Words for which the consonantal articulation spots wander from the front to the back of the mouth (inward) elicit more positive attitudes than words with the reversed order (outward). The present article questions the common theoretical explanation of this effect, namely an association between articulation movements and oral movements during ingestion and expectoration (inward resembles eating which is positive; outward resembles spitting which is negative). In 4 experiments (total N = 468), we consistently replicated the basic in-out effect; but no evidence was found supporting an eating-related underlying mechanism. The in-out effect was not modulated by disgust inductions (Experiments 1, 2, 4, and 10) or food deprivation (Experiment 3). In 6 further experiments (total N = 1,067), we explored a novel alternative explanation, namely that the in-out effect is simply a position-specific preference for front consonants over back consonants. In these experiments, we found in-out-like preference effects for fragments that lacked an actual front-to-back movement but featured only starting (e.g., B _ _ _ _) or ending (e.g., _ _ _ K) consonants (Experiments 6-8). Consonants that are articulated in the front of the mouth were generally preferred over those articulated in the back of the mouth, and this basic preference was stronger at the beginning of a word-like stimulus (Experiments 6-10), thus explaining the preference pattern of the in-out effect. The present evidence speaks against an eating-related (embodied) explanation and suggests a simple word-morphologic explanation of the in-out effect. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

---

嘴里朝前，词里朝前：进出效果的驱动机制。

辅音发音点从嘴的前部到后部（向内）徘徊的单词比颠倒顺序（向外）的单词表现出更积极的态度。本文对这种作用的一般理论解释提出质疑，即在进食和排痰过程中关节运动和口腔运动之间的联系（向内类似于进食，是积极的；向外类似于吐痰，是消极的）。在4个实验中（总N = 468），我们始终如一地复制了基本的由内而外的效果。但没有证据支持与饮食有关的潜在机制。进出效果不受厌恶诱导（实验1、2、4和10）或食物匮乏（实验3）的调节。在6个进一步的实验中（总N = 1,067），我们探索了一种新颖的替代解释，也就是说，从里到外的效果仅仅是前辅音优于后辅音的特定位置偏好。在这些实验中，我们发现了缺少实际前后移动但仅以辅音（例如B _ _ _ _）或结尾（例如_ _ _ K）为特征的片段的由内而外的偏好效果（实验6-8）。一般说来，在嘴前发音的辅音要比在嘴后发音的辅音好，而且这种基本的偏好在单词刺激开始时就更强了（实验6-10），从而解释了偏好模式的进出效果。目前的证据反对与饮食有关的（体现的）解释，并提出了对进出效果的简单词形解释。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2020 APA，保留所有权利）。