Abstract: Good things and bad things are often associated with the right or the left, which is the affective valence of left space and right space. The studies basing on theories of embodied cognition and body-specificity hypothesis show that right-handers implicitly associate “good” with “right” and the opposite is true for left-handers. The motor experience of dominant hand and nondominant hand shape space valence. Space valence can be reversed as a result of changes in motor experience of dominant hand and nondominant hand. The brain areas that support approach motivation functionally are related to areas that support motor actions of dominant hand. Future research should focus on the relationship between the laterality of motivation and the laterality of manual motor control and determine how influences of cultural and bodily experiences combine to shape space valence.

Key words: embodied cognition, affective valence, body-specificity hypothesis, motor fluency