influenced by linguistic or cultural conventions. Right-handers and left-handers show opposite preferences, with right-handers associating good things with their dominant side and left-handers with their non-dominant side. 4. **Awareness of Handedness**: Participants were largely unaware of the purpose of the experiment, suggesting that the body-specific associations are not due to conscious awareness of handedness. 5. **Implications for Everyday Decisions**: The body-specific influences of spatial location extend to everyday decisions, such as hiring job candidates or choosing products. These results support the body-specificity hypothesis and provide evidence for the perceptuomotor basis of abstract concepts, suggesting that even abstract ideas are grounded in bodily experiences and motor skills.