Why Do Most People Cradle Babies in Their Left Arm?
Neurosciene News (Texas), January 9, 2024
https://neurosciencenews.com/handedness-baby-cradling-25438/ → PDF
Summary: A novel study explores the curious phenomenon of why the majority of people prefer cradling a baby in the crook of their left arm. Research suggests that around 75% of individuals, regardless of their handedness, instinctively use their non-dominant arm to cradle a baby.
Several theories, including the possibility of improved heartbeat or hearing communication, have been proposed. However, the most likely explanation is the convenience of keeping the dominant hand free for multitasking while holding a baby.
Key Facts:
- Research involving 765 participants aged 4-86 found that 75% of people cradle a doll in the crook of their non-dominant arm.
- The prevailing theory suggests that this behavior is linked to our preference for keeping the dominant hand free for other tasks.
- The phenomenon primarily applies to holding babies, as adults tend to use their dominant and stronger arm for carrying heavier children.
Source: NTNU
You probably haven’t ever given it much thought, but almost everyone cradles a baby in one specific arm. The vast majority of people always cradle a baby in the crook of their left arm.
Why is that?
“Researchers have been trying to explain this phenomenon,” says Audrey van der Meer, a professor of neuropsychology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU’s) Department of Psychology.
One theory is that most people cradle a baby to the left so that it can hear their heartbeat better.
It is undoubtedly a phenomenon and several studies confirm it; the vast majority of people prefer to cradle a baby in the crook of their left arm. Artists have also noticed this.
“The Virgin Mary is usually depicted cradling baby Jesus in the crook of her left arm,” says Professor van der Meer.
The professor has previously studied the phenomenon and has now investigated it in more detail in a review article that includes the latest empirical data and meta-analyses in the field. This work was published in Infancy, an academic journal.
Three out of four people cradle babies in their weakest arm
When van der Meer and Åsmund Husby worked together a few years ago, Husby was a psychology student. He wrote an experimental bachelor’s thesis on the phenomenon under van der Meer’s supervision.
During that year, Husby was one of 35 undergraduate students who collected cradling data from family and friends, kindergartens, schools and sports clubs. Everyone had to perform the doll test on 20 people, and at least 5 of these had to be left-handed.
They tested 765 people aged 4-86. These people were asked to cradle a doll in the crook of one arm. The researchers found that 567 of these (75 percent) cradled the doll in the crook of their non-dominant arm. They tested the subjects’ handedness using a continuous scale.
Heartbeat or hearing?
One theory is that most people cradle a baby to the left so that it can hear their heartbeat better. In almost all people, the heart is located on the left. Can the sound of a beating heart soothe a baby or connect it more closely to an adult?
Or maybe it has something to do with our hearing? Humans often perceive information in the form of sound faster with their left ear than their right. The theory is that most people cradle a baby to the left because we then use our left ear and eye to get information about the baby’s emotional state. Signals from the left are sent to the right hemisphere of the brain, which is specialised for interpreting emotions and faces.
However, perhaps the most intuitive explanation is also the most correct.
Associated with the dominant arm
A few years ago, van der Meer published an empirical study together with researcher Åsmund Husby. This theory holds that the phenomenon is closely related to the arm we use the most.
“Interestingly, this has not been regarded as an adequate explanation, even though it intuitively seems logical,” says Professor van der Meer.
New findings have strengthened this theory.
“Nine out of 10 people in the world are right-handed. We still believe that this is the best explanation why the vast majority of people cradle babies in the crook of their left, non-dominant arm,” says van der Meer.
We are usually doing something else while holding a baby, not just posing for a picture or showing it off. So, we basically do what is most convenient.
We want our ‘best arm’ free to do other things
Most of us cradle a baby to the left in order to have our right hand free. Generally speaking, it is most natural for left-handed people to cradle a baby in the crook of their right arm.
“It is perhaps interesting to mention that there are many pictures of William, the Prince of Wales, cradling a baby in the crook of his right arm. He is left-handed,” says Professor van der Meer.
However, right-handed Kate, the Princess of Wales, cradles babies in her left arm, like most of us.
This does not mean that van der Meer uses royal preferences as proof of the phenomenon. Instead, she has taken other theories into account and focused on the empirical data, and her conclusion is clear.
Dr. Hamer discovered the importance of handedness decades before this!
"A very important criterion in Germanische Heilkunde is the handedness of the patient. Because without the determination of left or right-handedness, one cannot work at all in Germanische Heilkunde." - Dr. Ryke Geerd Hamer
→ from chapter no. 11 (14 pages), Legacy of a New Medicine, vol.1
Vermächtnis einer Neuen Medizin, Band 1:
P. 287, Legacy of a New Medicine, vol. 1 (7th ed. 1999), reprint 2022, German:
"It is well known that most people prefer to use their right hand for difficult manual tasks. These people, apparently the majority (approx. 60%), are right-handed. Accordingly, apparently the minority who work more skillfully with their left hand are called left-handers."
P. 293, Legacy of a New Medicine, vol. 1 (7th ed. 1999), reprint 2022, German:
"It therefore indicates that a right-handed woman, who carries her child on the left side [Fig. page 295], memorizes her child's face with the right eye, whose fovea centralis looks to the left. In addition, the right fovea centralis with the right visual cortex seems to be responsible for comparing faces and remembering a face in general.
I am sure that everything is the other way around in left-handed women.
It certainly makes sense that a mother who carries her child on the right, like left-handed women do, memorizes her child's face with her left eye. It is quite conceivable, and has already been proven to some extent, that the various tasks are divided among the two parts of the visual cortex of the two hemispheres."
P. 287, Legacy of a New Medicine, vol. 1 (7th ed. 1999), reprint 2022, German:
"In addition to left-handedness, there also seems to be "left-eyedness" and "left-earedness"."
[In the above article, the foot was forgotten during the "research" (= copying?)].
P. 289, Legacy of a New Medicine, vol. 1 (7th ed. 1999), reprint 2022, German:
"In addition to left-handedness, there is also left-footedness. In most cases, both are combined, i.e. the left-handed person is also left-footed."
[See also left- and right-footedness in animals]
***
Comment:
The day of fake science, from Texas to Norway?
On March 29, 2024, the media in Austria, Germany and Switzerland reported on the same topic. In the English world it looks like that the day of fake science was the 9th of January 2024. Not a single word about Dr. Hamer!
But this is not the first time that this topic has been discussed in public. If you search the internet, you can also find older pseudo-research articles on handedness.
So should van der Meer be proclaimed the discoverer of the significance of handedness in the future?
What would pseudoscience do without Dr. Hamer? Isn't it easy to take a tiny piece of his discovery and then still experiment and mess around with babies (humans, animals and plants) in order to finally hype "their great discovery" they stole from Dr. Hamer?
How do the experiments of van der Meer look like?
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/In-the-experiment-of-van-der-Meer-et-al-29-a-newborn-infant-can-see-its-left-hand_fig1_8540046
In the experiment of van der Meer et al. [29], a newborn infant can see its left hand on the TV monitor while turning its head to the right. The strings on the wrist are attached to small weights pulling them downwards. In this situation, the infant resists the pull of the contralateral arm by the weights, showing that the infant is in control of her arm movements.
Same-content-articles on handedness:
Norwegian SciTech News, January 9, 2024 → PDF
Why do we cradle babies in one specific arm?
The vast majority of us cradle babies in the crook of our left arm. Researchers think they know why.
By Steinar Brandslet
You probably haven’t ever given it much thought, but almost everyone cradles a baby in one specific arm. The vast majority of people always cradle a baby in the crook of their left arm.
Why is that?
“Researchers have been trying to explain this phenomenon,” says Audrey van der Meer, a professor of neuropsychology at NTNU’s Department of Psychology.
The Virgin Mary is usually depicted cradling baby Jesus in the crook of her left arm. Photo: Colourbox
It is undoubtedly a phenomenon and several studies confirm it; the vast majority of people prefer to cradle a baby in the crook of their left arm. Artists have also noticed this.
“The Virgin Mary is usually depicted cradling baby Jesus in the crook of her left arm,” says Professor van der Meer.
The professor has previously studied the phenomenon and has now investigated it in more detail in a review article that includes the latest empirical data and meta-analyses in the field. This work was published in Infancy, an academic journal.
Heartbeat or hearing?
One theory is that most people cradle a baby to the left so that it can hear their heartbeat better. In almost all people, the heart is located on the left. Can the sound of a beating heart soothe a baby or connect it more closely to an adult?
Or maybe it has something to do with our hearing? Humans often perceive information in the form of sound faster with their left ear than their right. The theory is that most people cradle a baby to the left because we then use our left ear and eye to get information about the baby’s emotional state. Signals from the left are sent to the right hemisphere of the brain, which is specialised for interpreting emotions and faces.
However, perhaps the most intuitive explanation is also the most correct.
William cradles babies in the crook of his right arm. He is left-handed. Photo: NTB
Associated with the dominant arm
A few years ago, van der Meer published an empirical study together with doctor Åsmund Husby. This theory holds that the phenomenon is closely related to the arm we use the most.
“Interestingly, this has not been regarded as an adequate explanation, even though it intuitively seems logical,” says Professor van der Meer.
New findings have strengthened this theory.
“9 out of 10 people in the world are right-handed. We still believe that this is the best explanation why the vast majority of people cradle babies in the crook of their left, non-dominant arm,” says van der Meer.
We are usually doing something else while holding a baby, not just posing for a picture or showing it off. So, we basically do what is most convenient.
We want our ‘best arm’ free to do other things
Most of us cradle a baby to the left in order to have our right hand free. Generally speaking, it is most natural for left-handed people to cradle a baby in the crook of their right arm.
Audrey van der Meer with Maja in the crook of her left arm. van der Meer describes herself as “extremely right-handed”. Photo: Elin Iversen,
“It is perhaps interesting to mention that there are many pictures of William, the Prince of Wales, cradling a baby in the crook of his right arm. He is left-handed,” says Professor van der Meer.
However, right-handed Kate, the Princess of Wales, cradles babies in her left arm, like most of us.
This does not mean that van der Meer uses royal preferences as proof of the phenomenon. Instead, she has taken other theories into account and focused on the empirical data, and her conclusion is clear.
“The explanation that we cradle babies in the arm we use the least is also true if other factors are taken into account,” says van der Meer.
However, the phenomenon applies only to babies. As children get bigger and heavier, most people tend to carry them using their dominant and stronger arm.
Reference: Van der Meer ALH. Handedness as a major determinant of lateral bias in human functional cradling. Infancy. 2023 Dec 15. doi: 10.1111/infa.12572. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38100601.
MedicalXpress (Isle of Man), January 9, 2024 → PDF
Why do we cradle babies in one specific arm?
by Steinar Brandslet, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
You probably haven't ever given it much thought, but almost everyone cradles a baby in one specific arm. The vast majority of people always cradle a baby in the crook of their left arm.
Why is that?
"Researchers have been trying to explain this phenomenon," says Audrey van der Meer, a professor of neuropsychology at NTNU's Department of Psychology.
It is undoubtedly a phenomenon and several studies confirm it; the vast majority of people prefer to cradle a baby in the crook of their left arm. Artists have also noticed this.
"The Virgin Mary is usually depicted cradling baby Jesus in the crook of her left arm," says Professor van der Meer.
The professor has previously studied the phenomenon and has now investigated it in more detail in a review article published in Infancy that includes the latest empirical data and meta-analyses in the field.
Heartbeat or hearing?
One theory is that most people cradle a baby to the left so that it can hear their heartbeat better. In almost all people, the heart is located on the left. Can the sound of a beating heart soothe a baby or connect it more closely to an adult?
Or maybe it has something to do with our hearing? Humans often perceive information in the form of sound faster with their left ear than their right. The theory is that most people cradle a baby to the left because we then use our left ear and eye to get information about the baby's emotional state. Signals from the left are sent to the right hemisphere of the brain, which is specialized for interpreting emotions and faces.
However, perhaps the most intuitive explanation is also the most correct.
Associated with the dominant arm
A few years ago, van der Meer published an empirical study together with doctor Åsmund Husby. This theory holds that the phenomenon is closely related to the arm we use the most.
"Interestingly, this has not been regarded as an adequate explanation, even though it intuitively seems logical," says Professor van der Meer.
New findings have strengthened this theory.
"Nine out of 10 people in the world are right-handed. We still believe that this is the best explanation why the vast majority of people cradle babies in the crook of their left, non-dominant arm," says van der Meer.
We are usually doing something else while holding a baby, not just posing for a picture or showing it off. So, we basically do what is most convenient.
We want our 'best arm' free to do other things
Most of us cradle a baby to the left in order to have our right hand free. Generally speaking, it is most natural for left-handed people to cradle a baby in the crook of their right arm.
"It is perhaps interesting to mention that there are many pictures of William, the Prince of Wales, cradling a baby in the crook of his right arm. He is left-handed," says Professor van der Meer.
However, right-handed Kate, the Princess of Wales, cradles babies in her left arm, like most of us.
This does not mean that van der Meer uses royal preferences as proof of the phenomenon. Instead, she has taken other theories into account and focused on the empirical data, and her conclusion is clear.
"The explanation that we cradle babies in the arm we use the least is also true if other factors are taken into account," says van der Meer.
However, the phenomenon applies only to babies. As children get bigger and heavier, most people tend to carry them using their dominant and stronger arm.
Same content, same time...
https://partner.sciencenorway.no/babies-human-body-ntnu/why-do-we-cradle-babies-in-one-specific-arm/2307187
https://news.am/eng/news/801510.html
...
