Hand and foot preference in two cultures

ABSTRACT

Adult participants from India and France were requested to respond to hand and foot preference questionnaires. The items of the questionnaires assessed the choice of the preferred hand and foot on a scale that ranged from extreme left preference through no preference to extreme right preference. Results showed that both groups were more right lateralized for hand actions, whereas foot preferences were less right lateralized and spread across extreme right preference to no preference on the laterality index continuum for men and women. As compared to requiring large numbers for consistency in hand preferences across geographical regions, trends in the lateralization of hand and foot preferences may be consistently obtained with smaller samples. The study reveals the existing difference in lateral preferences between the upper and lower limbs that is sustained regardless of culture or geographical location and indicates the need for further investigation to know why the lower limbs are less lateralized than the upper limbs.

KEYWORDS:

• Hand and foot preference
• lateralization
• culture
• geographical location

Acknowledgements

The idea of conducting this study was initially conceived by Jennifer Gurd, University of Oxford, who is interested in the role of the writing hand in performance tasks. Most of the French/non-Indian subjects were residents of Recollet, Paris, France. I am grateful to the Director of the Centre de Sciences Humaines de New Delhi for his gracious help in contacting French residents in India from his mailing list, as well as colleagues in France, at INSERM and CNRS institutions at Lyon and Paris who willingly helped contact French respondents for participation. Most Indian subjects were volunteers from the Centre for Developing Society, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. The willing participation of both groups of subjects is acknowledged with gratitude. I appreciate the suggestions of the reviewers that helped revise the paper. The study complies with the current Indian and French laws governing research with human subjects and the Helsinki declaration of ethical principles involving research with human subjects (2013).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.