The spatial agency bias predicts that people whose native language is rightward written will predominantly envisage action along the same direction. Two mechanisms contribute jointly to this asymmetry: (a) an embodied process related to writing/reading; (b) a linguistic regularity according to which sentence subjects (typically the agent) tend to precede objects (typically the recipient). Here we test a novel hypothesis in relation to the second mechanism, namely, that this asymmetry will be most pronounced in languages with rigid word order. A preregistered study on 14 European languages (n = 420) varying in word order flexibility confirmed a rightward bias in drawings of interactions between two people (agent and recipient). This bias was weaker in more flexible languages, confirming that embodied and linguistic features of language interact in producing it.

中文翻译：

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空间代理偏差和词序灵活性：14 种欧洲语言的比较

空间代理偏见预测，母语为右写的人将主要设想沿同一方向采取行动。两种机制共同促成了这种不对称性：（a）与写作/阅读相关的具体过程；(b) 一种语言规律，根据该规律，句子主语（通常是代理人）倾向于先于宾语（通常是接受者）。在这里，我们测试了与第二种机制相关的一个新假设，即这种不对称性在具有严格词序的语言中最为明显。一项针对 14 种欧洲语言的预注册研究（n= 420) 不同的词序灵活性证实了两个人（代理人和接受者）之间互动的图画中的右倾偏见。这种偏见在更灵活的语言中较弱，证实语言的体现和语言特征在产生它时相互作用。