Teenage boys are embracing fatherhood: “Scientists have found that boys aged between 11
and 14 … unconsciously change the way they
cradle babies, a sign of their emerging parental
instincts. Nurturing behaviour at such a young age
appears to be a new phenomenon and may be
connected to the positive portrayal of fatherhood by
role models such as David Beckham.

Eighty per cent of people cradle babies on the left,
a preference that has little to do with whether they
are right- or left-handed. Past studies have shown
that the trait is present in girls as young as six. They
have also suggested that it only emerges in men
when they first become fathers.

The new study shows, however, that it is beginning to emerge at an earlier age in adolescent males. The article doesn’t explain this phenomenon of left-sided cradling, which I think has to do with unconsciously preferring to activate the nonverbal (nondominant, “emotional”) hemisphere with the direction of one’s gaze on the baby’s face. The Telegraph