The contribution of postural bias to lateral preferences for holding human infants.
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.
Erber
Nicholaus Lee
NL
Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA. harrisl@msu.edu
Almerigi
Jason B
JB
Carbary
Timothy J
TJ
Harris
Lauren Julius
LJ
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