Leg-crossing: Incidence and Inheritance

Leg-crossing refers to the preferential tendency for individuals to sit with one leg crossed over the other. In this study about 62% of the population are right leg-crossers, 26% are left leg-crossers, and the remaining 12% report that they have no preference or are indifferent. Familial data suggest that leg-crossing may be under genetic control: although the data do not fit any straightforward recessive or dominant Mendelian model, they are compatible with the type of model invoking fluctuating asymmetry which has been used to explain the inheritance of handedness, hand-clasping and arm-folding.