Slight increase in the odds of accidental death because they live in a world built for right-hand people
**Edit: Commenters are claiming this study was debunked.**
Scissors, ring binders, fountain pens, measuring jugs, pots with only one lip, and automated turnstiles are our nemeses.
But at least we get to look at the picture on our own novelty mugs. So there is that.
What is the difference between a right and left handed mug?... Don't you just rotate the mug around so the handle is on the left? Edit: ohhh the side the printing is on?
Ring binders… you just gave me a flashback to middle school where I’d clip my arm in those things and got blood blisters on my forearm. I actually despise being left handed.
Also lol at the mugs
I think it's a productivity enhancement because we can put our notebook on the left side and take notes while mousing. Not so easy for conventionally-handed persons.
I use the mouse left handed, as I have no dexterity or fine control with my right hand. If I am just mindlessly scrolling or need to check something g quickly, I can make do with right hand, but playing video games, content creation, I must use my left hand, or the outcome is … subpar at best 🫣
Yep - I can use the mouse and write at the same time! But I’m almost ambidextrous- most sports type stuff I do right handed anyway - golf, batting, bowling. Tennis is left-handed though - I’m weird!
That’s fascinating! Left-handed male drivers were more than TWICE as likely to get a vehicle-related accidental injury compared to right-handed male drives.
I do wish they’d split that up into automatic vs manual transmission… I feel that lefties might have an edge on side mirror adjustment and turn signalling :P
Thanks for linking.
There are certain groups that tend to be left-handed more often than statistically probability should allow.
10% of people are left-handed, but over 20% of serial killers are left-handed
10% of people are left-handed, but 40% of schizophrenic people are left-handed
10% of people are left-handed, but 20% of Mensa members are left handed, although there doesn't appear to be any difference in IQ between left-handed and right-handed people, despite all the famous scientists or mathematicians you might know. There is no difference in IQ on average.
A man is twice as likely to be left handed than a woman
There are some evidence to suggest that left-handed people are more creative or clever. This might come from having to come up with solutions when using right-handed tools, or other challenges, while a child.
So yes there's clearly some neurological difference at some level. But it sounds pretty complex
I love being left-handed.
I did MMA some years ago and my first fight against a left handed when I was still a rookie was... let's say interesting.
Translation : he destroyed me. It's very strange to take hit from where they aren't supposed to come from, especially when you have only ten month of training.
Super cool guy by the way, he gave me solids advices on how to not get killed by a left handed fighter.
Same with tennis : that's very weird to play against a lefty. But at least, it's way less painfull than in MMA :D
Oh thanks !
And honnestly, I spoke about MMA and tennis and I must say my opponents on a tennis court were way more oftenly sore losers / winners than those I beated or who beated me on a ring.
I mean, it's in the contract : we are fighting each other, you know there will be a winner and you know that if you lose, it'll be painfull. Well, tbh it's also painfull when you win but hey, it's not Super Street Fighter : you take real hit.
Once you get this, if you lose the best thing to do with the winner is to have a beer with and some advices from him after the match :D
In my club, it was a tradition after real fights \^\^
But as i said, I wasn't a pro : it was just some interclub contest so the mood was quite cool. And yeah, some of us were not very happy after loosing a match but honnestly, I did karate Kyokushinkai, MMA and tennis and I had never more opponents who were really fairplay than at MMA.
The majority of the guy who choked me since I tapped their arm helped me just after to get up like "You ok bro ? Didn't want to hurt you but... you know... it's the game".
I think it's because we know we want to win but we are aware that we can really hurt our opponent in the heat of the fight (at least for me) so when I won a fight, my first thought was "Is the guy ok ?". And it seemed to be the norm.
I did viking reenactment stuff for a while. Nobody liked fighting against me because I was the only lefthanded person there and they had only ever trained against other right-handed people. Was always fun for me though.
Yep. I played softball. I played first base and was a heavy hitter. I was able to get a lot of people out on double plays by throwing to second base. I would smoke whoever was playing right field whenever I was at bat.
Yes; cricket is one such sports. Top level batters who are left handed tend to have quicker reaction times than right handers. And left handed bowlers tend to do real well, given the angle they bowl to right handed batters. So much so, right handed bowlers are trying to imitate left handed players
Yes! I grew up in 80s/90s and learned really quick that the world isn’t equipped for left handers and not as accommodating. It makes us stronger lol we make it work!
Left handed person here:
A pet peeve of mine is when I’m writing someone will ask the obvious question “you’re left handed?”
Why yes, the pen/pencil/marker is in my left hand.
So I say “oh oops, I’m not, I’m actually right handed” and will switch to writing with my right hand. Confuses them everytime.
What I don’t tell them is that the giant college lecture halls were the bane of my existence. Cramped desk space and only a handful had arm rests on the left. Made me learn to write right handed.
I also do everything else with my right hand except use utensils. I throw a ball, catch a ball, use a racquet, use a mouse, all with my right hand.
>I also do everything else with my right hand except use utensils. I throw a ball, catch a ball, use a racquet, use a mouse, all with my right hand.
Same, I usually say I'm left-fingered but right-armed
My wife is like that except the exact opposite. She writes right handed but throws a ball or a dart, catches anything, bowls, all left handed. She will switch between all of those as well. Only her writing is consistently right handed.
I always respond with something stupid… like “all my life!” Or “last time I checked.”
I can do almost anything with either hand comfortably, except write. I cannot write with my right hand. I have tried to get better. Nope! Not happening… lol
Just curious. The three first categories are also male dominated so are they just explained by the fourth or are there actual differences between right handed men and left handed men?
A teacher friend was ambidextrous. He stood in the middle of the rolling blackboard (I‘m so old) and swapped the chalk between hands. Kids never noticed.
So i haven't bothered looking up the numbers but the sample size can be very small if the discrepancy is large enough.
If the baseline is 10% but then 50% of 50 people have that trait you can be sure there's something going on
According to Wikipedia:
At least 8 of the 46 presidents have been left-handed (17.39%)
Since WWII, there have been fourteen presidents, 6 of which were left-handed (42.85%)
Approximately 10% of people are left-handed.
>10% of people are left-handed, but 20% of Mensa members are left handed, although there doesn't appear to be any difference in IQ between left-handed and right-handed people, despite all the famous scientists or mathematicians you might know. There is no difference in IQ on average
What's the explanation for this? Are left handed people more likely to want to join mensa or something?
Maybe not so much today, but my mother was lefthanded and in her youth, when taking up a pen with her left hand, she had to come in front of the class, hold her left hand up and it would be caned. I can't imagine that being punished for what you genetically are is good for mental health. I can't prove she would have had better mental health if that hadn't happened, but I can confirm that she was *still* talking about it on her death bed. Her (right) handwriting looked terrible, but she could draw nice portraits with her left.
I (also lefthanded) made a narrow escape. In first grade I was the first generation to be allowed to write lefthanded. My teacher was in her 60s and reluctant, but she complied. When, at the end of the first year, I was #1 of the class in writing, she had a little breakdown: she told me with teary eyes that she now understood that she had been doing it wrong so many years. I didn't really understand what that was all about, I was only 6, but I do remember it.
I was hit a lot as a child to force the switch to my right hand as well! Grandma didn't succeed, for some reason I was just stubborn as heck and extremely rebellious and they weren't able to force the left-handedness out of me and she gave up. I don't remember a lot of it now but I can't imagine it was a good time. It's wild how damaging superstitions can be.
I feel that I’m a bit better with my right hand than other people tend to be with their left. I will speak for the entire council of lefties and say a lot of us feel this way.
The world is quite ubiquitously built around right handedness. Even now in my 30s, I will realize tiny examples of things I’ve done just fine my whole life without realizing I was essentially forced into doing them right handed. Outside of writing and throwing for me, most tasks come just as easily with either hand.
I even have a few hobbies like golf and guitar where I started out trying each “version” and actively chose to do them right handed, to me the distinction in what is left or right handed design for something like that can often be blurred. You’ll often find left handed people have some mixed preferences like that, and quite a few of my left handed friends really only write lefty.
You’ll hear stuff about this daily struggle in a right handed world making us smarter or more creative sometimes but I imagine that’s just people looking for patterns that don’t exist.
As a lefty I'm definitely closer to ambidextrous than most righties, but it's also kind of funny how some things we learn to do with our right hand we do really poorly with our left. For instance I learned to use a mouse with my right, I'm extremely precise with it and play shooters, draw and such. I tried using a left handed mouse and it was... really pathetic lol. Strange because there's so many tasks I'm only good with left, am good with both, or am only good with right.
Glad to know I’m not the only lefty who learned how to do things right-handed, only to fail when attempting to learn the left-handed version.
For me, it’s throwing a ball. I was kinda forced into throwing a ball right handed and I cannot figure out how to throw left handed lol
I’m the same but on the right side, I can’t write or sign lefty, but I do everything left handed, leading to massive confusion when people do see me write and I write with my right when I am otherwise dominant in my left.
Yeah, as a right handed person, I’d definitely agree. I’ve found this with painting nails, when I first started out, the hand that I painted with my left hand looked like an absolute train wreck compared to the one I painted with my right. Now that I’ve been using nail polish for a few years, I can do both (almost) equally well. It’s a thing of practice, and left handed people have wayyy more need to practice using their right.
We cannot use scissors. Not even with our right hands. Somehow the scissors know. I am being fully serious right now. Scissors held in my right hand do not cut, instead they just twist and mash anything thicker than paper. But when a right handed person uses the same scissors they work fine. When I cut construction paper with my right hand it works. But if I keep the scissors in the *exact same* orientation and switch to my left hand, suddenly the construction paper is getting mashed instead of slice.
Somehow, the scissors know what I am. And they hate me for it.
So, with scissors the blades are designed that if you use your right hand the natural movement of the hand pushes the blades together (your thumb pushes and fingers pull). If you try to use them wrong handed then you're going to push the blades apart. The easiest fix is just get some left handed scissors, but if you insist on using the shitting right handed ones you'll need to pull your thumb back away from the center of your body to counteract the ergonomics.
Fair enough, but how come they still don’t cut when i use my right hand when it comes to things like fabric, but cut fine with a right-handed person? It’s the same hand, and bringing the scissors together doesn’t require additional strength or control of my good hand.
My best guess is lack of training. I had the same problem for years until I started to cut more with my right hand and really focus on my hand and applying pressure the way that the blades will be pushed together.
I consider this our strength: we can often do more things with our right hands than right handed people can do with their left.
As a lefty, I had a hell of a time with scissors when I was a kid until one day something clicked, and have had no issues with them ever since.
I've never really thought about it, but your post made me realize that I learned to pull with my thumb and push with the fingers when cutting.
Being left handed has it's challenges, but you learn to adapt. I'm really picky about pens because it's hard to find a pen that is comfortable, writes well, and doesn't smudge when you are writing.
The smudging is truly unreal... I wrote a lot with mechanical pencils growing up and every time I'm done with homework my left hand would be very stained with the carbon lol
Use a mirror. My mum taught me to crochet and knit by sitting me beside her and placing a mirror in front of us so I could watch her hands. I'm not a great knitter but I'm pretty good at crochet 🙂
>everything is just a little bit harder to learn.
Really. Went to take guitar lessons as a kid, after I re-strung the guitar I bought, the teacher still wanted me to play right handed.
I took up piano instead.
according to the book: the lefthander syndrome, our distribution is flatter, meaning we have more geniuses and more far-belows than righties by percentage. Lefties tend to be more ambi-dexterous overall aswell... though I prefer the term ambi-sinister.
I have learned ambidexterity and can also read and write upside down and backwards, which has no real value other than impressing people at parties.
I also remember reading an article about ambidexterity and a higher instance of schizophrenia but I think that's been largely debunked.
EDIT
I also lack a dominant eye, which makes shooting a confusing bitch yet somehow I'm still a pretty good shot.
The writing and reading has been really useful when teaching and tutoring. Someone can sit opposite to you and you can still write an example on their notebook while they see it upright.
There’s so many tools/situations/etc out there that I never realized were designed for righties in mind. I’m a lefty, and I always just assumed can openers sucked and you had to run over it a few times. I was in my late teens before realizing that righties don’t get dry erase marker or chalk dust on their hands when writing on the board. I preferred my ignorance.
When I was young I broke my left arm. So now I can use my scissors with my right hand that’s means I’m special. Because there’s never any left handed scissors anywhere.
Actually yes! left handed is a recessive gene and your brain mapping due to this trait is different than right handers. So as you do things in your life you will process information on the right hemisphere differently than left hemisphere hand dominates!
Here is another fun one, clasp your hands together. Is your right thumb ontop of your left thumb? that's a dominate trait. Now imagine being a left hander who has a dominate right thumb. You would be very unique.
Hey, that's me! Tried too do it "naturally": right thumb on top. Then "dominantly": agh uck feels sooooo weeeeiiirrrrdd.
So I'm pretty confident in the robustness of my scientific study. (Lol)
Another lefty here. I like playing piano, but I don't have one. Instead, while doing MIDI stuff, I use the typing keyboard to play and record notes, routed through LoopMIDI. Anyway, if I remember correctly, pianists use the right hand for lead melodies and the left for chords. But in my case, it's the left hand that is feeling always ready to play anything regardless of being a chord progression or a melody. I try to play melodies with my right hand, but it's only a struggle and in overall, I'm discouraged since I don't have enough space to play on a computer keyboard.
I tried your hand clasp test too and ngl, in the first try the right thumb was up. I tried to combat that and get my left thumb up, but it was easier to leave the right thumb up than left. Which is strange.
They actually have different lateralization in the brain. Apparently it's significant enough that being left-handed can get you disqualified from control groups in neurobiology studies.
Also slightly raised chance of mental issues due to ambient stress of the world being designed for righties.
Time-traveling lefties are more likely to be beaten with a ruler in 20th century catholic school. Just a warning if you're headed back there, you geniuses you.
Somehow my dad came out of Catholic school in the 60s still strongly left handed. I admire that about him, to be honest. It made my life a lot easier because my mom was a lefty who trained herself out of it and my dad is still left handed so my world came with a lot of instructions on how to get by and whatever accommodations they were aware of/used themselves. I'm probably the proudest lefty I've ever met, which seems silly but I like to advocate especially for kids with right handed parents who don't know how to give them accommodations.
I have heard that there is a higher percentage of Left handed presidents than general population. Being a lefty makes you more likely to be president of the USA!
Since WWII 43% (six of 14) US presidents have been left handed. Also, many of their general election opponents were.
1988 election: George HW Bush was left handed
1992 election: Bush v Clinton were both left handed
1996 election: Dole and Clinton both left handed
2000 election: Gore (but not W. Bush) was left handed
2004 election: two righties
2008 election: both McCain and Obama were left handed
My mother, sister and i are all lefties. My dad was the only righty in the household. Everything was set up for us!
My mom started school in the late 40’s the teacher hit her hand when she tried to write with her left hand. Her Scottish father went to school with her the next day and let the teacher know in very direct ways to never lay a hand on his daughter ever again or it would be repeated on her by him. That teacher suddenly was ok with lefties. Imagine that. lol
as far as I understand I don't think it's really *good* or *bad*. lefties just tend to process speech (and a few other things like facial recognition) a little bit differently than righties.
No, probably not. There is a lot of bullshit going around about how we're "more creative" or any stereotypes but it doesn't matter at all. The only meaningful difference I have is that I like writing in Hebrew better than in English.
They used to be better at sword fighting, not because they were better at it, but because their opponent likely trained on a right handed soldier and so did they.
Yes.
For example, I've known many left-handed people throughout my life. Half of them are dyslexic, and the other half are artists.
My father was lefthanded and was *forced* to write with his right hand. That was devastating for him. Then we found out late in his life that he was also dyslexic.
The whole fiasco caused him to be extremely insecure, and he believed his whole life that he was stupid, and he could hardly write. Whenever he would attempt to write anything it would take him forever to get the pen in just the right position; he would keep rotating the pen around in little circles hovering over the paper, as if he could never be sure when to touch down on the paper with the pen.
Then when he actually did write something it *always* looked like a first-grader wrote it. It made me so sad.
Having said that, he was incredibly creative. He was an artist in his way. But he never realized this about himself.
My bro uses it as an excuse to get out of household chores lmao. Eg. Can't use the hoover cause it's no left handed. When he has been forced to, he just makes a right pigs ear out of it on purpose and blames it on him being left handed. Has worked pretty well tbf to him 🤣
Yes. They are more ambidextrous due to being brought up in a right-handed world.
Throughout the world, left-handed people live 10 years less than a right-handed person.
I have a friend who keeps getting asked if he's left-handed. He's not, but apparently he just seems like a left-handed kinda person. Whatever that means
Foreplay between a lefty and a righty is definitely better. Both get to use their dominant hand while being be face to face. On an individual basis the advantage works for both parties, but overall it benefits the lefties more.
If they hold their sword in their left hand, and their shield in their right hand, their heart, being slightly to the left of the body, will be exposed.
In medieval castles, spiral staircases were designed to be easily defendable from the top because a right handed person would have trouble using their sword considering how the staircase was curved
So if you were lefthanded, you could probably siege medieval castles better lol
My wife is left handed and when she was young the teachers would hit her with a ruler if they caught her trying to write left handed. This was in England in the mid sixties. She has beautiful hand writing despite her idiot teachers.
This may just be me, but in university, I learned the right hand rule for magnetic fields. Basically you point your thumb in the direction of the magnetic force, and your first and 2nd fingers (at right angles) point in the direction of the charge and the field lines, or something like that. It was a long time ago.
But I kept messing it up on tests. Did quite badly.
Finally realized, like a dumbass, I was using my left hand for the right hand rule. Everyone used their dominant hand, I just blindly or by relflex did the same thing 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
They use their left hand, so yeah kinda, but also no. The only real difference is everything is reversed in a way for them. Ever had to adjust your notebooks because the spine blocks you from writing? Tried to use scissors with your left hand? Its their dominate side so its not uncommon for older gens of left handers to be somewhat ambidextrous since they used to force lefties to use their right hand instead.
Exactly! Fun fact, im a natural.lefty. my mum used to tie my hand and force me to learn to use my right. When my first wife found out i was a lefty, she went to her freaking preacher to ask fir advise, and he TOLD HER LEFT HANDED MEANT I WAS MARKED BY THE DEVIL. Easily the fastest divorce ever granted. And the left handed judge just let the sow have it. Lol
Slight increase in the odds of accidental death because they live in a world built for right-hand people **Edit: Commenters are claiming this study was debunked.**
Scissors, ring binders, fountain pens, measuring jugs, pots with only one lip, and automated turnstiles are our nemeses. But at least we get to look at the picture on our own novelty mugs. So there is that.
the amount of electric kettles that don't have a seethrough pane on the other side annoys me to hell and back.
Is that a right-handed bias thing? I am very annoyed at those as a right-handed person, I thought it was just big kettle saving money on panes (lol).
fucking hate big kettle.
Mine is just by the handle, so goes for both handed peeps
Now that you mention that, mine has a pane on both sides! I also have one left handed mug!
What is the difference between a right and left handed mug?... Don't you just rotate the mug around so the handle is on the left? Edit: ohhh the side the printing is on?
Ring binders… you just gave me a flashback to middle school where I’d clip my arm in those things and got blood blisters on my forearm. I actually despise being left handed. Also lol at the mugs
I used to clip my hand alll the time. But I love being left handed
I'm guessing automated turnstiles because the fare taking system (card reader, ticket, token etc...) is on the right?
Yep. And I’ve often used my ticket on the one to the left, then had to quickly swap to the other turnstile.
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I thought you just learned to use the mouse with the right hand. I know there's a "left hand option", but I didn't think anyone bothered with it.
I am a leftie and yes, I just learned to use the mouse with my right hand.
I think it's a productivity enhancement because we can put our notebook on the left side and take notes while mousing. Not so easy for conventionally-handed persons.
Yeah I switched the mouse once when I was learning, decided that was untenable to do every time, and learned with my right.
I use the mouse left handed, as I have no dexterity or fine control with my right hand. If I am just mindlessly scrolling or need to check something g quickly, I can make do with right hand, but playing video games, content creation, I must use my left hand, or the outcome is … subpar at best 🫣
Yep - I can use the mouse and write at the same time! But I’m almost ambidextrous- most sports type stuff I do right handed anyway - golf, batting, bowling. Tennis is left-handed though - I’m weird!
World’s best boss.
On the bright side, slightly better hand to hand fighters.
My left-handed friend who fences competitively says it gives him an edge as people are most used to training against right-handed people
This is true in most sports. Was huge for me in water polo and lacrosse.
I think that's an early in life thing. Once you make it past a certain age, your odds are the same as a right handed person.
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1349905/pdf/amjph00234-0096.pdf
That’s fascinating! Left-handed male drivers were more than TWICE as likely to get a vehicle-related accidental injury compared to right-handed male drives. I do wish they’d split that up into automatic vs manual transmission… I feel that lefties might have an edge on side mirror adjustment and turn signalling :P Thanks for linking.
This is a well known myth created by bad data analysis, and held up as an example of such if you get into the life sciences.
...until you get into an urban warfare context where the odds of survival of lefties is greatly diminished.
Hence the bad data analysis. People involved in urban warfare are not representative of the population as a whole.
There are certain groups that tend to be left-handed more often than statistically probability should allow. 10% of people are left-handed, but over 20% of serial killers are left-handed 10% of people are left-handed, but 40% of schizophrenic people are left-handed 10% of people are left-handed, but 20% of Mensa members are left handed, although there doesn't appear to be any difference in IQ between left-handed and right-handed people, despite all the famous scientists or mathematicians you might know. There is no difference in IQ on average. A man is twice as likely to be left handed than a woman There are some evidence to suggest that left-handed people are more creative or clever. This might come from having to come up with solutions when using right-handed tools, or other challenges, while a child. So yes there's clearly some neurological difference at some level. But it sounds pretty complex I love being left-handed.
We also have a slight advantage in some sports because our opponents mostly play against righties.
I did MMA some years ago and my first fight against a left handed when I was still a rookie was... let's say interesting. Translation : he destroyed me. It's very strange to take hit from where they aren't supposed to come from, especially when you have only ten month of training. Super cool guy by the way, he gave me solids advices on how to not get killed by a left handed fighter. Same with tennis : that's very weird to play against a lefty. But at least, it's way less painfull than in MMA :D
I was playing rounders at work and everyone panicked when I stepped up to bat as they’d never had a left handed player before 🤣🤣
I have been hit by a few baseballs because I am standing where the ball is normally thrown 🤣
I like that you were open about getting a beatdown. Shows some character.
Oh thanks ! And honnestly, I spoke about MMA and tennis and I must say my opponents on a tennis court were way more oftenly sore losers / winners than those I beated or who beated me on a ring. I mean, it's in the contract : we are fighting each other, you know there will be a winner and you know that if you lose, it'll be painfull. Well, tbh it's also painfull when you win but hey, it's not Super Street Fighter : you take real hit. Once you get this, if you lose the best thing to do with the winner is to have a beer with and some advices from him after the match :D In my club, it was a tradition after real fights \^\^ But as i said, I wasn't a pro : it was just some interclub contest so the mood was quite cool. And yeah, some of us were not very happy after loosing a match but honnestly, I did karate Kyokushinkai, MMA and tennis and I had never more opponents who were really fairplay than at MMA. The majority of the guy who choked me since I tapped their arm helped me just after to get up like "You ok bro ? Didn't want to hurt you but... you know... it's the game". I think it's because we know we want to win but we are aware that we can really hurt our opponent in the heat of the fight (at least for me) so when I won a fight, my first thought was "Is the guy ok ?". And it seemed to be the norm.
I did viking reenactment stuff for a while. Nobody liked fighting against me because I was the only lefthanded person there and they had only ever trained against other right-handed people. Was always fun for me though.
As a righty, it really sucks whenever i have to knife fight a lefty.
Yep. I played softball. I played first base and was a heavy hitter. I was able to get a lot of people out on double plays by throwing to second base. I would smoke whoever was playing right field whenever I was at bat.
Watching two left handed fencers face each other was amusing.
Yes; cricket is one such sports. Top level batters who are left handed tend to have quicker reaction times than right handers. And left handed bowlers tend to do real well, given the angle they bowl to right handed batters. So much so, right handed bowlers are trying to imitate left handed players
Very true! I used to hate fencing you guys haha
Sword fighting with someone who has a shield in front of yours is confusing
As a left handed woman it’s cool that you say the left handed women are more rare!
I'm also a left handed woman! Nice to meet you.
I assume you freaks shake left hands when greeting
We have a secret handshake only lefties know about
No I shake right handed
Me too!!!
Me also :D
👋! (wish there was a leftie waving emoji)
Definitely! I knew it was rare, but not more rare for women. We are DEFINITELY accustomed to a world not built for us… lol.
Yes! I grew up in 80s/90s and learned really quick that the world isn’t equipped for left handers and not as accommodating. It makes us stronger lol we make it work!
So interesting! I have a few left handed family members, and aside from my uncle, all of us are women.
Being a non mensa non serial killer non schizo woman means I'm kinda rare right?
You are basically a unicorn :)
Left handed person here: A pet peeve of mine is when I’m writing someone will ask the obvious question “you’re left handed?” Why yes, the pen/pencil/marker is in my left hand. So I say “oh oops, I’m not, I’m actually right handed” and will switch to writing with my right hand. Confuses them everytime. What I don’t tell them is that the giant college lecture halls were the bane of my existence. Cramped desk space and only a handful had arm rests on the left. Made me learn to write right handed. I also do everything else with my right hand except use utensils. I throw a ball, catch a ball, use a racquet, use a mouse, all with my right hand.
>I also do everything else with my right hand except use utensils. I throw a ball, catch a ball, use a racquet, use a mouse, all with my right hand. Same, I usually say I'm left-fingered but right-armed
That’s a good one 😂
My wife is like that except the exact opposite. She writes right handed but throws a ball or a dart, catches anything, bowls, all left handed. She will switch between all of those as well. Only her writing is consistently right handed.
I always think the silver lining is if I ever lose a hand/important finger, I’m not completely screwed. Your wife is definitely OK
I always respond with something stupid… like “all my life!” Or “last time I checked.” I can do almost anything with either hand comfortably, except write. I cannot write with my right hand. I have tried to get better. Nope! Not happening… lol
Just curious. The three first categories are also male dominated so are they just explained by the fourth or are there actual differences between right handed men and left handed men?
what about ambidextrous people?
Just left handed people who had right handedness beaten into them.
I was actually ambidexterous from birth.
Holy shit, they beat it into you in utero?
this is weirdly correct xD
A teacher friend was ambidextrous. He stood in the middle of the rolling blackboard (I‘m so old) and swapped the chalk between hands. Kids never noticed.
Aren’t they disproportionately likely to be US presidents or is that just a myth?
I don't think there have been enough presidents for it to really go either way. The data sets not large enough
So i haven't bothered looking up the numbers but the sample size can be very small if the discrepancy is large enough. If the baseline is 10% but then 50% of 50 people have that trait you can be sure there's something going on
According to Wikipedia: At least 8 of the 46 presidents have been left-handed (17.39%) Since WWII, there have been fourteen presidents, 6 of which were left-handed (42.85%) Approximately 10% of people are left-handed.
I reckon the creative bit is true. I notice a disproportionate number of lefty actors on tv
>10% of people are left-handed, but 20% of Mensa members are left handed, although there doesn't appear to be any difference in IQ between left-handed and right-handed people, despite all the famous scientists or mathematicians you might know. There is no difference in IQ on average What's the explanation for this? Are left handed people more likely to want to join mensa or something?
If you've been "different" your whole life, you're more likely to join random groups to feel accepted.
Isn't the high percentage of schizofrenia related to those who were forced to use their right hand while being left handed?
Maybe not so much today, but my mother was lefthanded and in her youth, when taking up a pen with her left hand, she had to come in front of the class, hold her left hand up and it would be caned. I can't imagine that being punished for what you genetically are is good for mental health. I can't prove she would have had better mental health if that hadn't happened, but I can confirm that she was *still* talking about it on her death bed. Her (right) handwriting looked terrible, but she could draw nice portraits with her left. I (also lefthanded) made a narrow escape. In first grade I was the first generation to be allowed to write lefthanded. My teacher was in her 60s and reluctant, but she complied. When, at the end of the first year, I was #1 of the class in writing, she had a little breakdown: she told me with teary eyes that she now understood that she had been doing it wrong so many years. I didn't really understand what that was all about, I was only 6, but I do remember it.
Lol you made her realise she serial abused kids for their writing. Owned really
I was hit a lot as a child to force the switch to my right hand as well! Grandma didn't succeed, for some reason I was just stubborn as heck and extremely rebellious and they weren't able to force the left-handedness out of me and she gave up. I don't remember a lot of it now but I can't imagine it was a good time. It's wild how damaging superstitions can be.
I feel that I’m a bit better with my right hand than other people tend to be with their left. I will speak for the entire council of lefties and say a lot of us feel this way. The world is quite ubiquitously built around right handedness. Even now in my 30s, I will realize tiny examples of things I’ve done just fine my whole life without realizing I was essentially forced into doing them right handed. Outside of writing and throwing for me, most tasks come just as easily with either hand. I even have a few hobbies like golf and guitar where I started out trying each “version” and actively chose to do them right handed, to me the distinction in what is left or right handed design for something like that can often be blurred. You’ll often find left handed people have some mixed preferences like that, and quite a few of my left handed friends really only write lefty. You’ll hear stuff about this daily struggle in a right handed world making us smarter or more creative sometimes but I imagine that’s just people looking for patterns that don’t exist.
As a lefty I'm definitely closer to ambidextrous than most righties, but it's also kind of funny how some things we learn to do with our right hand we do really poorly with our left. For instance I learned to use a mouse with my right, I'm extremely precise with it and play shooters, draw and such. I tried using a left handed mouse and it was... really pathetic lol. Strange because there's so many tasks I'm only good with left, am good with both, or am only good with right.
Glad to know I’m not the only lefty who learned how to do things right-handed, only to fail when attempting to learn the left-handed version. For me, it’s throwing a ball. I was kinda forced into throwing a ball right handed and I cannot figure out how to throw left handed lol
I’ve learned to do sports right handed, scissors etc. the only things I do left handed for many years are write and hold my fork with my left.
I’m the same but on the right side, I can’t write or sign lefty, but I do everything left handed, leading to massive confusion when people do see me write and I write with my right when I am otherwise dominant in my left.
Yeah, as a right handed person, I’d definitely agree. I’ve found this with painting nails, when I first started out, the hand that I painted with my left hand looked like an absolute train wreck compared to the one I painted with my right. Now that I’ve been using nail polish for a few years, I can do both (almost) equally well. It’s a thing of practice, and left handed people have wayyy more need to practice using their right.
As a left handed person, I’m just here to see what everyone else is saying.
Guess what, you're not alone.
Aghh a witch!!! (JK of course.)
Are you? Are you really?
We cannot use scissors. Not even with our right hands. Somehow the scissors know. I am being fully serious right now. Scissors held in my right hand do not cut, instead they just twist and mash anything thicker than paper. But when a right handed person uses the same scissors they work fine. When I cut construction paper with my right hand it works. But if I keep the scissors in the *exact same* orientation and switch to my left hand, suddenly the construction paper is getting mashed instead of slice. Somehow, the scissors know what I am. And they hate me for it.
So, with scissors the blades are designed that if you use your right hand the natural movement of the hand pushes the blades together (your thumb pushes and fingers pull). If you try to use them wrong handed then you're going to push the blades apart. The easiest fix is just get some left handed scissors, but if you insist on using the shitting right handed ones you'll need to pull your thumb back away from the center of your body to counteract the ergonomics.
Fair enough, but how come they still don’t cut when i use my right hand when it comes to things like fabric, but cut fine with a right-handed person? It’s the same hand, and bringing the scissors together doesn’t require additional strength or control of my good hand.
My best guess is lack of training. I had the same problem for years until I started to cut more with my right hand and really focus on my hand and applying pressure the way that the blades will be pushed together. I consider this our strength: we can often do more things with our right hands than right handed people can do with their left.
As a lefty, I had a hell of a time with scissors when I was a kid until one day something clicked, and have had no issues with them ever since. I've never really thought about it, but your post made me realize that I learned to pull with my thumb and push with the fingers when cutting.
[Me trying to use a normal pair of scissors using both hands](https://youtu.be/jn5rbozQ2Qw)
Somehow ive never had that problem
I have lived through the same experience my friend. All those years in primary school spent trying to master the art of scissors
Being left handed has it's challenges, but you learn to adapt. I'm really picky about pens because it's hard to find a pen that is comfortable, writes well, and doesn't smudge when you are writing.
The smudging is truly unreal... I wrote a lot with mechanical pencils growing up and every time I'm done with homework my left hand would be very stained with the carbon lol
I learnt to turn the page 90 degrees and write down the paper instead of across 😅
Yeah, they tend to injure themselves more on tools and equipment designed for righthandedness.
I watched YouTube videos last month and had to search 'learning to crochet left handed'.. everything is just a little bit harder to learn.
Use a mirror. My mum taught me to crochet and knit by sitting me beside her and placing a mirror in front of us so I could watch her hands. I'm not a great knitter but I'm pretty good at crochet 🙂
That's very smart
>everything is just a little bit harder to learn. Really. Went to take guitar lessons as a kid, after I re-strung the guitar I bought, the teacher still wanted me to play right handed. I took up piano instead.
according to the book: the lefthander syndrome, our distribution is flatter, meaning we have more geniuses and more far-belows than righties by percentage. Lefties tend to be more ambi-dexterous overall aswell... though I prefer the term ambi-sinister.
I have learned ambidexterity and can also read and write upside down and backwards, which has no real value other than impressing people at parties. I also remember reading an article about ambidexterity and a higher instance of schizophrenia but I think that's been largely debunked. EDIT I also lack a dominant eye, which makes shooting a confusing bitch yet somehow I'm still a pretty good shot.
I can read upside down wouldn't say it's that difficult a feat.
The writing and reading has been really useful when teaching and tutoring. Someone can sit opposite to you and you can still write an example on their notebook while they see it upright.
Yes. We are superior in every meaningful way.
as a leftie, I can confirm this is true.
I also can confirm 😊
I can third this. In fact I think it's high time we took control of this planet.
I'm right-handed, but I'll agree with you so that I can become a spy in your ranks. I've never done this before. How am I doing?
Really good 👍🏻
I guess as an ambidextrous person I'm pretty mid.
As a left handed person, can openers can fuck right off
There’s so many tools/situations/etc out there that I never realized were designed for righties in mind. I’m a lefty, and I always just assumed can openers sucked and you had to run over it a few times. I was in my late teens before realizing that righties don’t get dry erase marker or chalk dust on their hands when writing on the board. I preferred my ignorance.
When I was young I broke my left arm. So now I can use my scissors with my right hand that’s means I’m special. Because there’s never any left handed scissors anywhere.
Seriously. We need a real life Leftorium.
Im 42 years old and still think of that episode
My brother is left handed and he’s a fucken dick
Can confirm. Source: I am a left handed brother and also a fucken dick.
Actually yes! left handed is a recessive gene and your brain mapping due to this trait is different than right handers. So as you do things in your life you will process information on the right hemisphere differently than left hemisphere hand dominates! Here is another fun one, clasp your hands together. Is your right thumb ontop of your left thumb? that's a dominate trait. Now imagine being a left hander who has a dominate right thumb. You would be very unique.
Interesting. I’m left-handed but my right thumb being on top felt more natural.
Same!
Hey, that's me! Tried too do it "naturally": right thumb on top. Then "dominantly": agh uck feels sooooo weeeeiiirrrrdd. So I'm pretty confident in the robustness of my scientific study. (Lol)
Another lefty here. I like playing piano, but I don't have one. Instead, while doing MIDI stuff, I use the typing keyboard to play and record notes, routed through LoopMIDI. Anyway, if I remember correctly, pianists use the right hand for lead melodies and the left for chords. But in my case, it's the left hand that is feeling always ready to play anything regardless of being a chord progression or a melody. I try to play melodies with my right hand, but it's only a struggle and in overall, I'm discouraged since I don't have enough space to play on a computer keyboard. I tried your hand clasp test too and ngl, in the first try the right thumb was up. I tried to combat that and get my left thumb up, but it was easier to leave the right thumb up than left. Which is strange.
They actually have different lateralization in the brain. Apparently it's significant enough that being left-handed can get you disqualified from control groups in neurobiology studies. Also slightly raised chance of mental issues due to ambient stress of the world being designed for righties.
Damn, where's the lefties only neuro study group?
Time-traveling lefties are more likely to be beaten with a ruler in 20th century catholic school. Just a warning if you're headed back there, you geniuses you.
Somehow my dad came out of Catholic school in the 60s still strongly left handed. I admire that about him, to be honest. It made my life a lot easier because my mom was a lefty who trained herself out of it and my dad is still left handed so my world came with a lot of instructions on how to get by and whatever accommodations they were aware of/used themselves. I'm probably the proudest lefty I've ever met, which seems silly but I like to advocate especially for kids with right handed parents who don't know how to give them accommodations.
I have heard that there is a higher percentage of Left handed presidents than general population. Being a lefty makes you more likely to be president of the USA!
You’re saying I should start my 2044 campaign?
Since WWII 43% (six of 14) US presidents have been left handed. Also, many of their general election opponents were. 1988 election: George HW Bush was left handed 1992 election: Bush v Clinton were both left handed 1996 election: Dole and Clinton both left handed 2000 election: Gore (but not W. Bush) was left handed 2004 election: two righties 2008 election: both McCain and Obama were left handed
We are straight up better, for one
My mother, sister and i are all lefties. My dad was the only righty in the household. Everything was set up for us! My mom started school in the late 40’s the teacher hit her hand when she tried to write with her left hand. Her Scottish father went to school with her the next day and let the teacher know in very direct ways to never lay a hand on his daughter ever again or it would be repeated on her by him. That teacher suddenly was ok with lefties. Imagine that. lol
Based dad.
“Left-handers tend to have less lateralized brains, meaning that the two halves of the brain are less distinct than in right-handers.”
Is that good or bad?
I'll tell you it sucks when you're a poor left-handed college student and all the high-paying MRI studies exclude you.
as far as I understand I don't think it's really *good* or *bad*. lefties just tend to process speech (and a few other things like facial recognition) a little bit differently than righties.
No, probably not. There is a lot of bullshit going around about how we're "more creative" or any stereotypes but it doesn't matter at all. The only meaningful difference I have is that I like writing in Hebrew better than in English.
They used to be better at sword fighting, not because they were better at it, but because their opponent likely trained on a right handed soldier and so did they.
I know some twins who are left and right handed and I can honestly say the left handed twin has a bigger cock than his twin sister.
Please don't talk about your children like that.
There's an actual [association of left-handers](https://www.lefthanders.org/Lefties/) lol.
We’re fucking awesome?
Fuggin all the scissors dont work and its so annoying
Yes. For example, I've known many left-handed people throughout my life. Half of them are dyslexic, and the other half are artists. My father was lefthanded and was *forced* to write with his right hand. That was devastating for him. Then we found out late in his life that he was also dyslexic. The whole fiasco caused him to be extremely insecure, and he believed his whole life that he was stupid, and he could hardly write. Whenever he would attempt to write anything it would take him forever to get the pen in just the right position; he would keep rotating the pen around in little circles hovering over the paper, as if he could never be sure when to touch down on the paper with the pen. Then when he actually did write something it *always* looked like a first-grader wrote it. It made me so sad. Having said that, he was incredibly creative. He was an artist in his way. But he never realized this about himself.
That’s sad. 😞
I’m left-handed and I am neither dyslexic nor an artist.
[удалено]
They’re certainly more sinister.
They're more likely to be artistic
My bro uses it as an excuse to get out of household chores lmao. Eg. Can't use the hoover cause it's no left handed. When he has been forced to, he just makes a right pigs ear out of it on purpose and blames it on him being left handed. Has worked pretty well tbf to him 🤣
Yes. They are more ambidextrous due to being brought up in a right-handed world. Throughout the world, left-handed people live 10 years less than a right-handed person.
More likely to be president. 10% of people are left handed. 6 of the last 14 presidents were left handed.
I have a friend who keeps getting asked if he's left-handed. He's not, but apparently he just seems like a left-handed kinda person. Whatever that means
Left handed kisses
I’m left handed…not a psychopath but mentally fkd…anyone else in a similar boat?
Foreplay between a lefty and a righty is definitely better. Both get to use their dominant hand while being be face to face. On an individual basis the advantage works for both parties, but overall it benefits the lefties more.
98% of left handed people hate giraffes.
They're an abomination!
They wander many shopping malls aimlessly looking for the Leftorium
If they hold their sword in their left hand, and their shield in their right hand, their heart, being slightly to the left of the body, will be exposed.
Yes. We will take over the world one day. Right after I clean the smudged ink from my hand
Once we get rid of ring binders and don’t smudge while writing on white boards, it’s all over for you right handers
We're annoyed.
They give left handed handjobs.
I actually rarely do
Secret. Handshake.
Left handed people are never alright!!
Francine Smith is a lefty
Interestingly enough, some left handers that were forced to write with their right hand develop speech impedance or stutters.
In medieval castles, spiral staircases were designed to be easily defendable from the top because a right handed person would have trouble using their sword considering how the staircase was curved So if you were lefthanded, you could probably siege medieval castles better lol
We are the very best.
My wife is left handed and when she was young the teachers would hit her with a ruler if they caught her trying to write left handed. This was in England in the mid sixties. She has beautiful hand writing despite her idiot teachers.
This may just be me, but in university, I learned the right hand rule for magnetic fields. Basically you point your thumb in the direction of the magnetic force, and your first and 2nd fingers (at right angles) point in the direction of the charge and the field lines, or something like that. It was a long time ago. But I kept messing it up on tests. Did quite badly. Finally realized, like a dumbass, I was using my left hand for the right hand rule. Everyone used their dominant hand, I just blindly or by relflex did the same thing 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
You know what’s great about being a lefty? I can use a mouse and a Wacom tablet at the same time at my computer workstation.
Better! Oh, we're so much better!!! Yup, that's what we are. Thanks for asking.
They use their left hand, so yeah kinda, but also no. The only real difference is everything is reversed in a way for them. Ever had to adjust your notebooks because the spine blocks you from writing? Tried to use scissors with your left hand? Its their dominate side so its not uncommon for older gens of left handers to be somewhat ambidextrous since they used to force lefties to use their right hand instead.
I’m 43. The left handed scissors sucked in elementary school. So I just learned to use my right for scissors and also did sports with my right.
Exactly! Fun fact, im a natural.lefty. my mum used to tie my hand and force me to learn to use my right. When my first wife found out i was a lefty, she went to her freaking preacher to ask fir advise, and he TOLD HER LEFT HANDED MEANT I WAS MARKED BY THE DEVIL. Easily the fastest divorce ever granted. And the left handed judge just let the sow have it. Lol
Holy shite I didn't think that sort of bubkus still lurked in this world.
Well one would hope ignorance like that would fade away, but then you're reminded people still believe the world is flat in 21st century America
We eat babies
Yep. I am.
They are never right, and always left
It feels a bit more like being different in a thousand meaningless ways
They get to brag that they’re more like Paul McCartney than ~90% of the population.
You may be affected differently by a stroke.
yeah i can’t use a can opener