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from the what-percentage-of-people-are-right-handed? dept.
The experts assume that one reason for this preference is that emotions are primarily processed in the right hemisphere of the brain, which is linked to the left side of the body. The team led by lead author Julian Packheiser reports in the journal Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews on 26 June 2019.
International researchers have been investigating since 1960 whether and why people have a preferred side when cradling a baby. Some studies have demonstrated a preference, others have not. "In order to explain the effect, we looked for all of the studies we could find on this topic," says Julian Packheiser. The Bochum-based researchers included 40 studies in their analysis.
They ultimately found that between 66 and 72 per cent of all people hold an infant with their left arm. For right-handed people, the figure is even higher at 74 per cent, while it is only 61 per cent for left-handed people. The ratio is similar for men and women: 64 per cent of all men and 73 per cent of all women hold a baby with their left arm. "There may, of course, be links between gender and handedness," explains Packheiser. After all, men are 23 per cent more likely to be left-handed than women. "Unfortunately, this link has not been considered in any study," says the researcher.
Julian Packheiser, Judith Schmitz, Gesa Berretz, Marietta Papadatou-Pastou, Sebastian Ocklenburg. Handedness and sex effects on lateral biases in human cradling: Three meta-analyses. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 2019; 104: 30 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.06.035
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bradley13 on Sunday July 21 2019, @05:21PM
Seriously, this is pretty obvious. Most people are right-handed. Consider: if you're working on something as a right-handed person, you will hold it steady with your left hand and use tools on it with your right hand. So: baby. Hold the baby with your left hand and feed it, or play with it, or whatever - with your right hand.
You don't need to look any farther than that - the explanation is (imho) bleedingly obvious.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.