The Role of Ethnic Prejudice in the Modulation of Cradling Lateralization
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The Role of Ethnic Prejudice in the Modulation of Cradling Lateralization Gianluca Malatesta1 · Daniele Marzoli1 · Luca Morelli1 · Monica Pivetti1 · Luca Tommasi1 Accepted: 7 October 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract The left-cradling bias is the tendency to cradle an infant on the left side, regardless of the individuals’ handedness, culture or ethnicity. Many studies revealed associations between socio-emotional variables and the left-side bias, suggesting that this asymmetry might be considered as a proxy of the emotional attunement between the cradling and the cradled individuals. In this study we examined whether adult females with high levels of prejudice toward a specific ethnic group would show reduced left-cradling preferences when required to cradle an infant-like doll with ethnical features of the prejudiced group. We manipulated the ethnicity of the cradled individual by asking 336 Caucasian women to cradle a White or a Black doll and then assessed their prejudice levels toward African individuals. Significant correlations were shown only in the Black doll group indicating that the more the prejudice toward Africans, the more the cradling-side preferences shifted toward the right. Furthermore, participants exhibiting low levels—but not those exhibiting high levels—of ethnic prejudice showed a significant left-cradling bias. These findings show that ethnic prejudice toward the specific ethnic group of the cradled individual can interfere with the left preference in the cradling woman. The present study corroborates our suggestion that the left-cradling bias might be considered as a natural index of a positive socio-communicative relationship between the cradling and cradled individuals. On the contrary, the rightcradling bias might be considered as a cue of the presence of affective dysfunctions in the relationship. Keywords Left-cradling bias · Hemispheric specialization · Blatant racism · Subtle racism · Social cognition · Mother-infant relationship
* Gianluca Malatesta [email protected] 1
Department of Psychological, Health and Territorial Sciences, University “G. d’Annunzio” of Chieti-Pescara, Blocco A Psicologia, Via dei Vestini, 31, 66100 Chieti, Italy
13
Vol.:(0123456789)
Journal of Nonverbal Behavior
Introduction With the term “left-cradling bias” we refer to the lateral preference in holding/cradling—or even imagining holding/cradling—an infant with his/her head to the left of the cradling individual’s body midline for non-feeding purposes. Cradling behavior is usually considered as a subset of behaviors in which an infant is held close to the body, and it more precisely refers to a holding position in which the infant is kept in a supine posture between one’s arm and trunk. This is reflected in the studies that have appeared on the topic since the first scientific publication by Lee Salk in 1960, although in many of them a more vertical posture of the infant (i.e., against one’s shoulder, with the arm flexed to protect and secure her/him) was also included in such an
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