Interesting article. I'm left-handed for writing and a few other things but right-handed for most things, I wonder how such mixed-handedness/cross-dominance works. I'm surprised to hear that such...
Interesting article. I'm left-handed for writing and a few other things but right-handed for most things, I wonder how such mixed-handedness/cross-dominance works. I'm surprised to hear that such a big gap between number of left-handed and right-handed individuals only seems to exist within humans and not other primates.
The part of the article where the author was mentioning their travels in Ghana reminded me of my own upbringing. My family's culture is much the same where the left hand is for the dirty business while the right hand is for clean things. I was often chastised for eating with my left hand and my parents tried to get me to write with my right hand but I was stubborn. I did start eating with my right hand but I've reverted to my left hand overtime. I always remained a left-handed writer though so the struggle with pencils and pens never went away.
Same, but mostly I feel like it was just easier to learn to do it with my right hand. Like using the computer mouse as I grew up in a time with shared computers. I also can't throw things with my...
Interesting article. I'm left-handed for writing and a few other things but right-handed for most things
Same, but mostly I feel like it was just easier to learn to do it with my right hand. Like using the computer mouse as I grew up in a time with shared computers. I also can't throw things with my left hand for some reason.
My father is also left handed and had a similar experience as the grandmother from the article as he was forced to learn to write right handed as that was the norm at the time.
I never had the mirroring issue mentioned in the article though. Plenty of paper smudges and awkward situations trying to use something intended for right handed weirdos.
I’m right handed bu switched to mousing left handed as I developed rsi. I have several times since then experienced shared computers where the mouse was attached to the right side such that it was...
I’m right handed bu switched to mousing left handed as I developed rsi. I have several times since then experienced shared computers where the mouse was attached to the right side such that it was impossible to switch it. The most recent was maybe 7-8 years ago in a college computer lab used for tests.
I remember back when folks were still trying to figure out how to manage shared computers, there were some ridiculous “solutions” in the name of uniformity. One had tables with the monitor fixed underneath a piece of plexiglass so you had to look down at it, and a little tray that didn’t pull out to type on. They didn’t even have it set up with what should have been the benefit of that setup, the plexiglass had a groove around it so any spills would drip directly onto electrics.
You make a good point with shared computers, I also had a shared family computer growing up and then also had computer labs in school where we couldn't change where the mouse was. I've also never...
You make a good point with shared computers, I also had a shared family computer growing up and then also had computer labs in school where we couldn't change where the mouse was. I've also never had an issue with mirroring when writing, it'd be interesting to learn how that comes about. When you mention "trying to use something intended for right handed weirdos" my mind brought up bad memories of using spiral bound notebooks in school, man those sucked.
i’m also left handed and use the computer mouse with my right, for me its because using my index finder for primary click felt more intuitive. If I swapped hands I would have had to use my middle...
i’m also left handed and use the computer mouse with my right, for me its because using my index finder for primary click felt more intuitive. If I swapped hands I would have had to use my middle finger.
Left handed computer mouses exist now, but that wasnt really a thing when I was learning to use a computer in the 90s
In addition to the location of the spiral, many left handers have to twist their arm/hand to write in such a way as to not immediately smear their ink (or smudge their graphite) meaning that the...
In addition to the location of the spiral, many left handers have to twist their arm/hand to write in such a way as to not immediately smear their ink (or smudge their graphite) meaning that the metal coil is often more in the way and digging into the arm instead of the arm going down the length of the paper for right handers
/Right handed but observant and with leftie friends
@DefinitelyNotAFae nailed it. No matter how you position your hand as a lefty the spiral is constantly interfering with your writing. When you begin a new line, your hand is on the spiral and just...
@DefinitelyNotAFae nailed it. No matter how you position your hand as a lefty the spiral is constantly interfering with your writing. When you begin a new line, your hand is on the spiral and just interferes with your arm as you go right on a line. As you go down the page, you just repeat this with every line you write. In order to prevent smudging, my hand sorta hooks above the line I'm writing on so this means that the spiral hits my hand and my arm when I start writing in them.
There's a tricky thing with handedness where it is confused for dominance in the sense that "everything must be done with this hand." When you are learning a completely new skill, you're going to...
There's a tricky thing with handedness where it is confused for dominance in the sense that "everything must be done with this hand."
When you are learning a completely new skill, you're going to do mostly the same on either hand. There may ne an expressed preference, but it's easier to override early on, which I'm sure you have experience with.
With yoyos, there's a way people throw constant loops (out and back without catching). In general, if you have yoyo experience, these are easier to learn on your "off" hand because you don't have to unlearn other patterns.
Or instruments. When you first pick up a guitar, unless you've been doing lefty air guitar, your brain has no "guitar state." Both sides suck, basically, so it helps to try to learn the way that opens the path to more, cheaper instruments (righty).
I'm not advicating dor breaking your left-handedness but for things that are less immediate switchable like instruments and computer mice it helps to learn the "normal" way out of the gate. You won't have to toggle OS settings, hope for lefty variants, or drag the mouse iver the workstation to reorient it.
I also approach this from the perspective of ambidextrtity. I wrote with both hands growing up, and the skill was somewhat innate once learned, simply reversed. I had to rewrite a paper in 2nd grade because it was mirrored on my left hand.
I'm sorry, I know it's not what you mean, but this feels too similar a thought process they had when they would beat children when that tried to use their left hand. Yes, you can do anything...
I'm sorry, I know it's not what you mean, but this feels too similar a thought process they had when they would beat children when that tried to use their left hand. Yes, you can do anything either handedness, but for many things, writing especially, you absolutely should use your dominant hand. You learn much faster which technically allows you to also hit higher peaks as we only have so much time in this world.
My uncle, (or maybe it was great-uncle) was a lefty. He tried to write with his left, but as was disgustingly common at that time, he would be hit every time the teacher caught him with a writing utensil in his left hand. Hard enough that he couldn't even use his left hand for a little while. Yet, somehow, he supposedly still came out of that with his left-handed writing being more legible than his right. I don't believe this is a uncommon story either.
In my own experience, in my mid 20s I tried to use a pair of scissors left-handed, despite generally always defaulting to my right because I had never in my life even seen a pair of left-handed scissors and thus had never successfully cut something with my left. Because we were in the age of being able to order anything we could ever want online and yet I had still never had the privileged of owning a pair of left-handed scissors, I threw a mental fit and got a pair. These scissors are awful. If I try to cut anything but paper with them, they manage to do a worse job than if I were to put my right-handed scissors in my left hand, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't prefer them most of the time. (I really should get a better pair though...)
For those unaware, ambidextrous scissors are a LIE. They are right-handed scissors with maybe better QA tolerances. When you close the blades of the scissors, your thumb naturally pushes the blades together allowing for a cleaner cut. Additionally, the top blade is on the right, meaning as long as you hold it in your right hand, you can see the line that you are cutting. If you hold them in your left, your thumb pushes the blades apart and you can not see the line you are cutting along. It feels almost impossible to make any proper cut if you are not using the hand designed for the scissors in question.
Oh yeah, I know I'm playing a slightly dangerous game there, especially knowing people raised around that. But the point I stress is things like specialty mice and musical instruments are simply...
I'm sorry, I know it's not what you mean, but this feels too similar a thought process they had when they would beat children when that tried to use their left hand. Yes, you can do anything either handedness, but for many things, writing especially, you absolutely should use your dominant hand. You learn much faster which technically allows you to also hit higher peaks as we only have so much time in this world.
Oh yeah, I know I'm playing a slightly dangerous game there, especially knowing people raised around that. But the point I stress is things like specialty mice and musical instruments are simply more available and often slightly cheaper for maybe a little more practice overhead at the beginning.
I'm not saying relearn guitar or that there is anything wrong with doing it lefty (there isn'), simply that for many things you can, to a point, make a conscious decision that might save headaches later.
there's dozens of us!! curious how you other left-handers manage with these tasks (feel free to add your own quirks as well!): eating - fork left handed and also cut left handed so I have to...
there's dozens of us!!
curious how you other left-handers manage with these tasks (feel free to add your own quirks as well!):
eating - fork left handed and also cut left handed so I have to switch fork to right hand while I cut
drink - right handed
catch and throw - both left handed. could never play baseball.
instruments - all right handed
mouse - right handed
So since my language is written right to left (Persian) as a lefty i've never had the problem of ink smearing because of left handedness, i've had it because of sweaty hands. Eating - Left handed...
So since my language is written right to left (Persian) as a lefty i've never had the problem of ink smearing because of left handedness, i've had it because of sweaty hands.
Eating - Left handed
Drink - Left & Right
Catch and throw - Left
Haven't tried instruments enough to say i have a hand preference
Mouse - Right handed
Rhythm games - Left handed (both keyboard based and VR ones)
Holding my phone - Right handed
ah yes another throw/catch left hander!! struggling to figure out which rhythm games require handedness... something else I just remembered is I ride boards goofy aka right foot forward. meaning...
ah yes another throw/catch left hander!! struggling to figure out which rhythm games require handedness...
something else I just remembered is I ride boards goofy aka right foot forward. meaning "normal" or right-handers put left foot forward!
In terms of footedness on boards, you would think it's correlated to handedness, but it's actually not from my experience. Last I heard the stats (for skateboarding at least) is almost 50-50...
In terms of footedness on boards, you would think it's correlated to handedness, but it's actually not from my experience. Last I heard the stats (for skateboarding at least) is almost 50-50 regular to goofy. Personally I'm regular and right-handed, but of my skater friends, 2 are regular (one of whom is left handed) and 1 is goofy (and right handed). So it seems to be a totally different mechanism! Just something I've found interesting.
Most don't require one hand to be better per se, but in osu! i aim better and click better with my left hand, having my right hand either not aim good enough or not click fast enough to progress...
Most don't require one hand to be better per se, but in osu! i aim better and click better with my left hand, having my right hand either not aim good enough or not click fast enough to progress too far. in other things like osu!mania i can click and keep time more accurately on my left than right.
In Beat Saber i'm more accurate and can keep tempo with my left hand, and can hit weird angles a lot more than my right. my right arm seems to not be able to move as fast subconsciously and i have to focus a lot on only my right side while the left just does its thing.
I ride boards goofy! it feels like i got more control with it.
I'm also left eye dominant. that's a lot of left that i've never thought about before, left foot is slightly stronger too!
I always enjoy the handedness survey: I use fork and spoon left, knife both (convenient not to switch hands, but I think if I'm using a spread I prefer left) Drink: both Throw balls left, catch...
I always enjoy the handedness survey:
I use fork and spoon left, knife both (convenient not to switch hands, but I think if I'm using a spread I prefer left)
Drink: both
Throw balls left, catch both, Frisbee both
I don't know on instruments, I've never played anything where a dominant hand applies
Mouse: right
Scissors: right
Sweeping/mopping: both (do people have a hand preference? I know people do for hockey)
Phone (never thought about it before!): left
Opening doors: right
Watch: right
Crochet: left
I wonder if, similar to how US presidents are more likely to be left-handed, tilderinos may also be more likely to be left-handed. For eating and drinking, I tend to use whichever hand is...
I wonder if, similar to how US presidents are more likely to be left-handed, tilderinos may also be more likely to be left-handed.
For eating and drinking, I tend to use whichever hand is convenient. When I'm using utensils I use my left hand usually but if I'm eating with my bare hands, I use my right. I usually alternate my drinking hand with my eating hand just to keep things clean.
For catching/throwing/anything sports to be honest, I'm right handed. Same with the piano when I was younger. I also use a mouse right handed and wear a watch on my left wrist since that just feels most natural to me.
I'd probably be classified as a right-hander, but I find that I also have a lot of mixed dominance. I have noticed that taught skills (writing, using utensils, guitar, etc) I tend to do...
I'd probably be classified as a right-hander, but I find that I also have a lot of mixed dominance. I have noticed that taught skills (writing, using utensils, guitar, etc) I tend to do right-handed, but almost everything else I do left handed or go back and forth freely -- including the easier to re-learn taught skills, like using utensils. I often keep two computer mice on my desk, and use whichever is more convenient at the moment depending on what I'm doing on the keyboard at the time and also switch back and forth to avoid wrist strain.
Some things, like using a cell-phone, I do almost exclusively left-handed.
Interesting article. I do wish it had gone a bit more into the science side of things, would have been interested to hear about more studies than it talked about. I'm also always a little wary of...
Interesting article. I do wish it had gone a bit more into the science side of things, would have been interested to hear about more studies than it talked about. I'm also always a little wary of evolutionary biology, it's been misused so much over the years. I'm also not sure I agree so much with this statement:
A coin flip during fetal development lands on one side 90% of the time. This suggests that right-handedness is advantageous for some reason, but if so — and here I feel a slight sense of defensiveness kicking in — why are the left-leaning tubulin gene variants still around? Chris Venditti (opens a new tab), an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading, isn’t a lefty, but he points out that the proportion of left-handers has been consistent across time and continents. “Usually in evolution when that happens there’s a reason for it,” he told me.
Does it have to be that it is advantageous? My understanding was that it's not really survival of the fittest, just simply survival of the good enough. I don't see why it couldn't have developed this way simply by accident. Of course there could be a reason too, but I don't see that it has to be the case.
Did lead me into a rabbit hole on looking up handedness preferences though, and found this other recent science article about it (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/people-arent-born-with-as-righties-or-lefties-they-develop-hand-dominance-with-practice-a-new-study-suggests-180989168/). Fits in fairly well I think with the original article, as an attempt to explain how handedness develops: that the brain is biased towards preferring a certain side and then develops handedness for that out of practice and repetition. I've certainly experienced that myself, I am right side dominant, but left handed for specific things because I learned them left handed first.
Interesting article. I'm left-handed for writing and a few other things but right-handed for most things, I wonder how such mixed-handedness/cross-dominance works. I'm surprised to hear that such a big gap between number of left-handed and right-handed individuals only seems to exist within humans and not other primates.
The part of the article where the author was mentioning their travels in Ghana reminded me of my own upbringing. My family's culture is much the same where the left hand is for the dirty business while the right hand is for clean things. I was often chastised for eating with my left hand and my parents tried to get me to write with my right hand but I was stubborn. I did start eating with my right hand but I've reverted to my left hand overtime. I always remained a left-handed writer though so the struggle with pencils and pens never went away.
Same, but mostly I feel like it was just easier to learn to do it with my right hand. Like using the computer mouse as I grew up in a time with shared computers. I also can't throw things with my left hand for some reason.
My father is also left handed and had a similar experience as the grandmother from the article as he was forced to learn to write right handed as that was the norm at the time.
I never had the mirroring issue mentioned in the article though. Plenty of paper smudges and awkward situations trying to use something intended for right handed weirdos.
I’m right handed bu switched to mousing left handed as I developed rsi. I have several times since then experienced shared computers where the mouse was attached to the right side such that it was impossible to switch it. The most recent was maybe 7-8 years ago in a college computer lab used for tests.
I remember back when folks were still trying to figure out how to manage shared computers, there were some ridiculous “solutions” in the name of uniformity. One had tables with the monitor fixed underneath a piece of plexiglass so you had to look down at it, and a little tray that didn’t pull out to type on. They didn’t even have it set up with what should have been the benefit of that setup, the plexiglass had a groove around it so any spills would drip directly onto electrics.
You make a good point with shared computers, I also had a shared family computer growing up and then also had computer labs in school where we couldn't change where the mouse was. I've also never had an issue with mirroring when writing, it'd be interesting to learn how that comes about. When you mention "trying to use something intended for right handed weirdos" my mind brought up bad memories of using spiral bound notebooks in school, man those sucked.
i’m also left handed and use the computer mouse with my right, for me its because using my index finder for primary click felt more intuitive. If I swapped hands I would have had to use my middle finger.
Left handed computer mouses exist now, but that wasnt really a thing when I was learning to use a computer in the 90s
I started those from the back so I could have the spiral bound on the correct side for me being left handed.
I started from the front but wrote on the back of each page.
I'm right-handed but I always used both sides. I'm confused about what the issue is.
In addition to the location of the spiral, many left handers have to twist their arm/hand to write in such a way as to not immediately smear their ink (or smudge their graphite) meaning that the metal coil is often more in the way and digging into the arm instead of the arm going down the length of the paper for right handers
/Right handed but observant and with leftie friends
@DefinitelyNotAFae nailed it. No matter how you position your hand as a lefty the spiral is constantly interfering with your writing. When you begin a new line, your hand is on the spiral and just interferes with your arm as you go right on a line. As you go down the page, you just repeat this with every line you write. In order to prevent smudging, my hand sorta hooks above the line I'm writing on so this means that the spiral hits my hand and my arm when I start writing in them.
Now that's smart. I just simply switched to non spiral-bound notebooks and to this day still use non spiral-bound notebooks for notes and things.
There's a tricky thing with handedness where it is confused for dominance in the sense that "everything must be done with this hand."
When you are learning a completely new skill, you're going to do mostly the same on either hand. There may ne an expressed preference, but it's easier to override early on, which I'm sure you have experience with.
With yoyos, there's a way people throw constant loops (out and back without catching). In general, if you have yoyo experience, these are easier to learn on your "off" hand because you don't have to unlearn other patterns.
Or instruments. When you first pick up a guitar, unless you've been doing lefty air guitar, your brain has no "guitar state." Both sides suck, basically, so it helps to try to learn the way that opens the path to more, cheaper instruments (righty).
I'm not advicating dor breaking your left-handedness but for things that are less immediate switchable like instruments and computer mice it helps to learn the "normal" way out of the gate. You won't have to toggle OS settings, hope for lefty variants, or drag the mouse iver the workstation to reorient it.
I also approach this from the perspective of ambidextrtity. I wrote with both hands growing up, and the skill was somewhat innate once learned, simply reversed. I had to rewrite a paper in 2nd grade because it was mirrored on my left hand.
I'm sorry, I know it's not what you mean, but this feels too similar a thought process they had when they would beat children when that tried to use their left hand. Yes, you can do anything either handedness, but for many things, writing especially, you absolutely should use your dominant hand. You learn much faster which technically allows you to also hit higher peaks as we only have so much time in this world.
My uncle, (or maybe it was great-uncle) was a lefty. He tried to write with his left, but as was disgustingly common at that time, he would be hit every time the teacher caught him with a writing utensil in his left hand. Hard enough that he couldn't even use his left hand for a little while. Yet, somehow, he supposedly still came out of that with his left-handed writing being more legible than his right. I don't believe this is a uncommon story either.
In my own experience, in my mid 20s I tried to use a pair of scissors left-handed, despite generally always defaulting to my right because I had never in my life even seen a pair of left-handed scissors and thus had never successfully cut something with my left. Because we were in the age of being able to order anything we could ever want online and yet I had still never had the privileged of owning a pair of left-handed scissors, I threw a mental fit and got a pair. These scissors are awful. If I try to cut anything but paper with them, they manage to do a worse job than if I were to put my right-handed scissors in my left hand, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't prefer them most of the time. (I really should get a better pair though...)
For those unaware, ambidextrous scissors are a LIE. They are right-handed scissors with maybe better QA tolerances. When you close the blades of the scissors, your thumb naturally pushes the blades together allowing for a cleaner cut. Additionally, the top blade is on the right, meaning as long as you hold it in your right hand, you can see the line that you are cutting. If you hold them in your left, your thumb pushes the blades apart and you can not see the line you are cutting along. It feels almost impossible to make any proper cut if you are not using the hand designed for the scissors in question.
Oh yeah, I know I'm playing a slightly dangerous game there, especially knowing people raised around that. But the point I stress is things like specialty mice and musical instruments are simply more available and often slightly cheaper for maybe a little more practice overhead at the beginning.
I'm not saying relearn guitar or that there is anything wrong with doing it lefty (there isn'), simply that for many things you can, to a point, make a conscious decision that might save headaches later.
there's dozens of us!!
curious how you other left-handers manage with these tasks (feel free to add your own quirks as well!):
eating - fork left handed and also cut left handed so I have to switch fork to right hand while I cut
drink - right handed
catch and throw - both left handed. could never play baseball.
instruments - all right handed
mouse - right handed
edit:
boards: goofy (right foot forward)
So since my language is written right to left (Persian) as a lefty i've never had the problem of ink smearing because of left handedness, i've had it because of sweaty hands.
Eating - Left handed
Drink - Left & Right
Catch and throw - Left
Haven't tried instruments enough to say i have a hand preference
Mouse - Right handed
Rhythm games - Left handed (both keyboard based and VR ones)
Holding my phone - Right handed
ah yes another throw/catch left hander!! struggling to figure out which rhythm games require handedness...
something else I just remembered is I ride boards goofy aka right foot forward. meaning "normal" or right-handers put left foot forward!
In terms of footedness on boards, you would think it's correlated to handedness, but it's actually not from my experience. Last I heard the stats (for skateboarding at least) is almost 50-50 regular to goofy. Personally I'm regular and right-handed, but of my skater friends, 2 are regular (one of whom is left handed) and 1 is goofy (and right handed). So it seems to be a totally different mechanism! Just something I've found interesting.
Most don't require one hand to be better per se, but in osu! i aim better and click better with my left hand, having my right hand either not aim good enough or not click fast enough to progress too far. in other things like osu!mania i can click and keep time more accurately on my left than right.
In Beat Saber i'm more accurate and can keep tempo with my left hand, and can hit weird angles a lot more than my right. my right arm seems to not be able to move as fast subconsciously and i have to focus a lot on only my right side while the left just does its thing.
I ride boards goofy! it feels like i got more control with it.
I'm also left eye dominant. that's a lot of left that i've never thought about before, left foot is slightly stronger too!
I always enjoy the handedness survey:
I use fork and spoon left, knife both (convenient not to switch hands, but I think if I'm using a spread I prefer left)
Drink: both
Throw balls left, catch both, Frisbee both
I don't know on instruments, I've never played anything where a dominant hand applies
Mouse: right
Scissors: right
Sweeping/mopping: both (do people have a hand preference? I know people do for hockey)
Phone (never thought about it before!): left
Opening doors: right
Watch: right
Crochet: left
I wonder if, similar to how US presidents are more likely to be left-handed, tilderinos may also be more likely to be left-handed.
For eating and drinking, I tend to use whichever hand is convenient. When I'm using utensils I use my left hand usually but if I'm eating with my bare hands, I use my right. I usually alternate my drinking hand with my eating hand just to keep things clean.
For catching/throwing/anything sports to be honest, I'm right handed. Same with the piano when I was younger. I also use a mouse right handed and wear a watch on my left wrist since that just feels most natural to me.
I'd probably be classified as a right-hander, but I find that I also have a lot of mixed dominance. I have noticed that taught skills (writing, using utensils, guitar, etc) I tend to do right-handed, but almost everything else I do left handed or go back and forth freely -- including the easier to re-learn taught skills, like using utensils. I often keep two computer mice on my desk, and use whichever is more convenient at the moment depending on what I'm doing on the keyboard at the time and also switch back and forth to avoid wrist strain.
Some things, like using a cell-phone, I do almost exclusively left-handed.
Interesting article. I do wish it had gone a bit more into the science side of things, would have been interested to hear about more studies than it talked about. I'm also always a little wary of evolutionary biology, it's been misused so much over the years. I'm also not sure I agree so much with this statement:
Does it have to be that it is advantageous? My understanding was that it's not really survival of the fittest, just simply survival of the good enough. I don't see why it couldn't have developed this way simply by accident. Of course there could be a reason too, but I don't see that it has to be the case.
Did lead me into a rabbit hole on looking up handedness preferences though, and found this other recent science article about it (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/people-arent-born-with-as-righties-or-lefties-they-develop-hand-dominance-with-practice-a-new-study-suggests-180989168/). Fits in fairly well I think with the original article, as an attempt to explain how handedness develops: that the brain is biased towards preferring a certain side and then develops handedness for that out of practice and repetition. I've certainly experienced that myself, I am right side dominant, but left handed for specific things because I learned them left handed first.