Nakamichi M, Takeda S
Department of Ethology, Faculty of Human Sciences, Osaka University, Japan.
Percept Mot Skills. 1995 Apr;80(2):687-90. doi: 10.2466/pms.1995.80.2.687.
The tendency of women to prefer to hold infants on the left side of the body has been confirmed by several methods: surveys of works of art and of photographs, field observations, and experimental methods. The present study developed a new method to examine the patterns of child-holding, that is, the child-holding thought experiment. 2287 female and 1268 male undergraduates were instructed to imaging nursing or feeding a baby. Then, they were asked on which side of the body they imagined holding the baby. Seventy-two percent of the women and 65% of the men reported imaging holding a baby on the left side of the body. This preference for the left side was noted, irrespective of handedness. These results indicate that both women and men who have never fed their own babies prefer to imaging holding a baby on the left side of the body. Moreover, that the magnitude of this preference was significantly stronger for the women adds to the evidence of a gender-dependent expression for lateral preferences in holding a baby.
女性倾向于将婴儿抱在身体左侧，这一现象已通过多种方法得到证实：对艺术作品和照片的调查、实地观察以及实验方法。本研究开发了一种新方法来研究抱孩子的模式，即抱孩子思维实验。研究人员要求2287名女大学生和1268名男大学生想象照顾或喂养婴儿的情景。然后，询问他们想象中会将婴儿抱在身体的哪一侧。72%的女性和65%的男性报告称想象将婴儿抱在身体左侧。无论用手习惯如何，都存在对左侧的这种偏好。这些结果表明，从未亲自喂养过自己孩子的女性和男性都倾向于想象将婴儿抱在身体左侧。此外，女性这种偏好的程度明显更强，这进一步证明了在抱孩子时存在与性别相关的侧向偏好表达。
