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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

#71

Post by daveguy »

AnotherGoodName wrote: post #68
dagi3d wrote: post #67

I am right handed but left handed for some very specific things such as playing pool or hockey

Same but i feel many sports are weird in that i’ve never been convinced that there’s a particularly natural right or left handedness to them. Eg. For pool does the more dextrous hand need to push the cue or does it line up and guide the front of the cue? I can see tradeoffs each way and the front hand is certainly not just limp when playing. Hockey is similar. The top or the bottom hand being the more dextrous probab…

Re: pool, definitely the one pushing needs to be the dominant hand.

It has the most degrees of freedom, and more motion. The one in front has a whole table for stability.

But that's just like my opinion, man.

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

#72

Post by dfxm12 »

dagi3d wrote: post #67

I am right handed but left handed for some very specific things such as playing pool or hockey

It happens. I can play hockey with either hand as dominant. Too bad that wasn't really a useful talent like being a switch hitter in baseball. I'm generally left handed, but play musical instruments almost exclusively right handed. I had a friend teach me drums. He was right handed and didn't even think to ask me about my handedness, or didn't want to move stuff around (lefties have to adapt to a right handed world...). It didn't feel awkward though. I don't know why I play guitar right handed. The prevailing theory in my family is that I "learned" by mirroring Kurt Cobain on the TV screen...

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

#73

Post by moralestapia »

Stevvo wrote: post #62

I taught English in China 20 years ago. Of the thousands of students I taught, none wrote with their left hand. "There are no left-handed in China" might sound as ridiculous as "There are no gays in Uganda". However of those thousands of students, none had messy hand writing. In any class in Europe or the US, around 10% of students have messy writing. Suspiciously equivalent to the supposed number of left-handed stud…

In my own personal and subjective experience, the correlation between left handed people I know and "edginess"-level is almost 1.

I am inclined to believe this is a learned trait rather than an innate one (excluding the obvious reasons why one would be left-handed only).

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

#74

Post by skyberrys »

The 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.

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

#75

Post by ThrustVectoring »

AnotherGoodName wrote: post #68
dagi3d wrote: post #67

I am right handed but left handed for some very specific things such as playing pool or hockey

Same but i feel many sports are weird in that i’ve never been convinced that there’s a particularly natural right or left handedness to them. Eg. For pool does the more dextrous hand need to push the cue or does it line up and guide the front of the cue? I can see tradeoffs each way and the front hand is certainly not just limp when playing. Hockey is similar. The top or the bottom hand being the more dextrous probab…

Golf and baseball batting have obvious handedness - the muscles that pull your towards your centerline and then across your body and significantly stronger than the ones that push your arm back out away from your body, and the right-handed stance in these two sports uses the stronger muscles in the right arm.

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

#76

Post by jgord »

skyberrys wrote: post #74

The 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.

without reading .. my immediate guess is that one hand is needed for maintaining upright balance, while the other hand grasps something important ?

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

#77

Post by emporas »

scythe wrote: post #16
Freak_NL wrote: post #10

So why are us southpaws a rarity? The article and the linked research paper both point to bipedalism and bigger brains as the cause, and the paper vaguely seems to hint at selective pressures leading to the right hand getting favoured by the majority of the population, but why? The question from the headline is excellent, if only it was actually answered.

Here's my five minute lunchtime hypothesis: it's because the heart is on the left. As human behavior demanded increasing precision from the hands, being a little farther from the heartbeat was a slight advantage.

That's a long time hypothesis of mine as well, but I think it stems from being stung or bitten by venom. If venom is injected into the bloodstream, it is desirable to be injected as far away from the heart as possible.

Some centimeters might not sound much, but over millions of years, the cumulative effect might be that 1% of human population every 10.000 years gets genetically optimized to hold their heart at a more protective spot.

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

#78

Post by mannyv »

Stevvo wrote: post #62

I taught English in China 20 years ago. Of the thousands of students I taught, none wrote with their left hand. "There are no left-handed in China" might sound as ridiculous as "There are no gays in Uganda". However of those thousands of students, none had messy hand writing. In any class in Europe or the US, around 10% of students have messy writing. Suspiciously equivalent to the supposed number of left-handed stud…

In many parts of Asia they will 'correct' children who are using their left hands.

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

#79

Post by mannyv »

ThrustVectoring wrote: post #75
AnotherGoodName wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same but i feel many sports are weird in that i’ve never been convinced that there’s a particularly natural right or left handedness to them. Eg. For pool does the more dextrous hand need to push the cue or does it line up and guide the front of the cue? I can see tradeoffs each way and the front hand is certainly not just limp when playing. Hockey is similar. The top or the bottom hand being the more dextrous probab…

Golf and baseball batting have obvious handedness - the muscles that pull your towards your centerline and then across your body and significantly stronger than the ones that push your arm back out away from your body, and the right-handed stance in these two sports uses the stronger muscles in the right arm.

My dad was a lefty and played golf right-handed. It's a common enough thing.

In golf, strength is overrated until you get to the pros.

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

#80

Post by senko »

Stevvo wrote: post #62

I taught English in China 20 years ago. Of the thousands of students I taught, none wrote with their left hand. "There are no left-handed in China" might sound as ridiculous as "There are no gays in Uganda". However of those thousands of students, none had messy hand writing. In any class in Europe or the US, around 10% of students have messy writing. Suspiciously equivalent to the supposed number of left-handed stud…

Left-to-right writing systems are optimized for right-hand use. Two examples:

* if you're left-handed, your hand smudges over the ink before it dries. There are various contortions that some left-handed people do (hover the hand or wrap it around from above) - right handed ones don't need any of that.

* stroke patterns, as usually learnt in school, result in pushing away if left handed, vs drawing to, if you're right handed. This results in less ideal strokes, and if you're working with a sharp pencil/pen on a sensitive paper, this can tear the paper. If you're working with a felt-tip pen, the line width/pressure suffers as well.

That said, if you really make an effort, you can have a pretty decent handwriting if you're left handed. And if you are forced to use right hand when learning handwriting, you can still have a pretty decent handwriting.

I'm not familiar with details of chinese handwriting (what's easier/better if you're left vs right handed), wouldn't be surprise the constraints are similar.

So I guess your remark about messy handwriting is related to the strict standards for the students (which includes expectation they must write with right hand).

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