The QWERTY Effect: Typing can shape word meanings, study finds

The humble QWERTY keyboard may have more of an impact on how we perceive words than we might think.

 

Researchers have found that typists tend to attach positive meanings to words that use letters on the right side of a QWERTY keboard, or those keys to the right of the letters T, G, and B.

 

"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," researchers Kyle Jasmin and Daniel Casasanto said.

 

They also discovered a similar pattern across different languages, with the strongest correlations in neologisms.

 

Such findings suggests the QWERTY keyboard "is shaping the meanings of words as people filter language through their fingers," they added.

 

"Widespread typing introduces a new mechanism by which semantic changes in language can arise," they said.

 

A separate article on Wired.com quoted Jasmin, a cognitive scientist at the University of College London, as calling this "The QWERTY Effect."

 

“We know how a word is spoken can affect its meaning. So can how it’s typed ... As we filter language, hundreds or thousands of words, through our fingers, we seem to be connecting the meanings of the words with the physical way they’re typed on the keyboard,” Wired.com quoted Jasmin as saying in the Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.

 

Jasmin also said the effect may arise from the fact that letter combinations that fall on the right side of the keyboard tend to be easier to type than those on the left.

 

“If it’s easy, it tends to lend a positive meaning. If it’s harder, it can go the other way,” Jasmin said.

 

QWERTY history

 

The QWERTY layout designed for typewriters dates back to 1868. It kept typewriters from jamming since some letters were too close to each other and would stick when typed in rapid succession.

 

“People are faster to type with their right hand than their left hand. Combined with the fact that keyboard is asymmetrical, with more letters on left than the right, we had to know if there was correlation there,” Jasmin said.

 

Methodology and results

 

Wired.com said the researchers' first experiment analyzed 1,000-word indexes from English, Spanish, and Dutch, comparing their perceived positivity with their location on the QWERTY keyboard.

 

In the experiment, right-sided words scored more positively than left-sided words.

 

But the correlation was stronger with newer words, or words coined after the QWERTY keyboard’s invention.

 

For such newer words, the researchers found right-sided words had more positive associations than left-sided words.

 

In another experiment, 800 typists recruited through Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk service rated whether made-up words felt positive or negative.

 

A QWERTY effect also emerged in those words, Wired.com said.

 

'Correlation', not 'cause-and-effect'

 

However, Jasmin cautioned that words’ literal meanings almost certainly outweigh their QWERTY-inflected associations, and said the study only shows a correlation rather than clear cause-and-effect.

 

Jasmin also said that while a typist’s left- or right-handedness didn’t seem to matter, there is not yet enough data to be certain.

 

“But as far as I know, this is the first demonstration that even hints how a word is typed can shape what it means over time,” he said.

 

Further experiments

 

Future experiments may aim to scrutinize other kinds of keyboards.

 

“In different languages, there are other variations with more and different punctuation keys in different places and more letters on the right than the left,” Jasmin said. “Technology changes words, and by association languages. It’s an important thing to look at.” — TJD, GMA News