[HN Gopher] The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2...
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The mystery of why left-handers are so much rarer (2016)
Author : blubbb
Score : 48 points
Date : 2024-10-06 18:07 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bbc.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.com)
| mannykannot wrote:
| "Similarly, you can test your ears: which ear would you naturally
| use on the telephone?"
|
| Well, I'm right-handed, so...
| woodrowbarlow wrote:
| i'm left handed but i tend to hold phones to my right ear.
| mannykannot wrote:
| Interesting - I would guess you usually hold it with your
| right hand? Is your hearing noticeably asymmetric?
|
| Come to think of it, if I'm doing something else at the same
| time - such as, of course, writing - I will hold the phone to
| my left ear with my left hand. Whichever way, in my case, it
| has little to do with my hearing.
| woodrowbarlow wrote:
| yes, with my right hand. i don't think my hearing is
| asymmetric, i think i just appreciate having my dominant
| hand free while i talk.
|
| a doctor once observed i tend to do "fine motor skills"
| (e.g. handwriting) left-handed but "large motor skills"
| (e.g. swinging a baseball bat) right-handed.
| finger wrote:
| I'm right handed but I often use my left hand and left ear,
| or sometimes even my right hand and left ear
| oneeyedpigeon wrote:
| Right hand/left ear feels incredibly awkward to me --
| almost as bad as trying to get something from your left
| pocket with your right hand.
| moomin wrote:
| The thing is, we may have an ear preference but switching
| doesn't seem to be that big a deal. UK cops are taught to
| pick up the phone with their non-dominant hand so that their
| dominant hand can take notes. I'm guessing _most_ people use
| their dominant hand to hold their phone unless they're
| accustomed to taking notes.
| misja111 wrote:
| I'm right-handed and hold my phone to my left ear. Actually I
| tried holding it to my right ear a couple of times and it felt
| so unnatural that I had trouble focusing on the conversation. I
| have no idea why this is.
| noworld wrote:
| This is the one thing that seemed off. I don't have any
| preference for one ear over the other. If I hold the phone up
| to an ear, it would depend on what I wanted to do with the
| other hand. If I'm writing, I would hold the phone in my left
| hand to my left ear. If I'm typing one-handed, I would type
| with my left hand while i hold the phone in my right hand to my
| right ear.
|
| If I went to listen up against a door, it would depend on other
| things which ear I used, like which ear might already be closer
| to the door.
| oneeyedpigeon wrote:
| Smart phones confuse this, I think. I bet most right-handers
| hold their phone in their left hand so they can touch the
| screen with their right. So it then naturally follows that, to
| hold the phone to the ear, we'd keep it in that left hand. Of
| course, _sometimes_ I also use it one-handed, in which case it
| 's in my right hand -- on reflection, I think most phone use is
| probably ambidextrous.
| tivert wrote:
| > Smart phones confuse this, I think. I bet most right-
| handers hold their phone in their left hand so they can touch
| the screen with their right.
|
| Phones used to be small enough that you could use them one-
| handed, and I still tend try. The only grips I use are one-
| handed or _equally_ split between two hands, like holding a
| vertical video game controller. I never use a phone in the
| way you describe, except maybe to rarely to hit a single
| button that 's out of reach. I tend to rock it in my hand to
| reach with my thumb.
|
| Have I ever told you I think all phones are slightly too big
| now?
| delecti wrote:
| There might be an age component to that. Anecdotally, holding
| the phone with the opposite hand from the one touching the
| screen feels correlated with age to me. I'm right-handed, and
| primarily use my phone one-handed with my right hand.
| oneeyedpigeon wrote:
| It could be an age thing, but I feel like it's more a size
| & situational thing. I would definitely use a smaller phone
| one-handed. And when I'm out and about, I do too.
| bee_rider wrote:
| I think talking on the phone is sufficiently different from
| using it as a tiny computer, we just hold it completely
| differently in that scenario, so I bet we tend to go to the
| default state (right hand). I'm trying to think back, but I
| can't ever remember using a phone left-handed.
| twoodfin wrote:
| The symmetry or lack thereof between mirrored "left-handed/right-
| handed" phenomena is a deep problem up and down the physical
| world:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chirality
| au8er wrote:
| Often times chirality is not just a fun quirk. For certain
| drugs, the left handed and the right handed versions can have
| completely different effects on the human body:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiral_drugs#Drug_toxicity. To
| avoid making the wrong type of drug, a specific way of
| producing the chemical molecule has to be derived:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enantioselective_synthesis.
| howard941 wrote:
| And sometimes it doesn't change much at all except for the
| patent and withdrawal as with citalopram/escitalopram
| (generic Celexa/Lexapro).
| rrgok wrote:
| I was originally left-handed, but my father made me switch to my
| right hand because he believed being left-handed was the "hand of
| the devil." Now, I've become ambidextrous, and I instinctively
| choose which hand to use depending on the activity. Sometimes,
| when I'm trying something for the first time and I'm unsure which
| hand is best, I get stuck and have to go through some trial and
| error before it feels natural.
| _heimdall wrote:
| Similar story for my wife, though it was an underfunded
| Catholic school with only right-handed sports equipment that
| pushed her to be ambidextrous. She's split pretty much 50:50 on
| which hand she does something with, though I've noticed she
| does actually seem to pick her left hand when its a totally new
| skill she hasn't done before.
|
| My right hand is all but useless, I'm _very_ left handed. Golf
| is the only exception, but I 'm terrible in either direction
| and right handed clubs are easier to rent or buy.
| grecy wrote:
| I'm right handed for everything in life, _except_ chopping
| wood. It 's the one thing my leftie Dad taught me that stuck.
|
| I had no idea until recently when someone said "Hey, you're
| doing that left handed"
| oneeyedpigeon wrote:
| I'm right handed for everything except snooker/pool. I have
| no idea why, it just felt more natural to put my right hand
| down as the rest and hold the cue with my left.
| Clubber wrote:
| My dad was left handed, I'm left handed and my daughter is left
| handed. It certainly helps in troubleshooting things, because
| when anyone else uses a pair of scissors, they work. When a
| left handed person uses a pair of scissors, they don't work, so
| you have to figure out how scissors work, or just use your
| right hand. Imagine doing that with everything.
|
| I did pick up some ambidextrous habits. My daughter and I mouse
| with my right hand but my dad left handed a mouse.
| adrian_b wrote:
| My father was left handed.
|
| While in school, before WWII, he was beaten on the offending
| hand, to discourage him from writing with the left hand. So
| eventually he became accustomed to write with the right hand,
| and then he has continued to write with the right hand, even if
| he always did most other kinds of precision work with his left
| hand.
| technothrasher wrote:
| I was originally ambidextrous, but my mother taught me to be
| left handed because that seemed more interesting to her. I'm
| mostly left handed these days, though I bat either way, use my
| mouse either way, and shoot guns right handed (I forced myself
| to learn to shoot right, so semi-auto casings are ejected away
| from me instead of toward me).
| from-nibly wrote:
| Dang I'm right handed but left eyed so I need to hold guns
| left handed. How did you switch your eyedness for guns?
| depressedpanda wrote:
| When I was in the army I switched to holding my assault
| rifle right handed because I was near sighted on my left
| eye. (Not getting the casings ejected onto my right arm
| when they later gave me an LMG was an added bonus, man that
| gun was poorly designed)
|
| It took maybe a week to get used to the switch but wasn't
| that big of a problem even though I'm both left handed and
| left eyed.
|
| So you just.. do it, I guess?
| larrik wrote:
| I'm similar, but no parent or teacher forced me to be so. I do
| write with my left hand, but so many other things are just
| easier right-handed that I do both (sometimes switching between
| them during the same task). Pretty sure my right hand is faster
| and my left hand is more precise.
| ultimaweapon wrote:
| I always use left hand for everything that does not requires
| right hand. The only activities I need to use right hand is
| when I use a desktop computer or writing. I was tried to use
| right hand for the other activities but it is never comfortable
| no matter how much I practice.
| bpoyner wrote:
| Unless you really can switch hands at the drop of a hat (which
| is incredibly rare), the term is cross-dominant or mixed-
| handed. I prefer my right hand for fine motor skills and left
| for gross. I have a coworker is who is almost exactly the
| opposite.
| virtualwhys wrote:
| Exactly, ambidextrous people are freaks of nature, like a
| professional baseball player who can pitch with either hand
| from inning to inning, and even then there will be a stronger
| side -- in other words, it is unlikely that a human being
| could be equally dominant across both hands.
| Delphiza wrote:
| A right-handed friend of mine was forced, as a result of spinal
| damage, to make use of his left hand. He always used to say "I
| was was right-handed, but now I am ambisinistral... equally
| useless with both hands"
| woleium wrote:
| curiously, the etymology of sinister is from the latin for
| left (with dex for right)
| GloomyBoots wrote:
| I'm ambidextrous as well, but always was I guess. Most things
| feel more natural to do with one hand or the other, and I just
| do that. I never felt like ambidextrous was accurate, so I say
| weird-handed.
|
| The reason I write right-handed is that my friend kept
| "correcting" me when we were learning. I still hold the pencil
| like a lefty, though, which gets funny looks.
| throwaway290 wrote:
| Could it just be that for centuries leading up to now left
| handedness was considered "bad" to "very bad" (still many
| languages have the connotation) and before that we have no real
| data about how common it was?
| Miraltar wrote:
| From the article, "when you compare the number of left- and
| right-handed Neanderthals, this same ratio of 1 in 10 left-
| handers that we see today pops out"
| ttyprintk wrote:
| I feel we're giving a lot of credit to Neanderthals by
| assuming they had no superstitions around something as basic
| as handedness.
| Miraltar wrote:
| They might have and even without speaking of superstitions,
| we learn a lot by imitation, so that could be a factor too.
| But having the same ratio is a weird coincidence and it's
| also said in the article that babies already have their
| preference in the womb.
| readthenotes1 wrote:
| More than teeth scratches point to this
|
| https://www.sapiens.org/biology/handedness-neanderthals/
| deafpolygon wrote:
| I'm predominantly left-handed, except on the computer. Where I
| use the mouse with my right hand and play FPS games using the
| mouse on my right hand, as well. Not sure how common this is.
| acureau wrote:
| Yep me too, I'm sure there are many things we've subconsciously
| adapted to using with our right hands. Actually I've never
| bought a product purpose made for left-handed people.
| goosedragons wrote:
| I'm guessing your school or home computer had it on the right
| growing up? I got used to using it on the right because I
| didn't want to move the mouse to the left in the school
| computer labs as it was always a clutter of cords. At home half
| my family was left handed and mainly the PC was used by the
| lefties so I got used to playing FPSs with the left hand. I
| kinda hate playing on PC now because WASD is trash left hand
| mousing and it's A HUGE PITA to remap every single key to make
| sense on the the other side of the keyboard, some games don't
| even let you map keys like ';' because IDK, fuck me I guess.
|
| I do think I'm more accurate with my left too.
| theoreticalmal wrote:
| " when you look at rare conditions, like Down Syndrome, epilepsy
| and cerebral palsy, the ratio of left- to right-handers is more
| like 50:50 rather than 1:10."
|
| Is this a typo? Or are left-handed people way, way more likely to
| suffer from these rare diseases?
| pclmulqdq wrote:
| There are a lot of myths and anecdata about lefties having
| shorter life expectancy. That might indicate health
| consequences in some way.
| eftpotrm wrote:
| IIRC the major factor in that was found to be that left-
| handed people within the age ranges where significant numbers
| of them are dying of natural causes had usually been brought
| up to suppress left-handedness, so are reporting as right-
| handed and skewing the data.
| robertlagrant wrote:
| But why would that mean that the people who didn't suppress
| died so much younger?
| verteu wrote:
| > [A]ccording Chris McManus, the researchers made a "very
| subtle error"...
|
| > Halpern and Coren took a list of the people who had
| recently died and contacted their families, asking
| whether or not their relative had been right- or left-
| handed.
|
| > Looking at 2,000 cases, they saw that the average age
| at death of the left-handers was about nine years younger
| than of the right-handers.
|
| > On that basis, they concluded that left-handers died
| earlier.
|
| > At first glance, that seems persuasive. What did the
| researchers do wrong?
|
| > "Their mistake was that they only looked at the dead,"
| Chris McManus explains.
|
| > The point is that left-handers are more common now than
| they used to be, so - at least at the time the research
| was published - left-handers were on average younger than
| right-handers.
|
| https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-23988352
| devilbunny wrote:
| People who have them are more likely to have other
| disturbances. One of the few things I recall clearly from
| embryology in med school is that _any_ disturbance of the
| midline and sided structures of the body often reflects some
| abnormal development: there 's rarely only one (e.g., if their
| brain is abnormal, you had better look for cardiac
| abnormalities).
|
| Left-handedness is unusual, but not _per se_ pathologic. There
| is a running joke among neurologists that the average
| neurologist is a left-handed person with migraines. They aren
| 't all, of course, but if you had chronic headaches and were
| left-handed, wouldn't that predispose you to pursuing a
| specialty where you try to figure out what's going on in
| brains? I majored in chemistry; it's not a huge stretch to
| imagine why I became an anesthesiologist. It's interesting, and
| it makes some intuitive sense. We tend to be more of the
| "analyst" personality; former engineers and accountants are not
| rare in anesthesia.
| dTal wrote:
| Let's work it out: 1 in 10 are lefty, 1 in 1000 have Downs.
| Supposedly 50% of people with Downs are lefty, therefore:
|
| P(A) = 0.001
|
| P(B|A) = 0.5
|
| P(B) = 0.1
|
| P(A|B) = P(B|A)xP(A)/P(B) = 0.5x0.001/0.1 = 0.005 = 0.50%
|
| So the chances of having Downs given being a lefty is 1 in 200,
| or which _is_ 5 times higher than the base rate, but still
| quite rare. It 's probably more a case of "having developmental
| abnormalities interferes with handedness" rather than "being a
| lefty predisposes you to having sundry developmental
| abnormalities".
| TacticalCoder wrote:
| Down syndrome (trisomy 21) and cerebral palsy are something
| you're born with no? Epilepsy too maybe? (even if it only
| declares later on in life?)
|
| So how is this not inversing cause and effect:
|
| > Or are left-handed people way, way more likely to suffer from
| these rare diseases?
| Melatonic wrote:
| Or there are simply a lot of people who might be left handed by
| default but then adapt and learn to be right handed. People
| with rare conditions like the above might either have more
| trouble adapting or perhaps socially we put them more in
| special ed programs where they are observed more closely and
| stick with their default.
| Terr_ wrote:
| It might just mean that people with certain disorders have much
| bigger immediate problems in hand-movement to overcome, so that
| there's no extra capacity/opportunity to engage in mimicking
| the right-handedness of people around them.
| grecy wrote:
| Here's a fun test - we're all in socks on a slippery wood floor.
| I'll give you $500 if you can run and slide further than I can.
|
| Close you eyes and really imagine it (or do it right now). Really
| feel yourself sliding along, that tingly feeling of almost losing
| control, etc. etc. Going a little further with each try.
|
| REALLY run and slide AS FAR AS YOU CAN.
|
| Which foot did you have in front?
|
| I'm very much right handed and footed in life, but in this test I
| can really only do it right foot forward (called 'goofy' in
| snowboarding) - left foot forward feels super sketchy to me even
| after years of practice, and I can't slide nearly as far.
|
| The vast majority of people (left and right handed) are left foot
| forward.
|
| (This is the best way to determine which foot a beginner should
| put forward on their snowboard or surfboard. Do the test without
| telling them you are doing the test. If they can equally do both,
| then it doesn't matter)
| scriptdevil wrote:
| Right handed with right-foot-forward as well.
| adrian_b wrote:
| Me too.
| oneeyedpigeon wrote:
| Right handed, but I pictured my left foot forward. I guess
| because I'd expect the power to come from my right foot (I'm
| right footed).
| Miraltar wrote:
| Same but I disagree on the explanation. When in comes to
| jumps I usually use my left foot but here it's more about
| balance than power I think and having played handball for a
| long time, I feel more stable with left foot in front
| MontgomeryPi2 wrote:
| An easier snowboard test is to tell someone to turn around and
| tell them you are going to give them a push. Give them a shove
| to the upper back and see which foot they put forward first to
| brace.
| grecy wrote:
| That is an old myth that doesn't work very well.
|
| Source: I've been a level 3 snowboard instructor in Canada
| for 10+ years. There are only 4 levels.
|
| It also doesn't work if you're with a group of students
| because it won't be a surprise after everyone sees you do it
| to the first student. If you have a "slide on snow"
| competition but don't say why, you can watch everyone and
| what foot is forward before you tell them what is going on.
| MontgomeryPy wrote:
| Duly noted!
| ZaoLahma wrote:
| On ice skates I (left handed and left footed) find it easier to
| come to a prompt stop with the left foot forward, and I
| naturally slide across ice and such with my left foot forward
| so, naturally, I thought I'd have the left foot forward while
| snowboarding.
|
| Everything felt absolutely right, UNTIL I gained some real
| speed for the first time. Nope! Suddenly everything felt wrong,
| and I instinctively turned so I had my right foot forward.
|
| So weirdly goofy it is.
| bee_rider wrote:
| Huh, weird.
|
| I tend to default to right foot forward for most things. Sport
| fencing did it, maybe...
| TheRoque wrote:
| I brush my teeth and write with the left, dribble and throw
| with the right.
|
| I kick the ball with the right, and on the boards sports I'm
| goofy.
| leejo wrote:
| I'm of the generation that were forced to write with the right
| even though I was a natural lefty. I also broke my left arm when
| I was 2, which may have made things even more messed up. These
| days I: * Write with my right, my left is not
| quite as quick/tidy as my right * Swing/grip with my left
| (cricket / golf / etc) * Use my phone with my left *
| Mouse with my right * Cut (scissors) with my right (but we
| don't have any lefty scissors so...) * Drink a pint with my
| left * Play guitar with my right (but i learnt with a RH
| acoustic, so...)
| pclmulqdq wrote:
| I'm not sure why people have started to make reversed musical
| instruments. I saw a video with a reversed piano, calling it
| "left-handed." I am a left-handed person who plays the piano
| and I had always thought the keyboard was laid out like an
| ascending scale on paper rather than having something to do
| with handedness - low notes on the left and high notes on the
| right.
|
| The motions involved in playing music are so weird that I don't
| think it matters that much. Even if it does, there might be
| techniques that you find easier to master with one handedness
| or the other.
|
| I will also add that I have been complemented on the facility
| of my left hand when playing, but when I hear the people who
| say that play scales, it's very clear that they don't practice
| technique with both hands equally.
| Miraltar wrote:
| I don't think it matters too much on a piano but on a guitar
| it does a lot because your hands do very different things.
| pclmulqdq wrote:
| Wouldn't you want the more dextrous hand to be the one
| choosing which notes to play? My sister plays string
| instruments, and she has commented many times that I am
| lucky for being left handed because lefties have a better
| time with complex fingering.
|
| I suppose that it's easier to start out right handed on
| guitar, though, when the right hand is more active than the
| left hand.
| unzadunza wrote:
| I'm a lefty and I played right handed guitar growing up.
| I never got very good at strumming and picking. Five
| years ago I switched to left-handed guitars and I think
| I'm much better than I ever was as a righty. Picking the
| strings well, to me, is the most difficult part of
| playing a guitar.
| altruios wrote:
| I'm left handed and play the piano.
|
| I think if I had a learned on a reversed piano - it would
| not transfer to a regular piano - I would be able to play
| better.
|
| What which hand is responsible for (melody,
| accompaniment/rhythm) have very different dexterity
| requirements. Learning melody on the dominate hand would be
| preferable to me, in hindsight.
|
| With an electronic keyboard, reversing the tones should be
| easy enough to do. However, I have not noticed that
| feature.
| retrac wrote:
| Piano music is mostly written by right-handers for right-
| handers. I'm strongly left-hand dominant. For music that's
| intended to be easy to play, the primary voice is almost
| always on the right hand. Where the music wants the most
| dexterity, I have the least.
|
| At the developed level where the composer doesn't give a damn
| about how easy it is for the musician to play, yes, both left
| and right-handers have to figure out how to realize the piece
| and would make use of their strengths to do so.
|
| For instruments like guitar I think the case for reversing
| the handedness of the instrument is a bit stronger, since the
| hands serve very different roles there.
| pclmulqdq wrote:
| I don't think that's the actual reason, even for teaching
| music. The primary voice is in the right hand because the
| right hand is higher and so the waves it generates have
| higher energy at the same volume, making it the easiest
| voice to hear. I assume that in arrangements and pop music,
| the arranger naturally puts the melody on top and fills in
| as much harmony as they care to (which is usually not a lot
| unless you pay for the arrangement).
| PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
| This in no way disagrees with the GP comment and in most
| ways reinforces it.
| pclmulqdq wrote:
| > Piano music is mostly written by right-handers for
| right-handers
|
| Even if that does not directly say that people (right-
| handers, specifically) insert their handedness bias into
| the things they write, it does certainly imply that that
| is important for people who write piano music to put the
| athletic part (the melody) in the more dextrous hand. It
| is not. The reason for the right hand to carry the melody
| is the sound projection of high notes, nothing to do with
| handedness.
|
| Incidentally, many famous composers in the piano canon
| were lefties. Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, and Ravel all have
| strong evidence of being left-handed. CPE Bach may have
| also been a lefty, as may have Mozart and Beethoven. This
| is not "right-handed people making right-handed music" by
| any means.
| wbrd wrote:
| I taught guitar for three years to groups of undergrads. I
| noticed that most lefties had no problem playing a right-
| handed guitar. However, occasionally I would have a student
| that just struggled mightily and things clicked when they
| switched to a left-handed guitar.
| leejo wrote:
| I went to a Don Ross workshop once and there was a left
| handed player there doing the upside down RH guitar thing,
| which was especially impressive due to the style of music
| and having to play the bass notes with their pinky.
| Rastonbury wrote:
| My lefty friends use RH golf clubs
| k1kingy wrote:
| Yeah my body is all kinds of confused also: -
| Write with my left - Cricket/golf right -
| Tennis/squash left - Bowl/throw left - Mouse right
| - Drink left - Eat right (fork in left hand, knife in
| right) - Cut left (but usually don't bother because
| scissors never work) - I also kick well off both feet
| (although favor the left foot slightly)
|
| I'm definitely more left dominant but can usually do most
| things well enough with my right. I was also never told/forced
| to be right-handed.
| leejo wrote:
| Oh bowling - I do that with both hands, equally bad at each
| (well, maybe slightly better with the left).
| random42_ wrote:
| I thought I was the only one like that, except my dominant
| leg for kicking is the right one, and I eat with fork on
| right hand, knife on left; and I use scissors with my right
| hand. I also play the guitar as a right-handed person.
|
| When I tell people these things, I can see total confusion on
| their faces. Quite funny.
| osigurdson wrote:
| One interesting data point is the majority of hockey players
| shoot left but are not left handed.
|
| https://www.purehockey.com/c/why-are-so-many-hockey-players-...
| Krasnol wrote:
| I'm one of those lefties who have been forced to write using my
| right hand too.
|
| It cost me grades throughout my whole time at school and
| university. This is why I write with my right hand. It's ugly,
| but most of the time I can read it. Luckily, we have devices
| today which make handwriting not so necessary anymore.
|
| It was a blessing when I learned spreading butter on bread with
| my left hand...in my late 20s. Those many times I just ripped
| through the bread. Also forced upon me on some church vacation
| where me doing it with my left hand was just uncomfortable for
| my table neighbor and why I had to stop it according to the
| adult watching us.
|
| Yeah...it is more than "a bit annoying" in this right-handed
| world sometimes.
|
| Get those lefty scissors. They are such a blessing!
| gsej wrote:
| I lost a little faith when I saw the article referred to
| Neanderthals as "our ancestors"...
|
| Intrigued by the throwaway comment that we know handedness is
| genetically determined. Is that true? I was under the impression
| it was a developmental issue (identical twins with opposite
| orientation being one piece of evidence here).
| tokai wrote:
| I lose a little faith when I see people nitpick while being
| wrong.
| oneeyedpigeon wrote:
| "Neanderthals were our ancestors" is more wrong than it's
| right.
| tejtm wrote:
| Only need to get 'a little bit pregnant` though.
| ttyprintk wrote:
| I remember an article in Nature that's better than this one.
| Stats:
|
| Men are 13%, women 9% Being a twin is very high, like 17%
| Scandinavia is 13%, China <3%
| inglor_cz wrote:
| Basically all people with ancestry outside Subsaharan Africa
| have nontrivial Neanderthal admixture. Even many Africans do,
| although it is a fresh (post-1600 or so) contribution from
| other parts of the world. So they were "our" ancestors, just
| not the dominant ones.
|
| That statement would only be categorically wrong if made about
| pureblood Khoisan etc.
| lesuorac wrote:
| I wonder if this is more a p-hacking phenomenon than a real
| advantage.
|
| Much like how when you test every jelly bean [1] you'll find one
| with an unexpected outcome. If you evaluate every "duplicative"
| pairing in the human body, it seems like you should find at least
| a pair where one is more effective than the other.
|
| [1]: https://xkcd.com/882/
| cynicalpeace wrote:
| "Left" probably comes from the proto-indo-european root "laiwos",
| which means to bend or curve. "Right" probably comes from
| "hregtos", which means straight and correct.
|
| Makes sense, since most people don't write well with their left
| hand.
|
| English retains this connotation strongly since "right" also
| literally means "correct" or "straight" (both of which come from
| the same root too)
|
| Then you add in the political connotations "right wing" and
| "Human Rights" and the subject becomes endlessly fascinating.
| bee_rider wrote:
| Right wing is just the side of the room some guys sat on during
| some arguments in the French Revolution, or something like
| that, right?
|
| I always assumed "rights" as in human rights were derived from
| writ, as in a type of written document issued by a court (which
| could be used to clarify somebody's rights). I guess write and
| right could be related though.
| cynicalpeace wrote:
| No, I don't believe "rights" come from "writ". It comes from
| "right" meaning correct and straight, since "right" also had
| a legal connotation (think "rule" which also comes from the
| same PIE root).
|
| You see this clearly in other IE languages like Spanish where
| "a la derecha" means to the right, "derecho" means straight
| (which can be confusing), and "derechos" means "rights" in
| the legal sense.
| n4r9 wrote:
| The percentage of left-handedness correlates strongly with how
| pacifist vs warlike the society is. According to this 2005 study
| it varies from 3% up to 27%:
| https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1634940/
| inglor_cz wrote:
| Wow, this really blew my mind.
| aklemm wrote:
| Imagine a society of red-headed left-handers.
| altruios wrote:
| Study does not exactly imply that left-handers are the cause
| of the violence, just corelated to societies' total violence.
| Perhaps we are exceptionally annoying to right-handers. This
| 'um, actually...' post would then be a salient self-
| referential sample of what I mean.
| aklemm wrote:
| "Well that guy is obviously left-handed"
| istultus wrote:
| This has to take the cake for "most spurious correlation." The
| most coherent reading is "places which report more homocide
| data are correlated with reporting more left-handedness"
| trhway wrote:
| Interesting that the scale is logarithmic on the homicides
| number axis.
| ultimafan wrote:
| I wonder if this is where the whole left handedness being
| associated with the hand of the devil (or any evil) came from
| historically. Our ancestors probably weren't doing studies like
| this but like many religious/spiritual restrictions that seem
| like they are backed by "nothing" at first turn out to have a
| fair application to life behind them it's probably not too much
| of a stretch that someone at some point or other noticed
| something like hey, that village/tribe/whatever near us has a
| LOT of left handers and they have an awfully suspicious amount
| of violent incidents happening.
| Melatonic wrote:
| It could also be that when fighting (pre guns) people with left
| handed weapons took normal right handers off guard (sort of
| like how in baseball a leftie might throw off other players). I
| can imagine in a sword battle if you are used to fighting
| people right handing swords that suddenly fighting a left
| handed person could be unexpected and disadvantage you.
|
| Where I am going with this is that it might not be that left
| handedness directly correlates with violence in any way - but
| perhaps societies with more left handed people were simply more
| likely to survive in more war like times.
| xanderlewis wrote:
| I'm right-handed for everything except eating crisps. But that's
| just because I don't want to get grease on my phone.
| zdragnar wrote:
| I write left handed, and use a fork in my left and knife in my
| right. Left hand for holding a phone or a drinking glass, and for
| shaving.
|
| I'm right eye dominant, though, so I throw, swing, shoot, use
| scissors, play instruments and use a mouse right handed.
|
| I'm not at all ambidextrous, I can't do most of those things with
| my other hand.
| tejohnso wrote:
| I guess it's possible to be non dominant in either hand. I
| write left and eat with a fork or spoon in the left, but I bat,
| bowl, or throw with the right. In the boxing gym, I'm not a
| southpaw. But I play lefty guitar.
| rabid_turtle wrote:
| Same here. Left hand is precision, right hand is power.
| aklemm wrote:
| This is me _exactly_. I always say "strength in my right,
| finesse in my left" even though it's not exactly accurate; I
| couldn't hit the ground with a football from my left hand.
| InMice wrote:
| Im also like that..randomly mixed. I write left, but use
| scissors always with right. Throw and kick are right, but swing
| and bat is left. Computer mouse left. Taking a phone call is
| always left hand on left ear...but holding phone to use or text
| is always right hand. Self check out? Back to left hand for
| that mostly Lol. If a backpack is on one shoulder it feels
| weird if it's not on my left shoulder despite being more right
| "armed".
| _whiteCaps_ wrote:
| I thought that scissors were made to be right handed, and you
| need a 'reversed' pair for left handed people. Or is that a
| scam?
| cruffle_duffle wrote:
| The thing with scissors is, as a left handed person, you'll
| never find the "reversed" type so you learn to just use
| "regular" scissors pretty early on. This is probably true
| with a lot of things, honestly. Yeah I might theoretically
| be able to cut better with a left handed pair of scissors
| but since I've never come across a pair I never bothered.
|
| Things get much more interesting with more complex things
| like golf, snowboarding & skateboarding, shooting, etc.
| These things all have left-hand optimized equivalants (eg:
| left handed clubs, snowboards with the bindings set top
| "goofy", guns with the safety on the opposite side, etc).
| In all cases its a tradeoff -- you can learn and get good
| on the equipment designed just for you and then wind up
| sucking when you are handed equipment that is used by most
| everybody else or you can just learn to use the "normal"
| equipment even if slightly suboptimal. Guns, for example,
| eject their used shells off the right side of the weapon--
| good luck getting one that ejects off the left side so you
| can old it opposite of everybody and not have hot metal
| land on your face.
|
| Computer mice are the same deal... some of those bastards
| are even molded explicitly for right hand use and are
| pretty uncomfortable in the left hand.
|
| Being left handed gets weird quick because you are in a
| minority that most product designers simply don't consider.
| zdragnar wrote:
| There's a slight pressure you put on the hinge when closing
| them. The handedness aligns the pressure to a closing
| motion laterally (keeping the blades together) as opposed
| to opening (pushing the cutting edges apart).
|
| They do in fact make a difference. Trimming my beard with
| beard scissors requires a bit of a strange grip in my left
| hand to actually cut well when I switch sides.
| rzzzt wrote:
| Nail scissors can be quite the experience for a left-
| hander, instead of achieving the proper cutting/shearing
| motion it will just try to bend your nails due to the
| widened gap between the blades. A bit less painful but
| also annoying is cutting paper for the same reason.
| neckro23 wrote:
| Left-handed scissors are a thing. I own a couple of pairs
| but they feel funny because I've simply used right-handed
| scissors backwards most of my life.
|
| One big difference is visibility. On right-handed scissors
| you can see the cut from the (top) left, while left-handed
| ones are the opposite. If you cut lefty with righty
| scissors you can't see what you're doing (unless you
| awkwardly hold everything to the right side).
| quickthrowman wrote:
| Left-handed screwdrivers are not real, but left-handed
| scissors are real.
| pestaa wrote:
| Me too. It's called mixed-handedness.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-dominance
| a_e_k wrote:
| I'm exactly the same on all those (and add kicking to the
| right-sided list). Cross-dominant [1] is the usual term I use
| for it.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-dominance
| bamboozled wrote:
| I write with my left hand, play guitar with my right, and use
| the mouse with my right. Same as you though, I'm not
| ambidextrous
| gsk22 wrote:
| > I'm right eye dominant, though, so I throw, swing, shoot, use
| scissors, play instruments and use a mouse right handed.
|
| Dominant eye and hand don't have to match; in fact, they often
| don't. To quote Wikipedia:
|
| > ...the side of the dominant eye and the dominant hand do not
| always match. This is because both hemispheres control both
| eyes, but each one takes charge of a different half of the
| field of vision, and therefore a different half of both retinas
| jmdots wrote:
| Left handed. Right eyed. Right eared. Mouse with right because I
| had to in 1992. Overall, I'm unhappy with my brain, so my vote is
| on it being a bad thing. It's very discouraging in a left to
| right language society to smear your own handwriting constantly.
| Also, guitar tabs and all kinds of other things are built for the
| majority. I'd much rather be right handed.
| rjsw wrote:
| It depends on the context, I have been in meetings where everyone
| except for one PHB was left handed. The ratio was probably 50:50
| across the company as a whole.
| nickff wrote:
| What is a PHB? I searched online, and found that it could mean
| bachelor's in philosophy (PhB) or polyhydroxybutyrate
| (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyhydroxybutyrate), but
| neither makes much sense in this context.
| ip26 wrote:
| Pointy haired boss. Coined by Dilbert.
| mikestew wrote:
| This is _not_ a criticism, but I'm amused that someone with
| an HN account as old as yours is just now finding out what
| "PHB" means.
| paulpauper wrote:
| _About 10% of the world 's population is left-handed, while 90%
| are right-handed. The remaining 1% of people are ambidextrous,
| meaning they have no dominant hand._
|
| 10% does not seem that rare.
| scrubs wrote:
| It's worth pointing out cigar smokers that are left handers
| exceed 1:10 and I've read elsewhere smoking is a preferred
| Neanderthal trait.
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