If you want somebody to do your bidding, talk into their right ear. This is the conclusion scientists reached after studying auditory side bias in human beings. This ‘right-side listening’ shows up in every day human behavior without us even being aware of it.
The right ear is dominant when it comes to listening for verbal stimuli, especially in noisy environments. To test this theory, researchers went to noisy night clubs. Dr. Luca Tommasi and Daniele Marzoli from the University Gabriele d'Annunzio in Chieti, Italy, did three studies to specifically observe ear preference during social interactions in noisy night club environments.
In the first study they just observed 286 club goers talking to each other with music playing. In total, 72 percent of those conversations happened on the right side of the listener.
In the second study they approached 160 clubbers and mumbled something meaningless. They waited for the subjects to turn their head and offer a specific ear to better hear what is said, and then asked them for a cigarette. Fifty eight percent offered their right ear for listening.
In the third study, they specifically addressed clubbers in their right or left ear when asking for a cigarette. They got significantly more cigarettes from right-ear listeners!
They concluded that you are more likely to get a person’s full attention when speaking into their right ear.
