Is their a left / right bias ?

Submitted by Miknarf t3_yy5qeh in askscience

I assume that when studies in which a participant has to choose between two things what item is on the left and right is controlled for. But I was curious, with all things being equal is their a bias on what someone will choose? Something on the right or left? Has this even been studied? If so how strong is it? I would guess it would coincided with handiness.

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RudeBoyPlays t1_iwttn63 wrote

A study in 2011 was done on the subject using abstract "good" or "bad" and found that there was a preference and that it was closely related to motor fluency. The cool thing found in that study is that the bias can be reversed with a short term handicap before the survey in the form of a ski glove on their dominant hand while they to set up dominoes.

Sources: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21389336/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/right-handers-tend-prefer-the-right-11-03-13/

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Miknarf OP t1_iwtuw08 wrote

Thank you I’ve been trying for awhile to Google this question but it was really hard filtering out articles about political left/right bias.

Makes me curious how all encompassing this bias is. I originally thought of this while playing video games, and I found when given a choice of what way to go i felt I favored the right. I guess this confirms my suspicion.

Now I’m wondering if the bias of what’s more convenient would apply if the choice was near/far. The classic princess bride poison dilemma .

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