The choice polarity effect: An investigation of evolutionary-based trait handedness and perceived magnitudes on laterally displayed choices

Laterality effects generally include two major components: laterality in the horizontal display of objects and laterality in terms of human embodiment, for example, with regard to handedness (left versus right). Horizontal display is an environmental factor, whereas handedness is largely a genetic trait grounded in evolution. Both can act together in driving consumer choice. Previous research has shown that right-handers react differently from left-handers to a variety of stimuli. Right-handers are conditioned to engage stimuli in asymmetric terms, favoring their dominant right hand in guiding their perceptions of those stimuli; left-handers view the world in more symmetric terms with less favoring of their dominant hand. In three studies, we show that handedness plays a role in consumers’ choice responses to lateral displays, an effect that we call the choice polarity effect. Implications are drawn for laterality research and for the complex interrelationships of handedness with evolutionary, coevolutionary and epigenetic forces.