From the point of view of our body, depth indicates front and back. At the front are our senses, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hands. When we want to speak to someone, we direct our front to this person. If there is something that attracts us, for whatever reason, we tend to approach it, with our senses on edge. We turn our backs when we absolutely do not wish to speak to someone, and we distance ourselves from persons, objects and situations that are unpleasant. In this sense, the depth dimension seems to correspond well with factor 1, the pleasure or evaluation factor (Table 1).  Pleasure[1]-displeasure[0] is a feeling state that can be assessed readily with semantic differential measures or with behavioral indicators such as positive versus negative facial expressions. Hogg (1969) used the principal component analysis to classify 12 color-emotion scales. His research showed that the factor 'evaluation' was closely associated with only one scale, pleasant–unpleasant. Moreover, the dimension of pleasantness is independent of both their aroused and dominant-submissive quality, and thus provide an important behavioral index, particularly in social interaction. (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974). 

Our preferences are shaped by evolution, early learning, and culture, which in turn influence our positive (pleasure[1]) or negative (displeasure[0]) evaluation, and our tendencies to approach, to be close by [1] or avoid, to be at a distance [0] different aspects of our surroundings. This predisposes us to favor certain objects and elements in our environment over others. Often, our feelings, intuitions, and gut reactions guide us, helping us prioritize what is most important to focus on or address. (Damasio, 1996; Schwarz & Clore, 1996) 

Automatic and unconscious evaluation processes are closely tied to our behavioral predispositions for approach and avoidance. For example, people tend to make arm movements more quickly toward positive objects (outward movement [1]) and more quickly away from negative objects (inward movement [0]), reflecting these innate tendencies. “This tight connection between immediate, unconscious evaluation and appropriate actional tendencies (approach vs. avoidance) is found throughout the animal kingdom; even single celled paramecia have them.” (Bargh & Morsella, 2008)

The pleasure or depth dimension is also about differences. There is substantial evidence indicating that our brains are deeply hard-wired to divide the world into Us and Them, a tendency rooted in ancient evolutionary history (Sapolsky, R. (2018). Which is equivalent to us, there we tend to seek contact with, thus coming closer and facing us in the front. What is strange or different makes us back away, turn our back. 

The vertical height dimension has top and bottom as semantic markers. It is the dimension of the forces and powers. There is the general idea that our head, which is on top of the body, controls our limbs which are lower. The vertical dimension corresponds with the dominance or potency factor 2. At the top is the power that dominates [0]. At the bottom is the compliant [1]. It is the hard [0] on top opposite to the soft [1] below, the strong [0] towering above the weak [1]. 

Dominance[0]-submissiveness[1] is a feeling state that can be measured using the semantic differential method. It is inverse to the judged potency of the environment and independent of pleasure and arousal. More intense, more powerful physical stimuli are associated with a submissive feeling for the person encountering them. (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974)

Mehrabian and Russell connected dominance to feelings of control and behavior restrictions caused by physical or social barriers. An individual’s feeling of dominance in a situation is based on the extent to which he feels unrestricted or free to act in a variety of ways. This feeling can be hampered by settings which limit the forms of behavior and enhanced by settings which facilitate a greater variety of behaviors. Mehrabian and Russell (1974), give some examples: an individual has greater freedom, and therefore a feeling of dominance, in his own territory than in a foreign place. A workplace that is well stocked with a variety of tools facilitates more behaviors, as such enhancing a feeling of dominance or control. On the other hand, a sparsely equipped workplace limits the actions, and thus reducing the feeling of dominance and enhancing a feeling of loss of control. Flexible interior decorations, such as movable room partitions, adjustable levels of lighting, or movable furniture, allow many arrangements suited to a greater variety of activities. Such flexible arrangements are conducive to a feeling of dominance. (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974)

For social environments, formal social situations constrain behavior more than informal ones. For instance, a person has less freedom of choice (is less dominant) in the presence of others of higher status. (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974)

The adjectives Mehrabian and Russell used to indicate a person’s level of dominance — controlling (in control[0] - controlled[1]), influential (influential[0] - not influential[1]), autonomous (autonomous[0] - guided[1]) — are different from the adjectives used by Osgood et al. (1957).  They described the potency factor by adjectives such as hardness (hard[0] - soft[1], weight (heavy[0] - lightweight[1], gender (masculine[0] - feminine[1]), power (strong[0] - weak[1], tenacious[0] - yielding[1]. (Bakker, van der Voordt, Vink, & de Boon, 2014)

The width is the dimension which is determined by the hands, to the left and to the right of the body. This dimension connects well with the activity (passive[0] - active[1]) or arousal (not aroused[0] - aroused[1]) factor 3. Data obtained using the semantic differential technique have shown that variations in the arousing quality of situations is a primary and unitary factor, ranging from sleep to frantic excitement.  (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974)

An estimated 85 to 90% of humanity has an active right hand. Kipp & Martin (2009) found for the emotion-handedness relationship a consistency between the use of the left hand and a relaxed state and the use of the right hand with a hostile and exuberant state. 

From an evolutionary perspective it can be argued that the right hand is used for fighting and may therefore be more active during hostile moods (Kipp & Martin, 2009). Dawkins (2004) explains that in primeval worms, our ancestors of 590 million years ago, the left and the right side are symmetrical, in contrary to the front-rear asymmetry and the dorsal-ventral asymmetry. However, the exceptions to this observation all confirm the argument that the right side of the body is employed for the most intensive activity of defense and attack. Dawkins describes a few examples of left-right asymmetry in primitive animals such as the wonkey-eyed jewel squid. It has a smaller right eye that looks below for predators. Although danger is not more likely to threaten from the left or the right side, trilobite fossils often display bite marks, indicating narrow escapes from predators. “The fascinating thing is that about 70 percent of these bite marks are on the right-hand side. Either trilobites had an asymmetrical awareness of predators, or their predators had handedness in their attack strategy.” (Dawkins, 2004) These tangible fighting actions, such as punching, can transform into symbolic signs, thereby completing the evolutionary progression from physical combat to communicative gesture. (Kipp & Martin, 2009)

The active-passive aspect is also related to our understanding of time as a spacial metaphor. We conceptualize the past [0] to the left and the future [1] to the right. When making a choice with the past (versus the future) in mind, an object is more likely to be selected if it appears on the left side rather than the right.  (Zhang & Schwarz, 2011) The past is associated with passivity, and the present or the future with activity.  Moreover, this space–time effect provides converging evidence for a left-to-right mental timeline. In line with this left-to-right coding of time, sign languages also use the left-right axis to represent the sequence of events. Additionally, studies using event sequences in natural scenes suggest that we mentally represent these sequences as progressing from left to right. These findings support the idea that this left-to-right mental timeline plays a role in various cognitive functions and is more than just a secondary, incidental effect. (Ullrich et al., 2011)

There is a possible connection between the left-to-right mental timeline and the left-to-right mental number line. This phenomenon was previously observed in humans, where smaller values are expected on the left and larger on the right. No conclusive explanation could be given, since the role of culture could not be excluded. But a study with three-day-old chicks has provided considerable empirical evidence that numbers may be represented along a continuous, left-to-right–oriented, mental number line (Rugani et al., 2015). This evidence supports the existence of evolutionarily ancient precursor systems that operate independently of cultural influences and can be observed in animals with minimal nonsymbolic numerical experience. The authors propose that a similar innate tendency to associate numbers with spatial representation is embedded within the neural architecture of animals. 

Besides the active aspect in the width dimension, one has also been able to establish an aspect of rationality versus emotionality with this left-right contrast. In a cross-culturally conducted study by Sedgewick & Elias (2016), it was shown that the side one turns one's head to give a kiss is indicative of emotionality. With a romantic partner, one will kiss more to the right. When kissing friends and family, most people lean to the left. The researchers have consistently demonstrated this kissing asymmetry. They think couples entering into new romantic relationships show heightened activity on the left side of their brains where the emotional center is located, which might guide them to make more rightward kisses. They conclude: “The stronger your feelings, the more you will move to the right.”