Why Are Some People Left-Handed?
Our world is made for right-handed people - you can see that almost everywhere. Scissors, ink, spiral notebooks, zippers…
Even the word „right“ itself means correct - while left ('lyft') had originally a negative meaning like evil or sinister. And that’s not only in english, but in many different languages!
Left-handedness was even thought of as a condition that should be corrected, so up until mid-20th century, left-handed kids were forced to write and eat with their right hand.
While both hands seem to be physically exactly same, we always have one preference - we do certain tasks with our right or our left hand.
Handedness has the evolutionary reason that it speeds things up - if you always know which hand you will use for certain tasks, you won’t have to think about it and act right away.
Handedness is not a choice or determined with which hand a child starts to write - it can even be predicted in the womb, depending on the position of the fetus.
While animals also prefer one paw, for them the chances are about 50/50.
But only one out of 10 people is left-handed.
If two right-handed people have a child, the chance of the child being left-handed is 9%.
If one of the parent is already left-handed the chances are 19%, and if both are left-handed that number rises to 26%.
Left-handed people are small in numbers, but that number is surprisingly consistent.
And it’s been this way for over 500,000 years so there must be an advantage!
So what is the evolutionary benefit of left-handed people?
Researches have shown that it must be a combination of competitive and cooperative forces that makes being left-handed an advantage.
The competitive advantage is clear in fights or competitive sports where you are up against an opponent.
This amazing video by Ted-Ed sums it up very well:
Like the video above explained, in Baseball for example it can be a huge advantage to be left-handed - in fact the advantage is so big, that around 50% of top Baseball players were left-handed! That's a lot compared to the 10% of lefties in the population.
Since lefties are a minority, most players will be used to practicing with and competing against right-handed people.
But the lefty will be used to facing right-handed opponents, so he has a clear advantage while the right-handed player will be surprised and thrown-off by the fact that his opponent is left-handed and plays in a different way than he’s used to.
But that’s not the only factor that leads into this.
If our life only consisted of competing and fighting, natural selection would cause more lefties to survive and therefore significantly increase the number of lefties up to 50%.
But Cooperation has been just as important as competition if we look at human evolution.
A lot of the tools that were important in the history of humanity were designed for right-handed people. Scissors, can openers etc.
Lefties are more prone to accidents when using these tools and would be*** less successful in a world that’s purely cooperative*** - so eventually they’d disappear.
So the reason that we have a small minority of lefties with constant numbers shows that it’s beneficial in an Equilibrium of competitive and cooperative factors.
So do lefties have specific character traits or abilities?
That’s not entirely scientifically proven yet.
Some claim that lefties are more prone to dyslexia, ADHD, schizophrenia get angry and embarrassed quicker and even die earlier.
But other sources say that left-handed people are more creative, slightly more intelligent, good leaders and can think very logically.
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© Sirwinchester
I'm only left handed at writing, everything else with the right.
Same here! I thought I was the only one
Very interesting!
hahha, I didn’t know animals had preferred paws as well
natural selection would’ve erased the lefty population long ago, so there HAD to be a benefit!
Exactly, and the advantage is big enough to keep the lefties at a consistent number
Left handed here! :)
very informative - my sister is a lefty, I’ll show her this!
Glad to hear you enjoyed the post!
50% of top baseball players were lefties? THAT much? that’s surprising - thanks for sharing!
didn’t know you could predict handedness in the womb, I always thought it was just like a gut feeling that a child had
I wonered about this before. My mom is. Thanks for upvoting my content. Upvoted.
my Dad was forced to use his right hand too when he was in school - today he can do almost all tasks with both hands!
that advantage against opponents is so interesting - never thought about it, but of course thats true!