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Why is almost everyone right-handed? A new study connects it to bipedalism

ox.ac.uk

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Re: Why is almost everyone right-handed? A new study connects it to bipedalism

#241

Post by hilbert42 »

olau wrote: post #234
hilbert42 wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting that the piano is essentially a right handed instrument in that melody/the main theme is mostly played by the right hand. As a left-hander, it's very obvious to me. That said—because of the above point—my right hand is much stronger and more adept at playing. In short, I'm right handed when playing the piano. No sarcastic comments please, I well know more practice and playing those damn Czerny scales…

Can I recommend playing Bach? The specialization goes both ways, though, I'm much better playing Alberti bass with my left hand compared to the right.

I can play Bach to some extent with practice. I'd qualify that though by saying a multi-part fugue from say The Musical Offering would be a tall order.

I've never had any pretense at being good enough to entertain people with those works as everyone knows them so well (from professional recordings). Even Mozart's a problem here. For example the Romance in the D Minor Concerto, K.466 looks deceptively simple (at least in parts) but it's anything but after hearing someone like Brendel play it. Everyone knows it so well it's not worth the embarrassment of even trying (except perhaps in secret).

(Mozart has a habit of looking simple until one tries to play it, Bach is none of that—one knows what one's in for at pretty much first glance.)

Re: Why is almost everyone right-handed? A new study connects it to bipedalism

#242

Post by chrisweekly »

RugnirViking wrote: post #212
Danox wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Left-handed individuals living in a predominantly right-handed world possess the capacity to adapt and utilize their right hand effectively. While most right-handed individuals do not exhibit this ability unless they experience an extraordinary event, such as an injury to their right hand, left-handed individuals are compelled to learn how to use their right hand in a right-handed world. As a left-handed individual w…

it may surprise you to learn that the stick shift is on the other side in countries that drive on the left. Entire generations, regardless of handedness grow up using the other hand to operate it and thats kinda just normal, like with the wasd example from earlier (although of course unlike your example it doesn't involve reaching across one's body to use it)

I'm a righty but managed to drive a stick-shift in Ireland without too much difficulty. I wonder if it actually helped that everything was on the "wrong" side (driver's seat and steering wheel, stick shift, traffic direction) -- bc I was forced to remain focused and deliberate about everything at all times. That said, navigating my first few roundabouts I found myself verbalizing the flow and my intentions, to suppress my instincts and merge smoothly. (Tangent: speaking thoughts out loud is a useful hack in many situations!)

Re: Why is almost everyone right-handed? A new study connects it to bipedalism

#243

Post by Pay08 »

Phemist wrote: post #29
hypnodrones wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! Although I understand there is still some specialization in each of the hempispheres, which could influence it, but I probably went too strong with my imagination here.

Left-handed people are often excluded from participating in MRI studies. To my personal dismay, as these studies often paid 25 euros per hour ~20 years ago, a significant sum for my student self that I could not partake in. It has however given me significant doubts about any strong lateralization claims...

That seems like it'd create a rather large hole in the dataset.

Re: Why is almost everyone right-handed? A new study connects it to bipedalism

#244

Post by monooso »

Not my area of expertise, but this article appears to completely ignore several factors which were true when I was growing up as a leftie in 1970s UK (admittedly some time ago):

1. Some schools actively punished children for writing left-handed.

2. Pretty much every utensil was made for right-handed people. I don't recall ever seeing left-handed scissors, for example.

3. You learn by copying those around you. If your parents, teachers, and peers are predominantly right-handed (and are even actively encouraging you to be right-handed), then you're likely to toe the line.

I imagine the final point would remain a factor long after the first two are addressed.

Re: Why is almost everyone right-handed? A new study connects it to bipedalism

#245

Post by peepee1982 »

wvh wrote: post #207
Vachyas wrote: post #151

An 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've been playing guitar since I was a little kid. I wonder how learning "two-handed" skills such as playing music impacts how "handy" or "polydextrous" one is. There are left-handed guitar players that play right-handed, such as Nick Johnston, who claim the gaps in their technique or preference for certain left-hand-only techniques are informed by being left-handed; so it seems that a life-long of an insane amount o…

I write with my left hand but play guitar right-handed. I don't think it had any effect on my playing, because I think I'm a naturally right-handed guitar player. Here's a list of things and whether I do them right- or left-handed:

  ┌───────────────────────────┬───────────┐
  │ Activity                  │ Hand      │
  ├───────────────────────────┼───────────┤
  │ Baseball (Bat/Catch)      │ Left      │
  │ Hold Spoon                │ Left      │
  │ Soccer                    │ Left      │
  │ Tennis                    │ Left      │
  │ Throw Ball                │ Left      │
  │ Darts                     │ Left      │
  │ Write                     │ Left      │
  ├───────────────────────────┼───────────┤
  │ Bow and Arrow             │ Right     │
  │ Hold Fork/Knife           │ Right     │
  │ Play Drums                │ Right     │
  │ Scissor                   │ Right     │
  │ Shoot Rifle (Nerf Gun)    │ Right     │
  │ Skateboard/Snowboard      │ Right     │
  │ Use Mouse                 │ Right     │
  └───────────────────────────┴───────────┘
Basically, the only reason I call myself left-handed is because I write with my left hand. All in all, I have no idea if I do more things left handed or right handed.

Re: Why is almost everyone right-handed? A new study connects it to bipedalism

#246

Post by kelipso »

whynotmaybe wrote: post #237
kelipso wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something super simple and revealing is try pressing on the brakes with your left foot.

If you usually drive a manual transmission you might have a bad time if you try to brake with your left foot

Yeah it’s a big contrast, I guess that’s why I mentioned it. I forgot it would be easier to learn with an automatic, or at least the difference wouldn’t be so obvious with it.

Re: Why is almost everyone right-handed? A new study connects it to bipedalism

#247

Post by theandrewbailey »

ticulatedspline wrote: post #136
Magi604 wrote: post #114

I 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.

I'm a lefty, but always mouse on my right (keyboard left). This has made me exceptionally good at using hotkeys, to the point where a friend at a LAN party called me a hot-key whore. He wasn't (and still isn't) wrong. After using any program for a while, I will figure them out, including how many times to press tab to get to a field.

Re: Why is almost everyone right-handed? A new study connects it to bipedalism

#248

Post by prox »

nottorp wrote: post #238
prox wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah fun fact, why do we use the word “right” and “left” but also use the word “right” as correct/lawful and use left as thing that is well, left? A linguist theory says that people always been predominantly right handed, so the way you use tools is the “right” (correct) hand, and the one you don’t, well it’s the hand that is “left”. It’s how the word also became the word for directions as well.

Does that go for all languages, or western and mostly germanic languages? Edit: or maybe indo-european and semitic to be more broad.

Honestly I am not sure, it’s an interesting theory that matches our evolved right handedness as the “right” way to do something, and the other as left. Maybe left handed people were seen as different? And it seeped into language. There is a lot of ifs with and assumptions with this theory.

Re: Why is almost everyone right-handed? A new study connects it to bipedalism

#249

Post by theultdev »

I don't think being left handed is purely genetic, if at all. Seems like a physical anomaly during gestation.

Twins are slightly more likely to be left handed, might be something to do with crowding in the womb where a specific hand is free more than the other.

Re: Why is almost everyone right-handed? A new study connects it to bipedalism

#250

Post by something765478 »

dmos62 wrote: post #227
inejge wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ah fun fact, why do we use the word “right” and “left” but also use the word “right” as correct/lawful and use left as thing that is well, left? A linguist theory says that people always been predominantly right handed, so the way you use tools is the “right” (correct) hand, and the one you don’t, well it’s the hand that is “left”. It's a bit more varied, even in the Indo-European family. What does tend to happen i…

Latin languages also have the words sinister, izquierdo (which seems to come from esku-okerr - crooked hand) for left. The tendency to associate the right with positive and the left with negative is pretty much ubiquitous in Western civilization up until fairly recently. I have a fairly exotic viewpoint on this. The left/right asymmetry (for the lack of a better term) is a small part of a larger asymmetry that's diff…

> up is better than down

Makes sense; up gives you a better vantage point, so its easier to see danger. Not to mention that it gives you a fighting advantage; your attacker would have to run uphill to get to you, tiring them out.

> light is better than dark

Humans rely heavily on our sight, and we tend to operate in the daytime. If you were a nocturnal animal, I'm sure you would consider dark to be better than light.

> positive is better than negative

Getting something is better than giving it away.

> I would go as far as to add the male/female asymmetry to this: seemingly senseless, yet historically present

What do you mean by this?

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