14 ms·

The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)

• niccl 2y ago
  Curiously, almost every lighting control desk I've ever seen or heard about is left handed: the faders for controlling the lights are almost invariably on the left.
  • gitaarik 2y ago
    So what makes that left-handed? Is there nothing on the right side?
    • niccl 2y ago
      It's typically buttons and programming stuff on the right. So you could argue that it's right handed because the keyboard stuff is on the right. But when you're running a show, it's the faders you need, and need to manipulate accurately and carefully, not the programming stuff. If they were for people who were most used to manipulating things accurately with their right hand, then I think the faders would be on the right. So I guess it's a long winded way of saying that it seems as though most lighting operators are fundamentally left-handed, which is quite .. curious? I don't know what the right word is
• mannykannot 2y ago
  "Similarly, you can test your ears: which ear would you naturally use on the telephone?" Well, I'm right-handed, so...
  • woodrowbarlow 2y ago
    i'm left handed but i tend to hold phones to my right ear.
    • mannykannot 2y ago
      Interesting - I would guess you usually hold it with your right hand? Is your hearing noticeably asymmetric? Come to think of it, if I'm doing something else at the same time - such as, of course, writing - I will hold the phone to my left ear with my left hand. Whichever way, in my case, it has little to do with my hearing.
      • woodrowbarlow 2y ago
        yes, with my right hand. i don't think my hearing is asymmetric, i think i just appreciate having my dominant hand free while i talk. a doctor once observed i tend to do "fine motor skills" (e.g. handwriting) left-handed but "large motor skills" (e.g. swinging a baseball bat) right-handed.
    • finger 2y ago
      I’m right handed but I often use my left hand and left ear, or sometimes even my right hand and left ear
      • oneeyedpigeon 2y ago
        Right hand/left ear feels incredibly awkward to me — almost as bad as trying to get something from your left pocket with your right hand.
    • moomin 2y ago
      The thing is, we may have an ear preference but switching doesn't seem to be that big a deal. UK cops are taught to pick up the phone with their non-dominant hand so that their dominant hand can take notes. I'm guessing _most_ people use their dominant hand to hold their phone unless they're accustomed to taking notes.
  • misja111 2y ago
    I'm right-handed and hold my phone to my left ear. Actually I tried holding it to my right ear a couple of times and it felt so unnatural that I had trouble focusing on the conversation. I have no idea why this is.
  • noworld 2y ago
    This is the one thing that seemed off. I don't have any preference for one ear over the other. If I hold the phone up to an ear, it would depend on what I wanted to do with the other hand. If I'm writing, I would hold the phone in my left hand to my left ear. If I'm typing one-handed, I would type with my left hand while i hold the phone in my right hand to my right ear. If I went to listen up against a door, it would depend on other things which ear I used, like which ear might already be closer to the door.
  • oneeyedpigeon 2y ago
    Smart phones confuse this, I think. I bet most right-handers hold their phone in their left hand so they can touch the screen with their right. So it then naturally follows that, to hold the phone to the ear, we'd keep it in that left hand. Of course, sometimes I also use it one-handed, in which case it's in my right hand — on reflection, I think most phone use is probably ambidextrous.
    • tivert 2y ago
      > Smart phones confuse this, I think. I bet most right-handers hold their phone in their left hand so they can touch the screen with their right. Phones used to be small enough that you could use them one-handed, and I still tend try. The only grips I use are one-handed or equally split between two hands, like holding a vertical video game controller. I never use a phone in the way you describe, except maybe to rarely to hit a single button that's out of reach. I tend to rock it in my hand to reach with my thumb. Have I ever told you I think all phones are slightly too big now?
    • delecti 2y ago
      There might be an age component to that. Anecdotally, holding the phone with the opposite hand from the one touching the screen feels correlated with age to me. I'm right-handed, and primarily use my phone one-handed with my right hand.
      • oneeyedpigeon 2y ago
        It could be an age thing, but I feel like it's more a size & situational thing. I would definitely use a smaller phone one-handed. And when I'm out and about, I do too.
    • bee_rider 2y ago
      I think talking on the phone is sufficiently different from using it as a tiny computer, we just hold it completely differently in that scenario, so I bet we tend to go to the default state (right hand). I’m trying to think back, but I can’t ever remember using a phone left-handed.
  • roelschroeven 2y ago
    I hold the phone to my left ear, but that has nothing to do with ear preference. It's because it feels more natural holding it up with my left hand (which conveniently leaves my dominant right hand free for doing other things).
• twoodfin 2y ago
  The symmetry or lack thereof between mirrored “left-handed/right-handed” phenomena is a deep problem up and down the physical world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chirality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chirality
  • au8er 2y ago
    Often times chirality is not just a fun quirk. For certain drugs, the left handed and the right handed versions can have completely different effects on the human body: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiral_drugs#Drug_toxicity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiral_drugs#Drug_toxicity. To avoid making the wrong type of drug, a specific way of producing the chemical molecule has to be derived: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enantioselective_synthesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enantioselective_synthesis.
    • howard941 2y ago
      And sometimes it doesn't change much at all except for the patent and withdrawal as with citalopram/escitalopram (generic Celexa/Lexapro).
• rrgok 2y ago
  I was originally left-handed, but my father made me switch to my right hand because he believed being left-handed was the "hand of the devil." Now, I’ve become ambidextrous, and I instinctively choose which hand to use depending on the activity. Sometimes, when I'm trying something for the first time and I'm unsure which hand is best, I get stuck and have to go through some trial and error before it feels natural.
  • _heimdall 2y ago
    Similar story for my wife, though it was an underfunded Catholic school with only right-handed sports equipment that pushed her to be ambidextrous. She's split pretty much 50:50 on which hand she does something with, though I've noticed she does actually seem to pick her left hand when its a totally new skill she hasn't done before. My right hand is all but useless, I'm very left handed. Golf is the only exception, but I'm terrible in either direction and right handed clubs are easier to rent or buy.
  • grecy 2y ago
    I'm right handed for everything in life, except chopping wood. It's the one thing my leftie Dad taught me that stuck. I had no idea until recently when someone said "Hey, you're doing that left handed"
    • oneeyedpigeon 2y ago
      I'm right handed for everything except snooker/pool. I have no idea why, it just felt more natural to put my right hand down as the rest and hold the cue with my left.
  • Clubber 2y ago
    My dad was left handed, I'm left handed and my daughter is left handed. It certainly helps in troubleshooting things, because when anyone else uses a pair of scissors, they work. When a left handed person uses a pair of scissors, they don't work, so you have to figure out how scissors work, or just use your right hand. Imagine doing that with everything. I did pick up some ambidextrous habits. My daughter and I mouse with my right hand but my dad left handed a mouse.
• throwaway290 2y ago
  Could it just be that for centuries leading up to now left handedness was considered "bad" to "very bad" (still many languages have the connotation) and before that we have no real data about how common it was?
  • Miraltar 2y ago
    From the article, "when you compare the number of left- and right-handed Neanderthals, this same ratio of 1 in 10 left-handers that we see today pops out"
    • ttyprintk 2y ago
      I feel we’re giving a lot of credit to Neanderthals by assuming they had no superstitions around something as basic as handedness.
      • Miraltar 2y ago
        They might have and even without speaking of superstitions, we learn a lot by imitation, so that could be a factor too. But having the same ratio is a weird coincidence and it's also said in the article that babies already have their preference in the womb.
    • readthenotes1 2y ago
      More than teeth scratches point to this https://www.sapiens.org/biology/handedness-neanderthals/ https://www.sapiens.org/biology/handedness-neanderthals/
    • throwaway290 2y ago
      Assuming that research was not biased... Maybe through them is how we became righties?
• deafpolygon 2y ago
  I'm predominantly left-handed, except on the computer. Where I use the mouse with my right hand and play FPS games using the mouse on my right hand, as well. Not sure how common this is.
  • acureau 2y ago
    Yep me too, I'm sure there are many things we've subconsciously adapted to using with our right hands. Actually I've never bought a product purpose made for left-handed people.
  • goosedragons 2y ago
    I'm guessing your school or home computer had it on the right growing up? I got used to using it on the right because I didn't want to move the mouse to the left in the school computer labs as it was always a clutter of cords. At home half my family was left handed and mainly the PC was used by the lefties so I got used to playing FPSs with the left hand. I kinda hate playing on PC now because WASD is trash left hand mousing and it's A HUGE PITA to remap every single key to make sense on the the other side of the keyboard, some games don't even let you map keys like ';' because IDK, fuck me I guess. I do think I'm more accurate with my left too.
    • deafpolygon 2y ago
      I didn't really use a computer until my 1st year in college. And I didn't own a computer until I was 19, so I didn't learn to play FPS until I was in my 20's. Before using WASD, I used WER and Space key for movement. Q=Jump, W=Forward, E=Strafe Left, R=Strafe Right. This allowed me to easily reach the number row and remap T=Chat 123456ASDFG for switching weapons and game controls. I switched to WASD with World of Warcraft, and use that for everything now mostly out of laziness and inertia (tired of rebinding everything, as you do). I tried to use the mouse w/ my left hand and couldn't. Too much of the controls are right-hand centric. Keyboard shortcuts for browsing are all on the left side, etc. It does feel nicer to have it on the left hand sometimes.
• theoreticalmal 2y ago
  “ when you look at rare conditions, like Down Syndrome, epilepsy and cerebral palsy, the ratio of left- to right-handers is more like 50:50 rather than 1:10.” Is this a typo? Or are left-handed people way, way more likely to suffer from these rare diseases?
  • pclmulqdq 2y ago
    There are a lot of myths and anecdata about lefties having shorter life expectancy. That might indicate health consequences in some way.
    • eftpotrm 2y ago
      IIRC the major factor in that was found to be that left-handed people within the age ranges where significant numbers of them are dying of natural causes had usually been brought up to suppress left-handedness, so are reporting as right-handed and skewing the data.
      • robertlagrant 2y ago
        But why would that mean that the people who didn't suppress died so much younger?
        • verteu 2y ago
          > [A]ccording Chris McManus, the researchers made a "very subtle error"... > Halpern and Coren took a list of the people who had recently died and contacted their families, asking whether or not their relative had been right- or left-handed. > Looking at 2,000 cases, they saw that the average age at death of the left-handers was about nine years younger than of the right-handers. > On that basis, they concluded that left-handers died earlier. > At first glance, that seems persuasive. What did the researchers do wrong? > "Their mistake was that they only looked at the dead," Chris McManus explains. > The point is that left-handers are more common now than they used to be, so - at least at the time the research was published - left-handers were on average younger than right-handers. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-23988352 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-23988352
• grecy 2y ago
  Here's a fun test - we're all in socks on a slippery wood floor. I'll give you $500 if you can run and slide further than I can. Close you eyes and really imagine it (or do it right now). Really feel yourself sliding along, that tingly feeling of almost losing control, etc. etc. Going a little further with each try. REALLY run and slide AS FAR AS YOU CAN. Which foot did you have in front? I'm very much right handed and footed in life, but in this test I can really only do it right foot forward (called 'goofy' in snowboarding) - left foot forward feels super sketchy to me even after years of practice, and I can't slide nearly as far. The vast majority of people (left and right handed) are left foot forward. (This is the best way to determine which foot a beginner should put forward on their snowboard or surfboard. Do the test without telling them you are doing the test. If they can equally do both, then it doesn't matter)
  • scriptdevil 2y ago
    Right handed with right-foot-forward as well.
    • adrian_b 2y ago
      Me too.
  • oneeyedpigeon 2y ago
    Right handed, but I pictured my left foot forward. I guess because I'd expect the power to come from my right foot (I'm right footed).
    • Miraltar 2y ago
      Same but I disagree on the explanation. When in comes to jumps I usually use my left foot but here it's more about balance than power I think and having played handball for a long time, I feel more stable with left foot in front
  • MontgomeryPi2 2y ago
    An easier snowboard test is to tell someone to turn around and tell them you are going to give them a push. Give them a shove to the upper back and see which foot they put forward first to brace.
• leejo 2y ago
  I'm of the generation that were forced to write with the right even though I was a natural lefty. I also broke my left arm when I was 2, which may have made things even more messed up. These days I: * Write with my right, my left is not quite as quick/tidy as my right * Swing/grip with my left (cricket / golf / etc) * Use my phone with my left * Mouse with my right * Cut (scissors) with my right (but we don't have any lefty scissors so...) * Drink a pint with my left * Play guitar with my right (but i learnt with a RH acoustic, so...)
  • pclmulqdq 2y ago
    I'm not sure why people have started to make reversed musical instruments. I saw a video with a reversed piano, calling it "left-handed." I am a left-handed person who plays the piano and I had always thought the keyboard was laid out like an ascending scale on paper rather than having something to do with handedness - low notes on the left and high notes on the right. The motions involved in playing music are so weird that I don't think it matters that much. Even if it does, there might be techniques that you find easier to master with one handedness or the other. I will also add that I have been complemented on the facility of my left hand when playing, but when I hear the people who say that play scales, it's very clear that they don't practice technique with both hands equally.
    • Miraltar 2y ago
      I don't think it matters too much on a piano but on a guitar it does a lot because your hands do very different things.
      • pclmulqdq 2y ago
        Wouldn't you want the more dextrous hand to be the one choosing which notes to play? My sister plays string instruments, and she has commented many times that I am lucky for being left handed because lefties have a better time with complex fingering. I suppose that it's easier to start out right handed on guitar, though, when the right hand is more active than the left hand.
• gsej 2y ago
  I lost a little faith when I saw the article referred to Neanderthals as "our ancestors"... Intrigued by the throwaway comment that we know handedness is genetically determined. Is that true? I was under the impression it was a developmental issue (identical twins with opposite orientation being one piece of evidence here).
  • tokai 2y ago
    I lose a little faith when I see people nitpick while being wrong.
    • oneeyedpigeon 2y ago
      "Neanderthals were our ancestors" is more wrong than it's right.
      • tejtm 2y ago
        Only need to get 'a little bit pregnant` though.
  • ttyprintk 2y ago
    I remember an article in Nature that’s better than this one. Stats: Men are 13%, women 9% Being a twin is very high, like 17% Scandinavia is 13%, China <3%
  • inglor_cz 2y ago
    Basically all people with ancestry outside Subsaharan Africa have nontrivial Neanderthal admixture. Even many Africans do, although it is a fresh (post-1600 or so) contribution from other parts of the world. So they were "our" ancestors, just not the dominant ones. That statement would only be categorically wrong if made about pureblood Khoisan etc.
• lesuorac 2y ago
  I wonder if this is more a p-hacking phenomenon than a real advantage. Much like how when you test every jelly bean [1] you'll find one with an unexpected outcome. If you evaluate every "duplicative" pairing in the human body, it seems like you should find at least a pair where one is more effective than the other. [1]: https://xkcd.com/882/ https://xkcd.com/882/
• cynicalpeace 2y ago
  "Left" probably comes from the proto-indo-european root "laiwos", which means to bend or curve. "Right" probably comes from "hregtos", which means straight and correct. Makes sense, since most people don't write well with their left hand. English retains this connotation strongly since "right" also literally means "correct" or "straight" (both of which come from the same root too) Then you add in the political connotations "right wing" and "Human Rights" and the subject becomes endlessly fascinating.
  • bee_rider 2y ago
    Right wing is just the side of the room some guys sat on during some arguments in the French Revolution, or something like that, right? I always assumed “rights” as in human rights were derived from writ, as in a type of written document issued by a court (which could be used to clarify somebody’s rights). I guess write and right could be related though.
    • cynicalpeace 2y ago
      No, I don't believe "rights" come from "writ". It comes from "right" meaning correct and straight, since "right" also had a legal connotation (think "rule" which also comes from the same PIE root). You see this clearly in other IE languages like Spanish where "a la derecha" means to the right, "derecho" means straight (which can be confusing), and "derechos" means "rights" in the legal sense.
• n4r9 2y ago
  The percentage of left-handedness correlates strongly with how pacifist vs warlike the society is. According to this 2005 study it varies from 3% up to 27%: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1634940/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1634940/
  • inglor_cz 2y ago
    Wow, this really blew my mind.
  • aklemm 2y ago
    Imagine a society of red-headed left-handers.
    • altruios 2y ago
      Study does not exactly imply that left-handers are the cause of the violence, just corelated to societies' total violence. Perhaps we are exceptionally annoying to right-handers. This 'um, actually...' post would then be a salient self-referential sample of what I mean.
      • aklemm 2y ago
        "Well that guy is obviously left-handed"
  • istultus 2y ago
    This has to take the cake for "most spurious correlation." The most coherent reading is "places which report more homocide data are correlated with reporting more left-handedness"
    • n4r9 2y ago
      I believe the accepted explanation is that southpaws have more of an advantage the rarer they are. So there's a balancing effect in violent societies.
  • 2y ago
• xanderlewis 2y ago
  I’m right-handed for everything except eating crisps. But that’s just because I don’t want to get grease on my phone.
• zdragnar 2y ago
  I write left handed, and use a fork in my left and knife in my right. Left hand for holding a phone or a drinking glass, and for shaving. I'm right eye dominant, though, so I throw, swing, shoot, use scissors, play instruments and use a mouse right handed. I'm not at all ambidextrous, I can't do most of those things with my other hand.
  • deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  • tejohnso 2y ago
    I guess it's possible to be non dominant in either hand. I write left and eat with a fork or spoon in the left, but I bat, bowl, or throw with the right. In the boxing gym, I'm not a southpaw. But I play lefty guitar.
    • rabid_turtle 2y ago
      Same here. Left hand is precision, right hand is power.
      • aorloff 2y ago
        ok me too. There are a lot of us here Curious - was your mom a lefty ? (mine was)
  • aklemm 2y ago
    This is me exactly. I always say "strength in my right, finesse in my left" even though it's not exactly accurate; I couldn't hit the ground with a football from my left hand.
  • InMice 2y ago
    Im also like that..randomly mixed. I write left, but use scissors always with right. Throw and kick are right, but swing and bat is left. Computer mouse left. Taking a phone call is always left hand on left ear...but holding phone to use or text is always right hand. Self check out? Back to left hand for that mostly Lol. If a backpack is on one shoulder it feels weird if it's not on my left shoulder despite being more right "armed".
• jmdots 2y ago
  Left handed. Right eyed. Right eared. Mouse with right because I had to in 1992. Overall, I’m unhappy with my brain, so my vote is on it being a bad thing. It’s very discouraging in a left to right language society to smear your own handwriting constantly. Also, guitar tabs and all kinds of other things are built for the majority. I’d much rather be right handed.
• deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
• rjsw 2y ago
  It depends on the context, I have been in meetings where everyone except for one PHB was left handed. The ratio was probably 50:50 across the company as a whole.
  • nickff 2y ago
    What is a PHB? I searched online, and found that it could mean bachelor's in philosophy (PhB) or polyhydroxybutyrate (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyhydroxybutyrate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyhydroxybutyrate), but neither makes much sense in this context.
    • mikestew 2y ago
      This is not a criticism, but I’m amused that someone with an HN account as old as yours is just now finding out what “PHB” means.
      • nickff 2y ago
        I actually own the 20th anniversary Dilbert collection, but it didn't come to mind. I probably have acronym-blindness from encountering too many.
      • gitaarik 2y ago
        Don't we mean PHD? PHB is unfamiliar to me too
      • astrange 2y ago
        My memory of PHB (from Dilbert) was overwritten with PFY (from BOFH).
      • cshimmin 2y ago
        I have an old hn account. Dilbert was something I was dimly aware of my dad reading in newspapers when I was a kid in the 90s. Never heard the term PHB before today.
    • ip26 2y ago
• paulpauper 2y ago
  About 10% of the world's population is left-handed, while 90% are right-handed. The remaining 1% of people are ambidextrous, meaning they have no dominant hand. 10% does not seem that rare.
• scrubs 2y ago
  It's worth pointing out cigar smokers that are left handers exceed 1:10 and I've read elsewhere smoking is a preferred Neanderthal trait.
• serf 2y ago
  was right handed for 20 years, got paralyzed, became left handed. of course relative to the physical therapy/rehab that was easy -- but it still surprised me how quickly it became fluent. it kind of made me think that it's more just a coin-flip as to which you are, and the conveniences available during critical learning moments early in life. if my favorite rattle or play-thing was placed on my left versus my right in the crib predominantly would things have turned out different? makes me think that might be the case a bit.
  • gitaarik 2y ago
    But that wouldn't explain why most people are right handed, would it?
    • yencabulator 2y ago
      Just a thought: rightie parents naturally put the crib along a wall oriented so they can interact with the baby with their right hand, which means most of the world is to the right from the baby's perspective.
• swamp40 2y ago
  No answer in the article. Oh well.
• crazygringo 2y ago
  I really wonder if it has something to do with humans using tools, and it just works better for a tribe if most people use tools with the same "handedness", because they can share more and be more efficient. Like if hunters could swap bows when one broke, their tribe would get more meat?
  • giraffe_lady 2y ago
    No, clear "handedness" is seen in a lot of animals not just primates. You can see it easily in pets: cats tend to reach with a certain paw, dogs tend to dig with a certain rear leg over the other. Horses lead with a preferred side when possible. Similar things are observed in non-domesticated animals like wild birds and whales also. Lateral preference isn't a universal animal behavior but it's very common.
• solfox 2y ago
  If you're a Waldorf fan, you might be interested to learn that Steiner was against left-handedness, thinking it caused by a spiritual deficiency. Modern Waldorf schools actively "correct" left handedness because of this. [1] [1]: https://waldorfcritics.org/faq/ https://waldorfcritics.org/faq/
  • jvm___ 2y ago
    The root meaning of the word sinister is left-handed
  • voidUpdate 2y ago
    Mine didn't...
• pram 2y ago
  Just throwing in my left handed anecdote here: the bottom of my hand was always covered in pencil graphite when I was in school because your hand drags over what you've been writing from left -> right. Also ring binders were a pain in the ass (your hand is blocked at the left margin lol)
  • emmelaich 2y ago
    I've often wonder why this isn't a big problem for right-to-left languages.
    • resoluteteeth 2y ago
      It's only a problem if you rest your hand on the paper while writing rather than holding your hand above the paper and writing with your whole arm which i suspect used to be the norm in most places. Also in languages written vertically and then right to left it would be less of an issue because the ink would have more time to dry before you get to the left of a given character.
  • talldatethrow 2y ago
    I'm also left handed and this was never an issue for me. You hold the pencil out from your fingers thus your hand is sitting slightly below the line that is being written, traveling over unused paper constantly. Only people that do that weird claw thing have that problem.
    • Teever 2y ago
      The trade off is that you have less visibility of the letters you just wrote, which can be annoying sometimes and lead to spelling mistakes.
      • JodieBenitez 2y ago
        Yes, that's why we did the "weird claw thing" aforementioned. Anyway, no more handwriting these days...
• HarHarVeryFunny 2y ago
  Well, our brains are asymmetrical in terms of function, and our bodies are asymmetrical internally too (heart, liver). So, which came first? Are we mostly right handed because of left brain functionality (each side of brain controls opposite side of body), or is handedness innate in some other way and perhaps influences brain sidedness? Or, are these two things unrelated?
  • matteocantiello 2y ago
    The findings in chimpanzees indicate that both humans and chimpanzees exhibit population-level asymmetries in handedness, though humans show more pronounced lateralization (e.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3676728 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3676728). I think this suggests that anatomical asymmetries in the brain likely preceded handedness and contributed to the evolution of hemispheric specialization. As brain size increased and corpus callosum connectivity decreased, specialized functions in each hemisphere became more pronounced. Thus, handedness and brain asymmetry likely co-evolved, influenced by both genetic and environmental (including socio-cultural) factors, rather than one directly causing the other.
  • emporas 2y ago
    With so many poisonous plants reptiles and insects, it is better to use the hand further away from the heart. In case it gets stinged or bitten or pricked the poison will affect a slightly more remote area.
    • lolc 2y ago
      Thank you, that is the best just-so story I've read in a long while! If the subtext is not apparent: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-so_story https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-so_story
      • emporas 2y ago
        Even if the distance of the right hand to the heart (on the left) is just 10% more than if it was located on the right side, that small difference for 50 million years might be significant enough for a right hand trait to be established in the population. Any scientist who wants to verify this hypothesis (or the-just-so story) is welcomed, and this explanation might be upgraded to totally valid scientific theory or serve as a warning to the general public about unproven scientific falsehoods.
• egberts1 2y ago
  There is no mystery on why left handers are rare. With the left hand shielding the liver side, the right hand becomes the weapon bearer. With the left side protexted, the deaths by liver puncture is greatly diminished. This is called survivorship bias. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias
  • rhcom2 2y ago
    A fun history fact: > The stair spirals counter-clockwise and is known as the "left-handed staircase" as it would put right-handed attackers at a disadvantage. The story is that in 1513 when the left-handed Sir Andrew Kerr came back from the Battle of Flodden, he had his men learn to use their left hands when swordfighting. In Scotland, left-handedness has been dubbed "Corrie-fisted" or "Kerr-handed". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferniehirst_Castle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferniehirst_Castle
  • wrycoder 2y ago
    Nice, except the liver is on the right hand side.
    • globnomulous 2y ago
      I live for these satisfying moments of simple, pithy, indisputable proof/disproof.
      • EnigmaFlare 2y ago
        [dead]
    • acover 2y ago
      You're right! https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/liver-anatomy-and-functions#:~:text=The%20liver%20is%20located%20in,that%20weighs%20about%203%20pounds https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseas....
    • gitaarik 2y ago
• michaelteter 2y ago
  I'm sure like many left-handers here, my right hand is nearly as dexterous as my left. Writing is the only thing I can do with left which I cannot do with right; other tasks are either equally natural or just a little awkward but still effective. But some right-handers who have been forced to (by breaking an arm for example) can learn to write with the left hand. I have to assume they could learn to be more ambidexterous if they were motivated. It almost seems more like a cultural (see/copy) behavior to be right-only handed. Left-handers may have an inclination to do some things with the left hand, but we also grow up in a world of right-hand designed products. As for the "handedness" of feet, eyes, ears, etc., I also suspect that has more to do with our patterns of hand use. I'm right-eared probably because I hold my phone in my right hand so my left hand is free to do fine motor tasks. It's not because I prefer to listen with my right ear. I'm also somewhat left-footed because I tend to carry heavy things in my right arm; so my right leg is busy supporting the extra weight as I step up on a step with the left. I doubt any/many of these studies have been large or thorough enough to really learn anything meaningful about handedness and its related effects.
  • deleted 2y ago
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  • aorloff 2y ago
    I am a lefty for small motor skills (like writing and eating) and a righty for large motor skills (like throwing a ball or swinging a bat)
    • onjectic 2y ago
      Seems like the most useful would be the other way around.
      • Cousin-ITT 2y ago
        batting left handed often gives an advantage over right handed pitchers, as well as putting the left-handed batters a step or two closer to first base
  • 2y ago
• nicodjimenez 2y ago
  Not in baseball. I recently watched some Mets games and it’s just incredible how commonly you use a left handed hitter go up against a left handed pitcher.
• rolph 2y ago
  i was hit on the hand with a ruler and the crayon pulled from my left hand and forced into my right. i wonder if that has happened to others and if so does it contribute to skew of frequency.
  • roeles 2y ago
    My grandmother was hit with a ruler on the left hand. She learnt to write with both hands as a result.
  • zh3 2y ago
    Very standard in Ireland where I went to primary school, I got hit with a ruler a lot.
• rolph 2y ago
  found this supplemental: Bias against left-handed people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bias_against_left-handed_people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bias_against_left-handed_peopl...
• Lammy 2y ago
  It's even embedded in our language — “Ambidextrous” means “both right” lol And lots of people use “sinister” as a stand-in for “malicious” or “evil” https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/39092/how-did-sinister-the-latin-word-for-left-handed-get-its-current-meaning https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/39092/how-did-si... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinistral_and_dextral https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinistral_and_dextral https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexter_and_sinister https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexter_and_sinister
• __MatrixMan__ 2y ago
  Wouldn't a 50/50 split be just as unlikely as any other? You've already broken symmetry by asking by a preference of one over the other, so it would be pretty spooky if something came along and restored that symmetry. Unless it was truly random, and what in biology is truly random?
• nottorp 2y ago
  Curious: any people around who trained themselves to do fine control activities (writing but not only) with their non dominant hand? How did that go? Being forced in school or because of an accident doesn't count; curious if anyone did it on their own, voluntarily.
  • Dalewyn 2y ago
    I mean, I'm here typing with my left hand.
  • 01acheru 2y ago
    My father did it when he was a child so he could "be like his brother" who was 1.5 year older and the favorite son of his mother (this brother was the first male son after a female who was the first overall). He is now right handed for almost everything but really skilled with the left hand, I remember that once he broke the right wrist and could easily write with the left hand for example.
  • desert_rue 2y ago
    I have an older sibling who is left Andes and challenged me to use my left hand since they could use both. So I’m at about a typical left handed person’s level of dexterity with their right hand. I switch off on tasks like shoveling or sweeping. I can write badly. Etc. I wouldn’t say it is useful, really.
  • algolindo 2y ago
    Rafael Nadal, one of the best tennis players in history, supposedly is a natural righty who was taught to play lefty.
• obfuscator 2y ago
  So many left-handers here that feel disadvantaged in our right-handed society. If you ever want to do one thing where you feel you left-handedness gives you an advantage, pick up Kendo (the Japanese swordfighting). You have to wield your sword like everybody else but the aiming is done with your left while the right just provides the power for the stroke (the katana is a two-handed weapon). Since you are not supposed to fully power your slashes anyway, I felt being left-handed is a slight advantage in Kendo.
  • kendoka111 2y ago
    This is completely wrong btw. No power ever comes from the right. That is why there are warm up exercises using katate (single left hand warm up) to loosen and focus on your left. It makes no sense for power to come from the right as fumikomi (the leaping motion at the time of the strike) is done using your left hips and legs.
    • withinboredom 2y ago
      ~~Uh, did you read the comment?~~ Ah, I think that is a typo, otherwise the whole comment doesn't make sense and my brain corrected it.
  • vanderZwan 2y ago
    Doesn't left-handedness give an advantage in most sword fighting and fencing sports? As demonstrated by the percentage of left-handed players at the top level is higher than the population average? I heard the same thing is true with boxing, presumably other martial arts, and tennis (and who knows what else). The explanation I've heard is that in any sport, on average one would train more with right-handed opponents. So when facing a left-handed opponent you are significantly less experienced, which results in left-handedness having a slight advantage. That is a bit different than what you describe (since you're not allowed to use your katana in a left-handed fashion), but still.
    • chupasaurus 2y ago
      Can talk about foil fencing perspective: lefties get a competitive advantage only in junior years because training exercises are done against same-handed opponent (be it a coach or dummy) while they spar and compete mostly against righties. It diminishes with time.
• woolion 2y ago
  Last week I asked my Chinese painting prof if we could try calligraphy, and he said "no". "Left-handedness is too much of a problem, movements would be too awkward with the brush. - So what happens with the small percentage of natural left-handed in China? - It's beat out of them. I still use chopsticks with my left hand, because it's tolerated, but writing is just unacceptable." So yeah, it's a complete mystery. Recently there were some interesting papers looking at laterality from a more general point of view (which is a bit touched on with the simian examples in the article). Given that there are strong genetic factors involved, it's not surprising that with tools becoming more prevalent in complex societies there would be a human co-evolution.
• amadeuspagel 2y ago
  Is it really a mystery? The human body isn't symmetrical on the inside. We evolved to look symmetrical on the outside, because that looks attractive.
• ivolimmen 2y ago
  I am a 100% left and I can do most (except writing) with my right. Well I can do writing if I do it slow but it looks horrible. I have a group of friends that I know from 25 years ago and the weird thing is: all my friends are left as well. On of my friends also married a left handed partner, so the lefties are in the majority in my friends group.
• squarefoot 2y ago
  Left handed here, and having been in school from the early 70s, I had to suffer their stupid shortsighted attempts to "correct" what they thought was a voluntary mistake when writing or eating. I never stopped being left handed of course, but for some things I'm right handed, although in most of them I can also use the left almost comfortably. Here's small list: fork: left pen: left tools (screwdriver, wrench, etc): right solder iron: right fighting stance: mostly traditional, but sometimes southpaw by instinct Also applies to feet. playing football (soccer), kicking: mostly right Curiously, I developed as right handed (and foot) on the things nobody ever tried to push me to correct.
  • wildzzz 2y ago
    For me, eating and writing are the few things I'm only good at doing left handed. Knives are left handed as well. Scissor use is always right handed since most scissors are right handed, using left hand scissors is hard for me. Sports are always right handed for me. Tools are usually ambidextrous. My left hand is more dexterous but my right is stronger so my dominant hand just depends on what I'm doing with the tool. Using an xacto blade to carefully scrape solder mask off a board? Left hand. Turning a difficult screw? Right hand. I think the defining thing for me is that if something is specifically made for right handed use or if you're more likely to encounter a right-hand version, I'm probably right handed when using/doing it. If it's ambidextrous like a pen or fork, I'm usually left handed.
• H1Supreme 2y ago
  Since there seems to be a few others who use one hand or the other depending on the task at hand, here's my seemingly random list: - writing, eating, soldering iron, painting: left hand - throwing, kicking, anything that requires more strength: right hand - guitar: right - hand that holds a drink: left Here's some weird ones: - Chop an onion: right hand - Butter a piece of bread: left hand - Use a mouse: right hand. This one makes no sense. My left hand is my precision hand. I assume this was learned. - Use a box cutter or exacto knife: left hand - Scissors: right hand (Again, this must have been learned) Here's a funny story from my youth: I worked part time at Wendy's in high school. Once when I was making sandwiches, a co-worker remarked "Why do you do that?". "Do what?" I said. "Why do you keep switching hands depending on what topping/condiment you're putting on the sandwich?". "Idk, I didn't even notice".
  • erebearalte 2y ago
    To me it feels like whichever hand I start with lol, it does make me wonder if the reason I'm much better at fps games with a controller is because my left is my precision hand but I'm using the mouse with my right. (I know controllers have aa but I'm still much better than a mouse even though I've been using mouse to play rts and moba games my whole life over using a controller for just apex)
  • BizarroLand 2y ago
    I had a short lived job at Taco bell as a teenager, and at Taco Bell there is a 2 sided table for assembling the food. Newbies start on the right side, experienced on the left. The left side prioritized the drive thru, so it was more speed oriented than the right side, which prioritized the dine-in. I had a really difficult time on the right side, being left handed. All of the assembly steps were backwards for me. The left side would have been a better fit for me. I tried to explain this to my boss, but she made it evident to me that she wasn't being paid to care. It was a stupid minimum wage job and I only made it 3 weeks, which was my second or third shortest lived job. As far as "accommodations" go, I was especially equipped to work faster in their higher priority lane, but since I didn't fit into their box, it just wasn't meant to be.
• tyeaglet 2y ago
  Any lefty here who knits with your right hand and crochets with your left hand? I do :D although I do continental knitting.