Disney princesses in animated films have become increasingly left-handed over time, according to a new study by researchers at Montclair State University.<\/p>\n
The study, conducted by faculty and student researchers in the university\u2019s psychology department, examined hand use by characters in 13 official Disney Princess films. Researchers analyzed how often protagonists and villains used their left or right hands while performing tasks on screen. <\/p>\n
The findings, published in the journal Laterality: Asymmetries of Brain, Behavior, and Cognition, show that earlier princess characters \u2014 especially those appearing before about 1992 \u2014 were more strongly right-handed than villains. In more recent films, however, princesses have shifted toward left-handedness, while villains\u2019 handedness has remained largely unchanged.<\/p>\n
Researchers also found that most characters were less strongly handed overall than people in the real world, meaning many would be considered ambidextrous by the study\u2019s standards. Among the most left-handed princesses identified were Belle from Beauty and the Beast and Tiana from The Princess and the Frog.<\/p>\n
Lead researcher and psychology professor Ruth Propper said the shift may reflect broader cultural changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne possibility is that new animators hired after the early 1990s had less bias against left-handedness, as cultural views about lefties had changed,\u201d Propper said.<\/p>\n
Researchers noted that because animated characters are drawn rather than acted, handedness is a deliberate choice by animators and may reveal cultural assumptions about traits such as left-handedness.<\/p>\n
The films span roughly 80 years, giving researchers a way to examine how portrayals of left-handedness in popular culture have evolved over time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Disney princesses in animated films have become increasingly left-handed over time, according to a new study by researchers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-211719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}