Right handed preference?

[Rick]

why are most people right handed?i,mean why do they prefer right over left.?

[Bebelina]

So give some time and will come up with a mindblowing :rolleyes:answer, because I´m ambidextrous, I use both my hands. :p

[Stryder]

I've discussed this topic before but I looked at two other points.

1: For many years some people will have found that being in a Right handed world they werer forced to do right handed things. I remember having someone try to teach me to be righthanded when younger, and I know that my father suffered from being Forced to write righthandedly (he would have been lefthanded)

So society can be preportionally a reason for a persons handedness.

2: If you are other a nationality that reads texts in a different direction, I gather this would also decide the hand of an individual. (I of course have been told that there are differences too, but I mean if you read right to left and down/up, you might find writing text with your righthand would cause you to brush your arm across the text you are writing.)

This also means that writing LEFT to RIGHT and DOWN, dictates that we should write with our RIGHT to allow the words to be legible.

3: Can the earths hemispheres play a part? This is something that you would have to look at if you restructured how a person wrote (direction) as it on it's own would be unfounded.

Hope that brings some more thoughts into the topic.

[spankyface]

In combat, the heart is on the left, which would be kept away from the enemy.
But I'm sure there were right handed people before there were advanced piercing weapons.

Our process of thought could have been more logical in progression, stimulating the right side of the body as the left side of the brain took up reasoning.

The North star is in the North, and is sacred through many cultures, and using that as a fixed point across the globe, the sun would rise on the right, or East, and would be associated with life, setting in the west, or left, or death.

In the womb, what organs surround the uterus, and would they cramp the left side in standard infant position?

I'm left handed, so I can't tell what benefits there are in being right handed aside from writing, in a non-determined possibility.

Hope that helps.

[valich]

It is not that the person prefers being righthanded - although in some cultures this is forced upon them. It is that your genetic makeup makes your righthand - or your lefthand! - more adapted and more easily to write, or at least to learn how to write. Actually, it is not anything to do with the structure of your hands, it is determined by the development of your neural circuits in the cerebral cortex.

[cjard]

In combat, the heart is on the left, which would be kept away from the enemy.


Except that your heart is in the centre of your chest..

[valich]

Center of the body but the majority of the heart is slightly left of center in humans.

[Hercules Rockefeller]

Approximately 9 out of 10 people are right-handed, a proportion that appears to have been stable over thousands of years and across all cultures in which handedness has been examined. Anthropologists have determined the incidence of handedness in ancient cultures by examining artifacts; the shape of a flint ax, for example, can indicate whether it was made by a right- or left-handed individual. Handedness in antiquity has also been assessed by examining the incidence of figures in artistic representations who are using one hand or the other. Based on this evidence, our species appears always to have been a right-handed one. Moreover, handedness is probably not peculiar to humans; many studies have demonstrated paw preference in animals ranging from mice to monkeys that is, at least in some ways, similar to human handedness.

From:

<I>Neuroscience</I> (2nd Ed.)
By Purves, Augustine, Fitzpatrick, Katz, Lamantia, Mcnamara and Williams
Sinauer Associates, Inc.
ISBN 0-87893-742-0<P>

[valich]

Now that's a darn good analysis pointing in the right direction. According to the Wikipedia (a constantly updated online encyclopedia that anyone can contribute to) "The associated left brain hemisphere is said to be more active in right-handed people, and has been found to be correlated with linguistic and logical skill.

Logical skills like using tools perhaps? So right-handedness is probably a result of practical thought arising from the left hemisphere "logical skill" side of the brain for applications useful to coping with our environment?

[dead_ohio_sky]

When one is ambidextrous, do they use both their hands equally, or can one just write with both hands? I'm not too sure what it all entails I think I might be ambidextous, as I can write with both hands quite clearly. But I do write more clearly with my left.

[Exhumed]

I was told that since the left brain controls the right side of your body (and vice versa), right handed people are left brain types.

Personally I don't believe it and there is definitely a variety of causes.

[BSFilter]

Maybe we should start training kids to use both hands, and measure their brainwaves later in life....

[cato]

a friend of a friend was recently disowned by his father after going to jail for the first time. my friend said that the father said he was beyond help because the majority of people in prison are left handed, an so was his son.

[Athelwulf]

I write with my right hand. I've always wanted to be ambidextrous though. I've tried writing with my left a few times before, but it feels incredibly awkward. I go so slow, and the result is messy, child-like writing.

Is training oneself to write well with the other hand feasible?

[cato]

yeah, I know of people who have broken their dominant hands, and were forced to use the other, and thus got pretty good with it.

[Billy T]

When one is ambidextrous, do they use both their hands equally, or can one just write with both hands? I'm not too sure what it all entails I think I might be ambidextous, as I can write with both hands quite clearly. But I do write more clearly with my left.I bet somewhere in your "learning to write years" at least one teacher made you write with your right hand. I.e. you are a natural "leftie."

Which hand do you use if unexpectedly you must catch a ball, a knocked over glass, etc. anything automatic, but not practiced to be automatic, like brushing your teeth is?

[Hurricane Angel]

It is estimated that we are all descended from one individual in northern Africa about 25,000 years ago.

He/She was right handed. There you go.

It wasn't an evolutionary preference, just an ancestral allele.

[Athelwulf]

For those who are interested, I've found a page that seems to instruct you on how to write with your left hand: http://briem.ismennt.is/4/4.1.3a/4.1.3.4.left.htm

[firecross]

So-called right-handedness is merely a social construct enforcing discrimination. There needs to be more tolerance of left-handed people and affirmative action so that left-handed people are rehabilitated to represent 50% of the population.

[Zephyr]

Left handers are discriminated against. Think of the words 'dexter' and 'sinister'. Doesn't 'ambidextrous' mean something to the effect of 'both like the right'? Ironically, most ambidextrous people seem to be lefthanders who learned to use both to cope in a righthanded world...

[Winner of Discontent]

Left-handed people have been persecuted for following the "devil". The left path is evil, while the right path represents goodness (or so it was believed). Left-handed people were forced to become right-handed (and probably feared) so as to follow the righteous path of god and get into heaven. Or something to that effect. Unfortunately, I do not know how far back that dates.

I've always enjoyed learning vocabulary and etymology (tho oddly i feel my vocabulary doesn't actually reflect this interest lol). Anyway, the french word for "right" is "droite". In English, adroite is to be skillful. The french word for "left" is "gauche". In English, gauche means to be clumbsy or socially awkward. Left in general has negative connotations.

To my knowledge, ambidextrous means "both are full of skill". ambi = both, dextr = skill, ous = full of. playing the latin roots game. I'm no ace on the roots, but I think dextr is typically associated with right. And sinister, well excellent example. sinstr in latin means unlucky or toward the left.

As far as being discriminated against today...eh I don't see it. I am left-handed, and I have never felt out of place...or like a demon for that matter lol. The only thing I hate about it is getting the ink all over my hand as it crosses the page as I write. To demonstrate my illustrious vocabulary, it sucks.

Some interesting reading here on handedness bias: http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/lspeak.html#basic

=)

[Sci-Phenomena]

The only form of left handed "descrimination" that I found, was in my schooling years, of having to deal with all those damned righty desks which didn't support my lefty way of going about things.

Also, lots of descrimination from english teachers who wanted me to write with the spiral on the spiral note book so that it made writing a bit more difficult. But alas, I have gotton along fine.

[valich]

For lack of any better explanation, I really think that right-handedness is due to the dominance of activity in neural pathways in the left hemisphere cerebral cortex that controls logical skills. I envy those that are ambidextrous and cannot offer any explanation for this. However, as Hercules posted above, 9 out of 10 people are right-handed. This is NOT through social influence. People are genetically born either right-handed or left-handed. Those who are born left-handed and are pressured by social customs to be right-handed are forced to suffer by this constant constraint to their writing skills.

Personally, I am right-handed, but my right hand has been almost totally paralyzed for about 15 years now. due to a motorcycle accident: I can no longer write with my right hand. And no matter how hard I try, I cannot regain the same writing function with my left hand, although I do now write left-handed. I have read books on how to learn to write and books on calligraphy but I am "naturally" right-handed. C'est la vie.

[Theoryofrelativity]

Well, I have read (I will try to google for a link) that there is no such thing as right or left handedness being detrmined before birth, babies are ambidexterous and through convenience, they will eventually settle and use one hand more than the other.

[Theoryofrelativity]

Here we are

http://toddlerstoday.com/resources/articles/lefthand.htm

"When Left is Right
Left-Handed Toddlers
By Carma Haley Shoemaker

One in every 10 people is left-handed, and males are one and a half times more likely to be left-handed then females, according to Lefthanders International. Medical researchers have looked long and hard for what causes people to be left- or right-handed. Their answer? The same reason why brown-eyed people have brown eyes: genes that manifest their trait one out of every 10 chances..

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6773

"Left-handers win in hand-to-hand combat
13:37 08 December 2004
NewScientist.com news service
Will Knight


Left-handed people may be better equipped for close range mortal combat than those who rely on their right hands, according to researchers.

Charlotte Faurie and Michel Raymond of the University of Montpellier in France examined the number of left-handed people in unindustrialised cultures as well as the homicide levels within each culture.

They discovered a correlation between levels of violence and the proportion of the left-handed population – the more violent a culture, the higher the relative proportion of left-handers. The cause for this, the researchers suggest, is that left-handers are more likely to survive hand-to-hand combat.

The news could provide comfort for those who routinely struggle with right-handed scissors and can-openers, but some experts are unconvinced by the link.

Left-handed people are more prone to some health problems, suggesting the trait ought to disappear naturally over many generations through natural selection. But left-handers continue to make up a small proportion of the human population, hinting there could also be some evolutionary advantage to being left-handed.

And the ratio of left-handers to right-handers is higher in successful sportspeople than it is in the general population, suggesting there is definite advantage to favouring the left hand or foot in competitive games, such as tennis.

Homicidal tendencies
"Because of the advantage in sports we thought there could be a similar advantage in fights," Faurie told New Scientist. The theory is that right-handed competitors are less accustomed to facing left-handers, making them a more difficult proposition.

Faurie and Raymond studied several unindustrialised societies with varying rates of homicide, using their own fieldwork and ethnographic literature. They excluded industrialised cultures due to a lack of data and because, they argue, use of firearms is unaffected by handedness.

At one end of the scale, their sample included the Dioula of Burkina Faso, where just 3.4% of the population is left-handed and there are only 0.013 murders per 1000 inhabitants each year. At the other end of their sample spectrum, they studied records of the Eipo of Indonesia, where 27% of the population is left-handed and the homicide rate is considerably greater - three murders per 1000 people each year.

The strong correlation between the proportion of left-handers and the number of homicides in each culture suggests that left-handers are more likely to survive a fight, they say. "It could be one of the reasons left-handedness has survived," Faurie says. "Though there may be other reasons too."

Brain differences
Daniel Nettle, an expert in human evolutionary history at the University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK, is intrigued. "The results quite surprised me," he says. "But I can't think of any reason why they might be an artefact [of the study design], so it looks like an interesting finding."

However, Chris McManus at University College London, who has researched handedness, is more sceptical about the link. "I'm far from convinced," he told New Scientist. "I don't think it is anything as simple as this."

McManus says the sample data is too small provide firm evidence of a connection between handedness and fighting prowess and says data from western societies should also have been included.

He believes the success of left-handers may be largely due to differences in the brain. "It may be that sometimes their brains assemble themselves in combinations that work better for certain tasks," he says.

Journal reference: Proceedings of the Royal Society "

[Sci-Phenomena]

Very Interesting, I can recall a time in kindergarten when I grabbed a pencil and I couldn't remember which hand I was most comfortable with writing, I switched between right and left a few times, until, as I now see, I settled with the left hand.

[valich]

"Medical researchers have looked long and hard for what causes people to be left- or right-handed. Their answer? The same reason why brown-eyed people have brown eyes: genes that manifest their trait one out of every 10 chances."This article is saying that left- or right-handed is genetically determined ("genes that manifest the trait"). This means that it is determined before birth in the genotype. It is inherited through our DNA structure.

[Hurricane Angel]

It is estimated that we are all descended from one individual in northern Africa about 25,000 years ago.

He/She was right handed. There you go.

It wasn't an evolutionary preference, just an ancestral allele.

Oh noes! That's what I said 2 weeks ago?

[sniffy]

Right hand preference? No i prefer lefthanded people. They don't come out with things like "we all descended from one individual in northern Africa about 25, 000 years ago". Has anyone read a book on evolution (and i don't mean the bible!).

[madanthonywayne]

At one end of the scale, their sample included the Dioula of Burkina Faso, where just 3.4% of the population is left-handed and there are only 0.013 murders per 1000 inhabitants each year. At the other end of their sample spectrum, they studied records of the Eipo of Indonesia, where 27% of the population is left-handed and the homicide rate is considerably greater - three murders per 1000 people each year.

The strong correlation between the proportion of left-handers and the number of homicides in each culture suggests that left-handers are more likely to survive a fight, they say.
That is fascinating. It makes sense. All your life you're fighting guys who are right handed. Always watching for the killing stroke from the right. Then along comes this lefty..... This may also explain why left handedness is still more common among men than women. Since men are involved in more combat than women.

Still, it's not all good news for our sinister friends:
A study comparing the death and accident rates of left- and right-handed people revealed that, on average, lefties die nine years earlier than their right-handed counterparts. The study was motivated by the relative scarcity of left-handers within the elder population.

Many people assumed that an intolerant past generation had forced left-handers to become righties. “I wish my parents had made me a righty,” opines Aaron Carter ’04. “It’s horrible being left-handed in a right-handed world.” But the aforementioned study gives statistical weight to Carter’s abstract lament: left-handed people are four times more likely to die from injuries while driving and six times more likely to die from accidents of all kinds.http://www.tsl.pomona.edu/archives/03/0919/af/07.html

From the same article, an anecdotal but striking quote:
But in other parts of the state some lefties are less resigned to their second-class citizenship. “Lefties are no different than righties,” asserts John Heringer, a senior Political Science major at UC Santa Barbara. “We are as smart, as strong, and as coordinated as our right-handed counterparts. I think that this new report is just more propaganda aimed at submerging the rights of lefties in this country.”
Sounds reasonable, here's the funny part:
When asked about the thesis that engineering biases lead to accidents, however, Heringer’s tone softened. In the last ten years he has broken his right arm, his left arm, his left wrist, his right index finger, his left ankle, his collarbone, and his nose (twice).

[valich]

No it does not make sense. Just because you choose two seperate independent variables in one study, and without a control group, and them come up with a correlation, doesn't prove or show anything. I can equally say that every morning the sun comes up and people go to work, therefore people go to work because the sun rises. How ridiculous.

"Lefties are no different than righties." Intellectually this has to be true. But since the dawn of civilization society has orchestrated preferences toward the majority, and the majority are righthanded, then righties have an advantage: we right from left to right with our right hand and this is advantageous to the skill of writing (at least it is for me because I am lefthanded!). We go to shake a person's hand with our right hand. The throttle on a motorcyle is on the right. A gun holster is normally a right hand draw. Most countries drive vehicles on the righthand side of the road. Physics is righthanded in symmetrical preference. When I go to a university library to research and use their computers I always find the computer's mouse on the right and am unable to stretch the cord to the left. How awkward and inconvenient this is. In formal occasions etiquette dictates that you use the fork with your right hand. Geez! Where does the discriminatory behavior stop? Woh is the lefties! Such an unfortunate lot.

[Sci-Phenomena]

then righties have an advantage: we right from left to right with our right hand and this is advantageous to the skill of writing (at least it is for me because I am lefthanded!).

Somewhat unfortunate. Being a left hander I've been forced to write left handed, right to left, my whole life, but since computers have come around, this has been a god save. *type type type*

[valich]

Hey, I'm with you all the way on that one. After 15 years I still can't write with my left hand any where near the semblance of eloquence that I could with my right, but what's the difference when everything is punched in by computer keyboard now?

[firecross]

Finally, technology helps end another form of oppressive discrimination.

[DJ Erock]

I know a way to end this discrimination and make a bunch of money!

A Leftorium!

[Silkworm]

I'm ambidextrous as well, although I am most comfortable writing with my left. I think that righties have just been mollycoddled and babied into being clones of mollycoddled babies. Lefties learn to go lefty by looking at a righty face to face, a righty would have to sit on their lap.

Lefties rule.