Familial sinistrals avoid exact numbers.

ABSTRACT: We report data from an internet questionnaire of sixty number trivia. Participants were asked for the number of cups in their house, the number of cities they know and 58 other quantities. We compare the answers of familial sinistrals--individuals who are left-handed themselves or have a left-handed close blood-relative--with those of pure familial dextrals--right-handed individuals who reported only having right-handed close blood-relatives. We show that familial sinistrals use rounder numbers than pure familial dextrals in the survey responses. Round numbers in the decimal system are those that are multiples of powers of 10 or of half or a quarter of a power of 10. Roundness is a gradient concept, e.g. 100 is rounder than 50 or 200. We show that very round number like 100 and 1000 are us

SUBMITTER: Sauerland U 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3609743 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature