On the Elusive Nature of the Letters from the Heart Effect

Abstract

The Letters from the Heart effect described by Van den Bergh, Vrana, and Eelen in 1990 is the finding that, in a forced-choice affective evaluation paradigm, typists prefer nonmeaningful letter combinations typed with different fingers over those typed with the same finger, whereas no such preference is evident for nontypists. Typists' dislike of same-finger letter combinations may arise through subconscious activation of motor-behavior memory in affective evaluation tasks, which in turn may create conflicting qualities for same-finger letter combinations given the motor incompatibilities associated with these. Although the effect is cited in the literature, the original finding has never been replicated. The present research attempted to replicate the effect in a series of five studies, involving new sets of letter combinations and a total of 134 typists and 152 nontypists. The effect was not clearly replicated in these studies and thus seems to be elusive. The consistent nonreplication is discussed in terms of a lack of necessary boundary conditions for the effect to emerge reliably and in differences in analysis between the original investigation and the present research.