Effects of directional habits and handedness on aesthetic preference for left and right profiles

Are aesthetic preferences associated with directional reading/writing habits or with cere-bral laterality? To answer this question, 138 right-handed and non-right-handed Arabic, Hebrew, and Russian readers were presented with pairs of facial and bodily profiles; one member of each pair was turning to the left, and the other was turning to the right. The participants determined their aesthetic preferences for one member of each pair. If aes-thetic preferences are associated with laterality, differential preferences were expected for right-handers and non-right-handers. However, if these preferences are linked to reading/writing habits, differential preferences were expected for Arabic and Hebrew readers who read and write from right to left and Russian readers who read and write from left to right. Data analyses showed that Arabic and Hebrew readers preferred both facial and bodily profiles that turned to the right, whereas Russian readers preferred the profiles that turned to the left. The data were interpreted as showing that aesthetic prefer-ences are associated primarily with reading/writing habits