The main hypotheses were that those who have more negative traits (low positive or high negative) would focus on and remember more negative words and those who have more positive trait (high positive or low negative) would focus on and remember more positive words.
Aðal tilgátur voru að þeir sem höfðu meiri neikvæða eiginleika (lágir jákvæðir eða háir neikvæðir) myndu einblína á og muna fleiri neikvæð orð og þeir sem höfðu meiri jákvæða eiginleika (háir jákvæðir eða lágir neikvæðir) myndu einblína á og muna fleiri jákvæð orð.