Ask HN: What causes some people to be left-handed?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7185540

by zvanness • 12 years ago

7 5 12 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Does anyone have a solid theory on why there is such an unbalanced ratio between the number of right-handed people and left-handed people. Why is the default to be right-handed? What really causes people to be left-handed?

essessv• 12 years ago

This is a question appropriate for Quora, I feel.

devfeed• 12 years ago

I can't answer your first question about why left-handed people exist, but I can provide some clues about the proportions:

Left-handedness is a disadvantage in society where everything is designed for the right-handed person. However, there is one advantage to being left-handed: in hand to hand or sword to sword combat, the southpaw has an advantage in being unfamiliar.

This article http://www.economist.com/node/3471297 (Economist, 2004) describes an empirical finding: in societies that were historically more violent, the left-handedness proportion is higher.

Perhaps this is also why left-handed people even exist. They have an advantage in historical person-to-person violent conflicts. This advantage would go away as their proportion gets higher. I presume (this is conjecture) that the minority proportion that it is, is the steady state equilibrium where the violent advantage outweights the other disadvantages of being out of sync with society.

draker• 12 years ago

http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1j7db9/why_are_m...

Answer from an individual that studies "handedness".

jballanc• 12 years ago

Ah! I get to plug one of my favorite websites, OMIM (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man): http://www.omim.org

Their article on left handedness goes into great detail as to the biology behind hand preference. In short, it's related to brain patterning and the direction the hair on your head swirls (seriously!): http://omim.org/entry/139900

As for the evolutionary reason, the most recent research suggests that it may have to do with cooperation. Simply put, it's easier to cooperate when everyone (or most everyone) uses the same hand for most activities. More details here: http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2012/04/left-...

wglb• 12 years ago

This is highly anecdotal.

My uncle was born right-handed. When he was young, he broke his collarbone on the right side. While this was healing, he used his left hand, and continued to do so from then on.

Then, working on farm machinery, he ran his left hand through a V-belt, injuring it badly. While that was healing, he went back to using his right hand again.

Probably not very typical.

Ask HN: What causes some people to be left-handed?

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