Left-Handedness: Not Another Lifestyle Choice

Lefthand_2

Ever wondered about the origins of the left-handed among us? Scientists still do.

"Can openers, scissors and spiral-bound notebooks discriminate against lefties. Despite such challenges, 10 to 12 percent of the human population has historically preferred the left hand.

"Why doesn’t the number ever waiver? Nobody knows for sure, but new research supports a body of evidence that suggests genetics have a hand in it all.

GET THE STORY.

"[N]ew research supports a body of evidence that suggests genetics have a hand in it all."

Now there’s a relief. Here I was, afraid that left-handedness was just another lifestyle choice. My left-handed grandfather can now rest in peace, and my left-handed sister can now rest easy, with the knowledge that they likely were born that way. Will science never cease to amaze us?

Snarkiness aside, the article is an interesting overview of the history of the southpaw.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

17 thoughts on “Left-Handedness: Not Another Lifestyle Choice”

  1. My son is left-handed and his teachers used to try and ‘make’ him write with his right hand, attributing it to his electing to do so, rather than that it came naturally for him to do so.
    He does look all bent up when he writes though, his left hand curves almost completely around, which I found alarming at first, but he say;s it’s comfortable…
    I love that my boy is so talented. He has the most incredible imagination and is extremely creative. He is slow to grasp academic subjects (as am I – though I am a right hander) and yet he has a superb memory…ask him about anything about what he has read about his beloved Marvel characters or Star Wars and he reels off a list of facts that astound me…and he’s only ten!
    There ya go, that’s my proud mummy moment.
    God Bless

  2. That left-handedness is hereditary is something I’ve known since I was a kid – what’s new about that? I thought everyone knew lefties are so rare because we are so special. 🙂

  3. I’m primarily a lefty, but there are a number of tasks (such as operating a computer mouse) that I’ve learned to do with my right hand.

  4. I’m a leftly, so is my brother, so is my husband and so is my son. (My other righthanded son thought he was abnormal until he went to school)
    I used to have a t-shirt years ago: “Lefties are the opnly ones in their right mind!” Right mind- getit?
    Oh well.

  5. Wow DJ, how long did it take you to type that? My brain would be flipping out trying to get that out. I’m proud of myself for be able to decipher it though ;). When I was a little girl, I remember trying to teach my baby brother to write with his left hand (even though my whole family is right-handed) just so he’d be different. It didn’t work :D.

  6. “He does look all bent up when he writes though, his left hand curves almost completely around, which I found alarming at first, but he say;s it’s comfortable…”
    I am left-handed and I do the same thing. It is part of how I was trained to write. To get your letters to slant to the right in cursive writing, the pen/pencil has to slant the same way. I suppose it (letters slanting right) could be done with the pen slanted left, but I was never able to master that technique.

  7. I was completely ambidexterous until entering school when I began to favor writing with the right hand. I still am a “leftie” for archery and an “ambi” for drawing, painting, and bowling.

  8. KristyB: I cheated, I typed it forwards first, then retyped it using the forwards version as reference.
    From what I understand, they made castle towers to spiral up clockwise so the people defending could use their right arms easily from above while people coming up the towers had to work harder. It was suggested to me that one needs to find a horde of left handed barbarians to tackle such a tower. 🙂

  9. I’m a lefty, and I was looking at how I write, and I realize I don’t curve my hand around. And I write cursive with the right-leaning slant.
    But I also did a lot of self-coaching, especially since my teachers – who thankfully didn’t force me into being a righty – said my handwriting would never be decent because I’m a lefty (just like my grandma says I can’t use a can-opener or other righty things properly). So I practiced and have decent penmanship.
    And I also do a lot of things with my right hand. Computer mouse, throwing balls (except a bowling ball, that’s left), hitting in baseball. I even taught myself how to print legibly with my right hand.
    I always find that it’s interesting to be a lefty. And that, while it’s only 10-12% of the human population, several of my group – me, my husband, my best friend, a mutual friend, and a couple more – are all lefties.

  10. What’s unusual about my left-handedness is that not a single blood-relative that I knew of (parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, sister) is left-handed. That’s not even statistically probable! I would think, man, am I adopted or something? But now, my sister’s first-born, my 7-year old niece is left-handed. Yeah! A compatriot!

  11. “Watch out for those Lefies. There’s something sinistral about them!”
    Yeah, & I’m sure all you righties are so dexterous & mighty aren’t you! 😉
    I’m a lefty. I always liked that we got special lefty scissors with the green rubber on the handles. But . . . since I grew up using the righty scissors that were around the house, I would use the lefty scissors in my right hand. Since scissors work in opposition, all my cut edges were fuzzy. I didn’t realize why until I was 12 or so. I just thought it was cool that we got to use different scissors! (I’m a simple child.)
    I do most thing righty, actually. But that’s prolly just ‘cos I’m the youngest & my sibs are all rightys so I copied them. I wish I played guitar lefty, though. It just looks cool!

  12. I once saw a coffee mug that said, “All people are born left-handed. They just turn right-handed after they commit their first sin.”
    (I’m left-handed, btw.) 🙂

  13. I went to a concert the other night where a violinist played the third movement of Tschaicovsky’s Violin Concerto left-handed (violin in right hand, bow in left)! His strings are strung backwards and everything. He did a very good job, but as a violinist it was a bit spooky watching him. In his case, I’ve heard that it’s actually the result of having limited dexterity in the fingers of his left hand from some sort of accident. I’m not sure if he actually is left-handed, but the comment about the left-handed guitar playing made me think about it.

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