It's interesting that the findings in this article are an unintended benefit of a study on smell. Makes you wonder if any other studies have important data like this where data was simply discarded because it wasn't relevant to the initial hypothesis.
The geography of American left-handedness
21–30 of 44 posts
Re: The geography of American left-handedness
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
The left side being evil and related to the Devil is pretty embedded in Christianity.
Anything in America in the last 200 years or so?
Ya you're right as soon as they left Europe, they stopped doing all the stupid stuff and became enlightened.
http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/lspeak2.html#educators http://www.landoverbaptist.net/showthread.php?t=49703
Re: The geography of American left-handedness
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've never heard of fundamentalist Christians being anti-left-handed. And I am one.
It's certainly not a secular view.
Prejudice against left-handedness is not a scientific view, but it is still a prevalent secular view. For instance, consider skateboarding, where skating left-footed is called "goofy." Or consider the multitude of left-handed children who were (and still are) being forced to write right-handed in the United States and other parts of the world. Also consider the Soviet Union where left-handers were also frowned upon despite atheism being the official view of the state.
Prejudice against the left-handed existed before Christianity. Christianity did not invent the link between left-handedness and evil. Left-handedness did not become evil because the Devil is left-handed. The Devil is left-handed because left-handedness was considered evil.
Re: The geography of American left-handedness
#24For those that want to go straight to the results ==> https://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2015/09/...
Re: The geography of American left-handedness
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anything in America in the last 200 years or so?
Ya you're right as soon as they left Europe, they stopped doing all the stupid stuff and became enlightened. http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/lspeak2.html#educators http://www.landoverbaptist.net/showthread.php?t=49703
Landover is satire.
Re: The geography of American left-handedness
#26It's interesting that the findings in this article are an unintended benefit of a study on smell. Makes you wonder if any other studies have important data like this where data was simply discarded because it wasn't relevant to the initial hypothesis.
My reading of the article is that the data was extremely relevant to the original hypothesis, and was used to disprove it.
Re: The geography of American left-handedness
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ya you're right as soon as they left Europe, they stopped doing all the stupid stuff and became enlightened. http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/lspeak2.html#educators http://www.landoverbaptist.net/showthread.php?t=49703
Landover is satire.
It can't be satirical if what is being lampooned doesn't actually exist.
Re: The geography of American left-handedness
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anything in America in the last 200 years or so?
Ya you're right as soon as they left Europe, they stopped doing all the stupid stuff and became enlightened. http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/lspeak2.html#educators http://www.landoverbaptist.net/showthread.php?t=49703
Thanks for the link, that's cool. Looks like 3 Catholics and an ambiguous reference to Satan, and your second link is to a cult. I guess the cult might count as fundamentalist something.
Re: The geography of American left-handedness
#29"The National Geographic data also show significant variation in rates of left-handedness by U.S. state, with higher rates in the Northeast and lower rates in the middle of the country."
The actual accompanying data only describes white people born after 1950 which could be evidence of too many researcher degrees of freedom. Additionally, the legend to the map is showing single percentage points of difference which hardly speaks to a robust finding. And given the fact that the data was collected in a non-scientific manner, that 1% between New Jersey and Missouri may be as easily attributed to ambidextrous people fibbing to be more unique, or perhaps for some reason National Geographic appeals to different kinds of people than the underlying population. At least show me an r value or something.
At any rate, the idea that since the Victorian era people have evolved to be less left-handed than in certain areas is absurd and without any scientific basis.
Re: The geography of American left-handedness
#30My parents are right handed. I'm left handed. Had a pretty hard time in communist Poland too. It started with a kind of wrong diagnosis where the doctor told my parents that I'm both and that they could choose which side I'd use. So my grandparents lobbied for right. I started out left but it was hard with a fountain pen and since I had nobody to help me out with that my parents finally broke and told me to learn wri…
You are the 9% (if both parents are righties, then there is a 9% chance of a left handed baby).
What's interesting about left handedness is that even if both parents are lefties, the kid's chance is only 26%. Which is strangely low for something where there is some generic link.
If one parent is a lefty the chance drops to 19%, and if no parent is a lefty then it is 9%. The average over society is 10% of the population.
I almost don't wonder if generics isn't the primary reason that people are left handed, but generics can make you more likely to be a lefty (for whatever reason). That would somewhat explain the statistics.