Do you feel left out or right on?

[ChimneySweep]

I just read this article (mumble..mumble..Jack..mumble..mumble..) and thought the points it made might make an interesting discussion among the left- and right-handers on Volconvo. (I'm just assuming we're a mixed bunch). Basically it's saying that characteristics of left-handers include being more fearful, more angry, more inhibited, and associating "left" with good. The final point about left-handed politicians having an advantage on tv is interesting in light of Obama being left-handed.

5 surprising facts about left-handed people - The Week

Famous left-handers include Fidel Castro, Queen Victoria, Henry Ford and HG Wells. Both Prince Charles and Prince William are left-handed, and this is in line with a suggested genetic predisposition.

]

Researchers who study human hand preference agree that the side of the preferred hand (right versus left) is produced by biological and, most likely, genetic causes.

Individuals with the C gene will have a 50 percent chance of being right-handed and a 50 percent chance of being left-handed. These theories of hand preference causation are intriguing because they can account for the fact that the side of hand preference of individuals with the C gene (most left-handers and some right-handers) can be influenced by external cultural and societal pressures, a phenomenon that researchers have documented. These theories can also explain the presence of right-handed children in families with left-handed parents and the presence of left-handed children in families with right-handed parents. If the familial genetic pool contains C genes, then hand preference becomes amenable to chance influences, including the pressures of familial training and other environmental interventions that favor the use of one hand over the other. The proposed genetic locus that determines hand preference contains an allele from each parent, and the various possible genetic combinations are DD individuals who are strongly right-handed, DC individuals who are also mostly right-handed, and CC individuals who are either right-handed or left-handed. These genetic combinations leave us with an overwhelming majority of human right-handers and a small, but persistently occurring, minority of left-handers.

http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/left.html

What causes some people to be left-handed, and why are fewer people left-handed than right-handed?: Scientific American

InternationalLeft-handers Day, incidentally, is 13 August.


What do you think, do these qualities apply to you or people you know?

[Jack]

...it's saying that characteristics of left-handers include being more fearful, more angry, more inhibited...

I'm afraid I can't express just how pissed off stories like that make me.



I subscribe to The Week and had read this. It's somewhat true in its generalizations, but most generalizations are somewhat true. It doesn't take into account the person's character or life experiences. Those can enable a person, even a right-handed person, to compensate for genetic predispositions. I still think the most relevant "truth" for my fellow lefties to keep in mind is that nearly everything in the world is designed for right-handed people. For that reason lefties live shorter lives. We're often victims of the righties single mindedness in design.

[Walrus]

For me, apart from a total inability to use an italic calligraphy pen, being left handed has never been a problem.

[gallo]

it's saying that characteristics of left-handers include being more fearful, more angry, more inhibited,

Hogwash. My older brother is left handed. He is anything but fearful. He is gregarious and outgoing and generally liked by all who meet him. He is also self assured and forceful, and smart as a whip. He served as vice-president of two major US bank holding companies. He served over 11 years as on active duty as an Army officer, and over 20 years in the Army Reserves, serving two weeks at the Pentagon every year. His commanding Generals offered promotions if he would return to active duty. He twice turned down a star (Brigadier General). At that time he was the President and CEO of a multimillion dollar corporation and was earning more than a Brigadier. He is now retired from the Army but still working for a major corporation. He works from home by computer and plays golf a couple of times a week. He is 70.

So the characterization of lefties is crap.

[gallo]

For me, apart from a total inability to use an italic calligraphy pen, being left handed has never been a problem.

How about scissors? Made for right handers. Never a problem?

[Angry Citizen]

It saddens me that people actually spend money writing articles such as these, and doing studies on subjects such as this.

Researchers who study human hand preference

... should all be fired and told to get real fucking jobs. God, these people are almost as bad as non-job-seeking government leeches.

[Walrus]

How about scissors? Made for right handers. Never a problem?

Not really, my grip has become accustomed to the use of right handed scissors. Ironically my wife bought me a pair of left-handed ones and I couldn’t use them.

[notthecheatr]

Right handed people are still superior!