title: The contribution of postural bias to lateral preferences for holding human infants.
abstract: When asked to hold an infant, 60-85% of adults hold on their left, so that the infant's head is to the left of their midline (Brüser, 1981; de Chateau, 1983; Saling & Tyson, 1981). The same group bias has been found even when persons are merely asked to imagine holding an infant (Nakamichi & Takeda, 1995; Harris, Almerigi, & Kirsch, 2000). A number of variables have been found to contribute modestly to the bias, including the sex and handedness of the holder. In the current study, the role of a new variable is investigated, namely, the feeling of comfort for holding an infant on a particular side as indexed by one's foot preference for acts of stabilizing or postural support. To test this hypothesis, 282 right-handed college students (218 women, 64 men) were given the imagine-hold task along with 4 questions about their foot preference for posture and balance. The results showed that, at least for women, the two measures were modestly but significantly related.
authors.affiliation: Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA. harrisl@msu.edu
authors.forename: Nicholaus Lee
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Erber
authors.forename: Jason B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Almerigi
authors.forename: Timothy J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Carbary
authors.forename: Lauren Julius
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Harris
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011187:Posture; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires