Why are most people right handed?

[saevel25]

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/science-question-from-a-toddler-why-am-i-right-handed/

 

Quote

It’s not just your genes or what you explicitly learn. For instance, higher testosterone exposure in the womb is associated with increased rates of left-handedness, Kavaklioglu told me. There’s also implicit learning after birth, the kind that happens when babies watch and copy their parents’ behavior. It’s possible, Hopkins says, that chimps and humans differ because human babies are born with less-developed brains. There’s more opportunity for our environments to turn a right-handed fetus into a left-handed child. Nobody knows for sure. But either way, handedness is a great example of how our perspective on genetics, as a whole, has changed. “People used to think you could just hone in on the magic gene,” Armour says. “But we’ve come to appreciate that it can be more complicated than that.”

 

[boogielicious]

1 hour ago, saevel25 said:

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/science-question-from-a-toddler-why-am-i-right-handed/

 

 

My left handed wife asks me that all the time!

[newtogolf]

I wonder if dominant eye influences our handedness.  

[saevel25]

8 minutes ago, newtogolf said:

I wonder if dominant eye influences our handedness.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocular_dominance

Quote

Ocular dominance, sometimes called eye preference or eyedness,[1] is the tendency to prefer visual input from one eye to the other.[2] It is somewhat analogous to the laterality of right- or left-handedness; however, the side of the dominant eye and the dominant hand do not always match.[3] This is because both hemispheres control both eyes, but each one takes charge of a different half of the field of vision, and therefore a different half of both retinas (See Optic Tract for more details). There is thus no direct analogy between "handedness" and "eyedness" as lateral phenomena.

Approximately two-thirds of the population is right-eye dominant and one-third left-eye dominant;[1][4][5][6] however in a small portion of the population neither eye is dominant. Dominance does appear to change depending upon direction of gaze[2][7] due to image size changes on the retinas.[8] There also appears to be a higher prevalence of left-eye dominance in those with Williams–Beuren syndrome,[9] and possibly in migraine sufferers as well.[10] Eye dominance has been categorized as "weak" or "strong";[11] highly profound cases are sometimes caused by amblyopia or strabismus.

Also, you can treat ocular dominants. I had to wear an eye patch for a few months when I was young because I was severely right eye dominant. So I need to strengthen my left eye.

 

[newtogolf]

3 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocular_dominance

Also, you can treat ocular dominants. I had to wear an eye patch for a few months when I was young because I was severely right eye dominant. So I need to strengthen my left eye.

 

Thanks, I was going to look it up after I responded to a few posts but thought I'd throw it out there.  I went to Catholic elementary school and they tried to switch me to write right handed but it didn't take.  I wonder how many more people my age (50) and older would be left handed if not for those nuns in catholic school.  

[pumaAttack]

I think a lot of it is cultural influence.   Everything is set up to be right-handed so naturally people will gravitate that way.   

Writing, driving, most sports equipment, scissors, tools, etc.

It's easier to go with the flow instead of fight it.

[Patch]

My wife is left handed. I'm right handed. I sleep on the left side of the bed. She sleeps on the right side. One daughter is left handed, and the other is right handed. Of our 6 grand children, 3 are righties, 3 are lefties. With the twins one is a righty, and the other is a lefty. Two of the lefties be long to their right handed Mom.  One left handed grand son played most his sports right handed. Both son inlaws are righties. 

We never tried to change any of the kids. Never ever worried about it. One of our daughters did have a squabble with a teacher who wanted to change her lefty to a righty.   The saying in our households is that " lefties have rights two". 

I still fool around with left handed clubs from time to time. 

Edited March 11, 2016 by Patch

[DaveP043]

57 minutes ago, pumaAttack said:

I think a lot of it is cultural influence.   Everything is set up to be right-handed so naturally people will gravitate that way.   

Writing, driving, most sports equipment, scissors, tools, etc.

It's easier to go with the flow instead of fight it.

Do you think that in England, or other places where you drive on the left, and shift gears with the left hand, they have more left-handed people?

[jamo]

I wonder how the development of your dominant hand correlates to hand-eye coordination and overall athletic ability. If you developed left-handedness late, could that lead to worse hand-eye coordination?

[saevel25]

8 minutes ago, jamo said:

I wonder how the development of your dominant hand correlates to hand-eye coordination and overall athletic ability. If you developed left-handedness late, could that lead to worse hand-eye coordination?

Maybe in the case if you have the predisposition to be left handed and they teach you to be right handed. I wonder if that can slow down the development of that particular sport when considering playing it left or right handed.

Like in baseball when some players hit more homeruns right handed than left handed but they can bat both ways and have a pretty decent average in both.

[pumaAttack]

28 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

Do you think that in England, or other places where you drive on the left, and shift gears with the left hand, they have more left-handed people?

Driving probably isn't a good example of right-handed development.

The most likely one is writing and basic tools.  When children learn to write the whole system is set up better for right handed people.  Writing left to right, using scissors, etc.  Children learn early on that right handed is the dominate/easier way.

Edited March 11, 2016 by pumaAttack

[Lihu]

1 hour ago, newtogolf said:

I wonder if dominant eye influences our handedness.  

I happen to be left handed and left eye dominant*** as well, but know a lot of people who are right or left handed that are opposite eye dominant from shooting bows and guns.

Not sure why?

 

EDIT: just read @saevel25's post in response to your question. . .

 

***I am ambidextrous, and actually found that as I improve my left handed activities my right handed ones improve as well. Either that or I'm equally bad with both hands.

[SavvySwede]

2 minutes ago, pumaAttack said:

Way to take ONE example and it probably doesn't affect the outcome.  

The most likely one is writing and basic tools.  When children learn to write the whole system is set up better for right handed people.  Writing left to right, using scissors, etc.  Children learn early on that right handed is the dominate/easier way.

Okay then, so are Arabic people more left handed? (They write in the opposite direction.)

4 minutes ago, Lihu said:

I happen to be left handed and left eye dominant as well, but know a lot of people who are right or left handed that are opposite eye dominant from shooting bows and guns.

Not sure why?

From what I know about shooting you're supposed to pick the hand you shoot with based on which eye is dominant instead of trying to train the wrong eye if it doesn't match your dominant hand.

[pumaAttack]

6 minutes ago, SavvySwede said:

Okay then, so are Arabic people more left handed? (They write in the opposite direction.)

From what I know about shooting you're supposed to pick the hand you shoot with based on which eye is dominant instead of trying to train the wrong eye if it doesn't match your dominant hand.

 

I am strictly talking about individuals who may not have a dominate hand yet or are favoring left handed.  They could switch to right handed because of how the system is set up.  I know plenty of people who golf, play hockey and baseball right handed because that is what the equipment allowed them to be.

 

[Lihu]

10 minutes ago, SavvySwede said:

From what I know about shooting you're supposed to pick the hand you shoot with based on which eye is dominant instead of trying to train the wrong eye if it doesn't match your dominant hand.

That's what I understand as well.

In my archery club, we start off beginners by giving them an eye dominance test. We tell them to look at our noses through a small triangle they make with outstretched arms and look at the eye they use, then we give them the appropriate bow type.

[SavvySwede]

5 minutes ago, Lihu said:

That's what I understand as well.

In my archery club, we start off beginners by giving them an eye dominance test. We tell them to look at our noses through a small triangle they make with outstretched arms and look at the eye they use, then we give them the appropriate bow type.

Oh, from the way you wrote it I thought you meant they learned to use the other eye.

[Golfingdad]

I'm always wondering how much influence outside sources have on developing toddlers.  My dad likes to tell me that he couldn't tell if I threw right or left handed as a kid and I only "became" right handed after he bought me a glove. Prior to that I always threw with the hand I picked the ball up with.

Logic tells me that outside influence plays a decent part simply because of him many people are left handed at only some things.  I knew a lot of guys who threw left handed but batted right or vice versa.  I want to say I knew people who threw left handed but wrote right handed but I don't remember that for sure.

Another anecdote: I play hockey left handed and it's my (not very strong) belief that it's learned, and specifically learned from the fact that I played goalie a lot as a kid.  That meant a stick in one hand and a glove in the other.  with a right handed glove, I had to use a left handed stick. :)

[Lihu]

10 minutes ago, SavvySwede said:

Oh, from the way you wrote it I thought you meant they learned to use the other eye.

Looking back at my post, I can see how ambiguously it was written. . .

I should have just stated "Which hand you should shoot with should depends upon your eye dominance and not your handedness."

 

6 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

I'm always wondering how much influence outside sources have on developing toddlers.  My dad likes to tell me that he couldn't tell if I threw right or left handed as a kid and I only "became" right handed after he bought me a glove. Prior to that I always threw with the hand I picked the ball up with.

Logic tells me that outside influence plays a decent part simply because of him many people are left handed at only some things.  I knew a lot of guys who threw left handed but batted right or vice versa.  I want to say I knew people who threw left handed but wrote right handed but I don't remember that for sure.

Another anecdote: I play hockey left handed and it's my (not very strong) belief that it's learned, and specifically learned from the fact that I played goalie a lot as a kid.  That meant a stick in one hand and a glove in the other.  with a right handed glove, I had to use a left handed stick. :)

Now you do. I used to write right handed but play baseball lefty. In Taiwan, we were forced to write with right hand. I was in the corner with the other struggling naturally left handed kids. The baseball coach didn't care which hand we used to play. He just wanted us to all do our best. In international school in Japan, they didn't care which hand you used.