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The QWERTY Effect: How typing shapes the meanings of words.

Overview of attention for article published in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, March 2012
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Title
The QWERTY Effect: How typing shapes the meanings of words.
Published in
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, March 2012
DOI 10.3758/s13423-012-0229-7
Pubmed ID
Authors

Kyle Jasmin, Daniel Casasanto

Abstract

The QWERTY keyboard mediates communication for millions of language users. Here, we investigated whether differences in the way words are typed correspond to differences in their meanings. Some words are spelled with more letters on the right side of the keyboard and others with more letters on the left. In three experiments, we tested whether asymmetries in the way people interact with keys on the right and left of the keyboard influence their evaluations of the emotional valence of the words. We found the predicted relationship between emotional valence and QWERTY key position across three languages (English, Spanish, and Dutch). Words with more right-side letters were rated as more positive in valence, on average, than words with more left-side letters: the QWERTY effect. This effect was strongest in new words coined after QWERTY was invented and was also found in pseudowords. Although these data are correlational, the discovery of a similar pattern across languages, which was strongest in neologisms, suggests that the QWERTY keyboard is shaping the meanings of words as people filter language through their fingers. Widespread typing introduces a new mechanism by which semantic changes in language can arise.

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Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 140 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 6 4%
United Kingdom 3 2%
Italy 2 1%
Germany 1 <1%
Chile 1 <1%
Netherlands 1 <1%
Peru 1 <1%
Canada 1 <1%
Spain 1 <1%
Other 1 <1%
Unknown 122 87%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 38 27%
Researcher 24 17%
Professor > Associate Professor 11 8%
Professor 11 8%
Student > Bachelor 10 7%
Other 30 21%
Unknown 16 11%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Psychology 56 40%
Linguistics 15 11%
Social Sciences 13 9%
Neuroscience 9 6%
Computer Science 8 6%
Other 21 15%
Unknown 18 13%