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

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

#81

Post by daseiner1 »

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…

fun fact: vs the US, golf stores in Canada carry more left-handed clubs because a right handed hockey player has their right hand higher on the stick which is the same orientation as the grip for left-handed golfers.

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

#82

Post by daseiner1 »

mannyv wrote: post #79
ThrustVectoring wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

phil mickelson, easily the most famous left handed golfer, is right-handed but plays lefty because he would stand across from his dad and mirror his swing as a kid

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

#83

Post by Tarsul »

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…

Due to a broken right-hand, I had to write with my left for 3 months and noticed that our alphabet is made for right-handedness. That's why I agree with your take that writing with the left hand is basically unnatural. But since typing is more important than writing nowadays (or am I in a bubble?), I don't think students should be guided to write with their right hand.

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

#84

Post by mrsvanwinkle »

jvanderbot wrote: post #27
NickC25 wrote: post #14

What does it say for mixed-handed folks like myself (different skillsets per hand - in other words, throw and write with different hands)? What about cross-dominance (different body parts differ on dominant side - in other words, a right-handed person being left-foot dominant)? I've been told that it's effectively a mental illness if discovered during childhood (as is ambidexterity). Yet I can't help but think that i…

You were probably a left-handed person who was taught to write/use tools with their right hand in kindergarten. I got this treatment too.

Hey SAME! but pre-K, trained at home by cousin who used to be a lefty as well.

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

#85

Post by Pay08 »

senko wrote: post #80
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…

Right-to-left languages don't make writing much easier. It certainly helps, but at least anecdotally, it's overstated how much more easy (how much easier? English is confusing) it is.

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

#86

Post by Pay08 »

moralestapia wrote: post #73
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).

What?

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

#87

Post by Pay08 »

mannyv wrote: post #78
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.

It was pretty common practice in the rest of the world too until a few decades ago.

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

#88

Post by HerbManic »

yawpitch wrote: post #18
hypnodrones wrote: post #15

I would be interested in studies into impact of left hemisphere importantce on the right hand usage, possibly the more sophisticated and "logical" usage of our hands pressured it as well.

One of many articles out there debunking the pop-psych mythology around brain lateralization: https://themindcompany.com/blog/left-brain-right-brain-myth

For the longest time Iain McGilchrist has been going on about left brain this, right brain that and it all felt very pop-psych stuff.

Not sure if because of that being sort of torn down but recent years he has been clarifying he wasn't talking about a literal left/right device but more an analogy to different modes of thinking.

There is some hemisphere function allocation but it feels far to over played in folks trying to offer easy answers to difficult things.

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

#89

Post by mrsvanwinkle »

bluGill wrote: post #38
jvanderbot wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because it didn't happen to you, or kindergarteners don't know better and just play along. I only remember it because I was a little shit and got into a big fight about it. It would have been late 80s.

I didn't know what difference it made and there was one left handed scissors so it went to the kid who knew. I'm left eyed and often wonder if I should have learned to write left handed.

wait, you just gave me an extreme epiphany about my significantly worse right eye myopia. the divergence definitely snowballed from the "use it or lose it" thing and me not wearing my glasses as much as possible

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

#90

Post by markb139 »

taeric wrote: post #37

I am curious at what age hand preference develops. And can you exert any influence on that development? In particular, I would expect the influences to be somewhat counter intuitive. With things like having to use the left hand to hold a caregiver's hand in early walking preferencing the right for accessory use. At infant ages, it would be neat to see if preference of holding a baby on a side influences things.

I’m a leftie from a 50% leftie family. Apparently I showed my left handedness as a baby when grasping for things and hardly used my right hand. My mother was also a leftie, but in her generation she was forced to write with her right hand. The net result being she could write equally well with both hands. When I learnt this I tried to copy it.
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