Fun little nugget, Australian Sulphur Crested Cockatoos almost universally favour their left feet as a holdfast. They're also left eye dominant.
Why is almost everyone right-handed? A new study connects it to bipedalism
161–170 of 263 posts
Re: Why is almost everyone right-handed? A new study connects it to bipedalism
#162Here is a funny thing. I can walk a bicycle perfectly just by holding nothing but the saddle with my right hand. I can pick some spot on the ground ahead, call it, and hit it with the front wheel accurately. Switch to my left hand and the bike's front wheel starts having a mind of its own. "No, don't veer that way, Bike; you're not reading my mind, like you do through my right hand!!!"
To drain pasta or noodles quickly, I put it in a colander, hold it above my kitchen sink, and swirl it around in quick circles. I realized about a month ago my circles are always counterclockwise, and very efficient, but that I can't keep a clockwise spin going for more than a few cycles before messing up. Since then I keep trying to spin my pasta clockwise (such are the small excitements and adventures of my wfh life), starting with very slow movements, but I just can't do it. There's something weird about this motor skill specifically that eludes me. I'm left-handed but my right-handed writing is reasonable and I play piano with matched abilities in both hands. Maybe one day, with enough practice, my pasta will go clockwise.
Re: Why is almost everyone right-handed? A new study connects it to bipedalism
#163The article didn't really help me understand what it was about bipedalism that resulted in a right handed preference. Also in my family left hand dominates, we are a cluster of left handed people. My theory is if any child wants help with fine motor control the help is provided by a left hand to a left hand.
> My theory is if any child wants help with fine motor control the help is provided by a left hand to a left hand.
Neither of my parents were left handed, and yet, here I am; despite attempts otherwise I might add.
Re: Why is almost everyone right-handed? A new study connects it to bipedalism
#164An interesting anecdote that comes to mind is playing old computer games with arrow keys, which used my right hand. I got pretty proficient with this. Over the years, I (and I imagine many others) switched over to WASD to play newer games with mouse + keyboard, but this meant using the left hand for "arrow keys" Now I can directly compare how proficient I am with WASD vs Arrow Keys and the result surprised me. I was…
I’m left handed and never understood left handed mice at all. I write with my left and swing and kick left handed, but all gaming stuff has always been the same way anyone else does. I’m pretty sure up down left right switching to wasd is a function of that setup being more comfortable with the mouse to the right of the keyboard, correct?
Re: Why is almost everyone right-handed? A new study connects it to bipedalism
#165An interesting anecdote that comes to mind is playing old computer games with arrow keys, which used my right hand. I got pretty proficient with this. Over the years, I (and I imagine many others) switched over to WASD to play newer games with mouse + keyboard, but this meant using the left hand for "arrow keys" Now I can directly compare how proficient I am with WASD vs Arrow Keys and the result surprised me. I was…
I remember in elementary school being amused by the idea of handedness so I decided to practice writing with my left hand as well. I'm not great at it but even to this day I can write legibly with my left hand from that little bit of practice as a child. Anyone can get much better at using their non-dominant hand (if they have one) with just a bit of practice. The effect is much much stronger when you do so as a chil…
I realized at some point as a leftie I could trivially learn to write a mirror image of what everyone else was writing so learned to write backwards. Since the motions are exactly what others do it’s actually easier in a lot of ways for me. Left handed writing is all scrunched up and annoying, and I got constant smudges on my hand. Frixion ink pens are the only pen I’ll buy because they don’t smudge at all. My guess is it’s actually because it’s heat reactive so it just vanishes on skin, but that works for me! (It doesn’t disappear on the page except the time I put a hot bowl of oatmeal on my hand written deployment reminder notes, which was a bit of a surprise. Took me about an hour to recover gathering data, haha).
Re: Why is almost everyone right-handed? A new study connects it to bipedalism
#166An interesting anecdote that comes to mind is playing old computer games with arrow keys, which used my right hand. I got pretty proficient with this. Over the years, I (and I imagine many others) switched over to WASD to play newer games with mouse + keyboard, but this meant using the left hand for "arrow keys" Now I can directly compare how proficient I am with WASD vs Arrow Keys and the result surprised me. I was…
I remember in elementary school being amused by the idea of handedness so I decided to practice writing with my left hand as well. I'm not great at it but even to this day I can write legibly with my left hand from that little bit of practice as a child. Anyone can get much better at using their non-dominant hand (if they have one) with just a bit of practice. The effect is much much stronger when you do so as a chil…
Children have better neuroplasticity but worse persistence than adults.
As an adult I just practiced writing with my left hand loads for basically no reason, it's not that useful, but I still did it for some reason. Now I can write illegibly with either hand :)
Re: Why is almost everyone right-handed? A new study connects it to bipedalism
#167I almost never see people using a left hand mouse these days. As younger people start using computers they generally will learn with right-handed mice and will thus develop those fine motor skills in that hand. I wonder if this will make right-handedness even more dominant.
As a lefty I never had any problems adapting to a right hand mouse and actually find the keyboard to be better suited as a "left hand" activity and would have a hard time switching it up.
Living with laptops with touchpads for a couple of decades as a righty, I can use a touchpad perfectly fine with either hand, but a mouse is still right handed for me.
Re: Why is almost everyone right-handed? A new study connects it to bipedalism
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
without reading .. my immediate guess is that one hand is needed for maintaining upright balance, while the other hand grasps something important ?
As someone who is fairly ambidextrous, but predominately a lefty - the things that are harder to switch between are some of the gross motor skills. For example, throwing (or kicking) with your non-preferred side is not as simple as picking up and throwing a ball or simply kicking it. You have to adjust your position and stride to lead with the correct foot. I found learning right-handed pace bowling in cricket (for f…
This is true for me as well. I can't really play volleyball, because you are supposed to hit the ball with both hands, but my left hand is constantly ahead of my right hand. All my shots are crooked.
Re: Why is almost everyone right-handed? A new study connects it to bipedalism
#169An interesting anecdote that comes to mind is playing old computer games with arrow keys, which used my right hand. I got pretty proficient with this. Over the years, I (and I imagine many others) switched over to WASD to play newer games with mouse + keyboard, but this meant using the left hand for "arrow keys" Now I can directly compare how proficient I am with WASD vs Arrow Keys and the result surprised me. I was…
Something super simple and revealing is try pressing on the brakes with your left foot.
A few of my relatives who grew up on a farm drives that way (right for gas, left for brakes)
Re: Why is almost everyone right-handed? A new study connects it to bipedalism
#170I almost never see people using a left hand mouse these days. As younger people start using computers they generally will learn with right-handed mice and will thus develop those fine motor skills in that hand. I wonder if this will make right-handedness even more dominant.
As a lefty I never had any problems adapting to a right hand mouse and actually find the keyboard to be better suited as a "left hand" activity and would have a hard time switching it up.
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