Self-Contact and Gesturing in Different Stimulus Situations: Relationship with Cerebral Dominance

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Abstract
The relationships among self-contact and gesturing scores of 27 female undergraduate psychology students in 2 neutral and 2 emotional stimulus situations have been examined. To study the role of cerebral dominance, the self-contact and gesturing behaviors produced by the left and right halves of the body have been separately analyzed. In the emotional situations there was enhancement of the self-contact score on the left side of the body, but in one of the two, self-contact scores on the left were associated with high free-gesturing scores on the right side of the body. The self-contact score increases on the right side of the body in the situation of a first social interaction. The role of the self-contact as an anxiety-reducing system is discussed.