Visit our online shop for your left-handed productsHandedness influences thinking
A research study published this week claims that our handedness is a major subliminal influence in the choices and decisions we make in all aspects our daily lives.
The decision making process of left-handers was studied by Daniel Casasanto whilst a postdoctoral scholar in psychology at Stanford. Through a series of tasks comparing the preference of left and right handers to objects presented to them from the left or right, he found that righties tend to judge objects on their right side as positive and objects on their left side as negative. Lefties do the opposite, pairing positive things with their left side and negative things with their right.
The tests were quite varied, so as to analyse participants preferences in a number of different situations. In one test, for example the participants were given a sheet of paper paper with two boxes side by side, and had to draw a zebra in one and a panda in the other. A majority (74 percent) of left-handers drew the “good” animal in the box on the left, while most (67 percent) of the right-handers drew the good animal in the box on the right. Digging deeper into the statistics, it turns out that right-handers were nearly six times more likely than lefties to place the good animal on the right and the bad animal on the left. “Right-handers’ responses were consistent with the mental metaphor Good Is Right, and left-handers’ with the mental metaphor Good Is Left,” says Casasanto.
In another test, 286 students were shown pairs of fictional alien figures called Fribbles, odd animal-like creatures with squiggly appendages. The students were shown two groups of Fribbles, one group on the right side and the other on the left.
Right-handed students were more likely to view the Fribbles on the right side as intelligent, happy, honest and attractive. Lefties judged Fribbles on the left more favorably.
Further to this, Casasanto had 371 volunteers read brief descriptions of products (mattresses, desk chairs, kiddie pools) on the left or right side of a page and then indicate which they’d like to buy. Again, most righties chose the product described on the right side, but most lefties—resisting whatever implicit message the righty culture conveys—chose the item on the left. And when volunteers read about two job candidates whose CV’s (resumes) were printed side-by-side, right-handers tended to choose the person described on the right, but left-handers chose the one on the left, again being unconsciously swayed by their experience of space more than the conventions of language and culture.
Casasanto believes this is because for left-handers, the left side of any space has positive moral, intellectual, and emotional connotations whereas for righties, the right side does. That association could apply in situations ranging from whether we choose one brand of coffee over another simply because of its position on the supermarket shelves to whom we might identify as a criminal suspect because of their position in a police lineup.
“We have this illusion that we base our decisions largely on relevant and sufficient information, yet social psychology over the past decades has shown us that there are lots of other factors that shape our judgments.” Casasanto said.
This study is likely to spark interesting debate. Cognitive scientists have long thought that since the regions of the brain that process our perceptions of the physical world are distinct from the regions that process abstract concepts—good and bad, honest and dishonest, smart and stupid—our spatial perceptions would have no effect on abstract thinking. Casasanto’s findings support a competing idea, namely, that neuronal circuits that control concrete perceptions and actions also handle abstract thoughts.
He calls it the Body-Specificity Hypothesis. And it implies that people with different physical characteristics, such as being right- or left-handed, form different abstract concepts, corresponding to those physical traits. For southpaws, the left side of any space has positive moral, intellectual, and emotional connotations; for righties, the right side does. What Casasanto calls “these contrasting mental metaphors” cannot be “attributed to linguistic experience,” he points out, “because idioms in English associate good with right but not with left. But right- and left-handers implicitly associated positive values more strongly with the side of space on which they could act more fluently with their dominant hands.” That influence is stronger than the linguistic cues we get every day about “right-hand man,” “the right side of history,” “out in left field,” or “two left feet.”
Our left preference extends far beyond the hand we write with. Lefties instinctively choose the left side in many social situations where the right side is the convention, such as social kissing left cheek first, drinking from the left wine glass at formal dinners, and guiding their partner anti-clockwise around the dancefloor, until the tide of other dancers forces them to conform. It is interesting to consider though, whether this extends to our subconscious choices made throughout our lives.
One possible benefit of understanding how physical experiences influence our preferences could be an improved education system. “If righties write the textbook and create the exercises and set up the classrooms, they’re likely to arrange things according to this implicit ‘right is good’ preference,” Casasanto said. “Maybe that’s going to make learning math or going to school and sitting in the classroom just a little bit less pleasant or more disconcerting for lefties. Potentially, sensitivity to this could create better learning environments for lefties.
Casasanto’s paper is in the August 2009 edition of Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
Article on the study by Christine Blackman, Stanford University News
Read anecdotes from left-handers about instinctively left-handed actions in everyday life
Daniel Casasanto is now based at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Netherlands
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Happy Day for all the lefties!!!I am a righty ,absolutely had no dexterity with my left other than cutting my nails at my right ,using scissors .
Last year ,reading on a health site ,it said that one of the best antiaging (also Alzeihmer) exercises is using the non dominant hand,for daily activities..I got started.Do crosswords writting lefty,brush teeth etc..but the most challenging it was to play tennis left handed.After a really bad injury/tennis elbow,radial nerve etc I started to TRY to play lefty.Oh my Gosh,I felt so retarded,couldn’t hit a BH,didn’t know how to hold the racquet to make contact with the ball.(Have to mention that I have a teaching pro licence..for my right hand..also one of my friends was doing a great job using his left hand ..also a teaching pro).Now after practicing for 10 month,my skill level has improved tremendosly,and I am very happy that I gave time to my right hand to recover,also to stay active ,have fun and mostly for the way I can play now LEFTY.
One aspect I would like to mention ,when I was learning the shots ..from to much concentration I felt that my head will explode..That’s from using probably the part of the brain that had never used before..the right side.Only after an experience like this one you learn to appreciate all the lefties,who have to adjust everything basicaly to a right hand world.I am getting better and better and I am very proud to be able to develop my game to a level ..that many don’t know ..that I am a righty.
I’m very curious about something. A lot of the “personality quirks” I’ve read about here in these comments can also be attributed to Adult ADD or Adult ADHD. How many of you on here who are left-handed also have Adult ADD? I know I do!
I’m a very creative lefty and am interested in the research which shows many more creative/artistic people are left handed which means we use the right side of our brains.
I’m a needlework designer and have had no difficulty mastering most stitches the right handed way. However, knitting and crocheting, are a nightmare. It has enabled me to design things (e.g. a butterfly) using complex stitches, and then do a complete mirror image of the second side of it, without drawing new directions. I attribute this to years of “flipping things around” in my mind due to my left handedness.
My pet peeve is with saucepans or ladles – the spout is always on the wrong side for me. Couldn’t they just put 2 spouts? Measuring cups are similar – the imperial measurements are always on the side for the righties…sigh.
Lefties unite!
I never had a problem studying — but I did have a problem with the lecture tables at university. They were right hander biased — meaning that I couldn’t rest my left hand on the desk for support — once I had 5 exams in 5 consecutive days and my left wrist swelled up and turned blue-black.
I did do well though: scholarships and the like — and my fellow english majors seem to be left-handed too. Even though it’s supposedly rare it seems to be quite common in the english department! Things I can’t do though: use a can-opener or a right handed pair of scissors. I do wish this store would open up in asia.
im left handed and i choose all the things on the right side.
OMG — A week ago, I found a bunch of pictures of me taken when I was five; I had just entered kindergarten in San Francisco and since my father was a recognized photographer, he came into that class and ‘documented.’
So there I was at an easel, painting with my left hand. I’d completely forgotten about the left-handedness of my in-the-moment assigned art work… but I remember clearly that I had made a mistake (I’d used too much paint) and was in the process of correcting the error by making this circle into a quonset-hut type of picture by using the mistake, the heacy drip-down as a structural upright. I then duplicated that on the other side.
The interesting point was: In my adult memory of this event, I was a right hander who’d made a major mistake in front of my father… I clearly rmember the pressure I was under, after all, he was the photographer and his son had made a huge goof.
But here in the picture, I am using my left hand, something I’d completely forgotten about. It wasn’t too long after his picture taking that I remember something about being harnessed and changed to a rightie… and the arguments my parents had about this transformation. Then I became a heavy stutterer.
It’s been a good week for me.
By the way, my father wrote with his right hand but in pronounced back-slanted manner with his right hand configured like a leftie…
In retrospect, I think dad had been through the left-handedness change-out, as well…
Just an observation, but does anyone else have lefty pets? over the years have had several
lefties (gives left paw) mostly those I have bred myself.
At the moment I have two rescue dogs one came at 18months and always gives his left paw,
the other was 9 years old and always offers the right.
yes. My African Grey Parrot uses his left talon to wave, eat and answer his imaginary phone when mine rings!
Okay that was weird, I’m LH and I definitely picked all the objects on the left
At least they’re not tying kids up, which was my fate as a child. So… Progress is appearing among teachers.
By the way, has ANYONE thought of the implications I (or any left-handed student) felt while being harnessed in front of my fellow classmates? Hmmm… interesting topic, huh?
I hated it.
I’m a teacher, and i’m left handed, a few days ago the administrative department asked me to change my check marks to the “right side”.Because a mom told them that her child was confused by my check mark being on the other side…of course i did not change it… but i started to think about the ideas people have about things that are not the way they are used to see them, and left handed !!
Since that day i’ve started to read about it and I will start helping my left handed students to be free and choose the best way for them to do things, also to work with parents givint them tips and some suggestion on how to improve their child hand writing!
I am also left handed and a teacher. I teach 6th grade math and science. I am getting my masters in middle school math. I am doing my research paper on teaching math to lefties. Any suggestions?
This makes perfect sense to me. Fortunatly I grew up with two left handed parents who shared my ‘backwards’ view on everyday life. Sadly I can’t remember having one left handed teacher when it matter. Though I excelled in most classes, I especially struggled with the ‘hands on’ subjects (ie, home ec, woodshop, music, photography), as all instructions and stations were set-up for righties. Looking back I recall solving math equations backwards, though quicker than all the other students, I still got funny looks from the teachers when they observed my work. I definatly think more ‘pro-left,’ when given the option to go left or right I always side with my heart, (literaly and figuratively), and choose left.
LEFTIES RULE!
OK , At our banks in the USA , at the counter where you would give or take money or checks there is a pen attached to a cord on the right side of the area you are standing at.
I love telling the clerk these pens should be moved to the right side rather than the left that there on . You see from the clerks view the pen is on the left, there left my right. The clerk many times will say your right the pen should be moved to the right side. If you simply think about this the pen is placed correctly were its at to begin with, on there left, my right. When you introduce the idea that the pen should be on there right without thinking the clerk agrees. Without thinking the clerk is ready to go right with there thought process and not left. sincerely left.
Tom Kelly
Left-handedness was central to Hominid speciation. For fifty centuries the right-handed have degraded left-handedness. Here i change everything. http://WWW.Cerebralspeciation.com This site is not indexed to google, it is a Yahoo site, or try a meta search engine.
I am the only person in the world forwarding the concept that the Left-handed male formulated the Hominid lineage via a continuum of isolative multi-generational cerebral speciation events. Researchers and scientists will scratch thier heads over this one. Or laugh, but this concept has plenty going for it. Have a look. Ian K Pennack.
[...] Handedness influences thinking | Anything Left-Handed Academic research reported by Anything Left-Handed which shows that if two objects are placed side by side, a right-hander is more likely to value the object on the right as more worthwhile, and a left-hander the object on the left. (tags: left-handed thinking psychology) [...]
i have found all these comments fascinating and ALL so true. every letter was about what i can and can’t do. i have just had my left hand out of plaster after 3 months and it is so nice to get back to normality. couldn’t even use the keyboard ( kept missing the right letter) and don’t mention the mouse!!!!!! school was always bad as we had dip in pens but i had the best teacher out in 5th form who pushed an empty desk on my left close so i could use that inkwell. i won a competition in the daily telegraph for handwriting. both she and i was thrilled. she taught me that if you hold the pen one and a half inches from the nib you don’t smudge and you can see what you have written. i do suffer from number dyslexia ( always getting wrong numbers ) but sudoko is helping with it. codebreakers are my favourite and i can see and read words backwards very easily. anything to keep the little grey cells working. i never learnt to knit but do sew backwards. as a student nurse it was horrendous until a doctor said ” sit opposite and copy me ” and it was all go from then on. i consider we are the better breed as most of us can use our right hands well but not many righries can.
My 45+ years of experience as a lefty from a totally right handed family, except for a great uncle who was forced in his early years to change and also who suffered from a stammer. I would class myself as extremely left handed. I was a chronic migraine sufferer as a child (age 10-16) i’m reasonable artistic, I excelled at technical drawing. I am good making things with my hands. I can take most broken things apart and work out why they don’t work and think how I can repair them. I struggled with maths at school until i was about 14 years old and it just clicked. My handwriting was appaling until the ago of about 14-15 when a teacher told me so. I changed the style there an then and often people compliment me on my writing. I gave up on an ink pen as I smudge over what I’ve just written. I believe that I could do most things if I really set my mind to it.
The only things I do right handed are; I hold my knife & fork and play guitar (a concious choice when I decided I wanted to learn). I played golf professionally, left handed for a number of years, I’m better than most at sports, anything I’ve tried to apply myself to, I have ended up playing to a decent standard. I now work in I.T. and have noticed a large percentage of people in I.T. who are lefties. I’d estimate between 20-30% rather than the expected 10%.
I don’t have many frustrations at the right handed world. Cheque books used to be a pain, but I rarely cheques these days. Scissors can be agony due to the molded grip, but when I bought myself a pair of left handed scissors I was next to useless with them. I must have become so used to using right handed scissors that I couldn’t get the hang on the fact that left handed scissors have the blades on opposite sides. I have had conversations, with people in the past regarding the number of items whereby the design is for right handers and people just take it for granted, such as electronic goods and power tools with the switch predominantly on the right. (i’d love a left handed circular power saw). It never bothered me that the computer keyboard was laid out the way it is. It is just how it is. I use my mouse on the left side but could not dream of reassigning the buttons. My index finger is for right click and second finger for left click. I can use a mouse in my right hand but obviously not as well as my left. I can hit a golf ball right handed but not as good as my left. I think that most left handers just get on with things without too much difficulty. My daughter is a lefty but does certain things right handed out of (her) choice. I am convinced though that I haven’t come across any left handers who have learning difficulties, I wonder if anybody else has picked up on that one?
Long live the sinistral !
i have a learning disability…though it is just with math
This was a very interesting article.Perhaps teachers should be taught how to teach a lefthanded pupil to write differently than a righthanded pupil.Also other skills may have to be taught differently.The extra pressure of trying to covert righthanded methods to lefthanded methods could add to the problems already facing the young minds of the lefthanded pupil.In my experience having,math problems, for example set up with a righthanded preference adds to the difficulty of arriving at the solution of a problem.I myself try to covert the problems to a more “left friendly” format thereby making it easier for my mind to process.Also I find it easier to solve a problem,or follow directions, if i can see it first and I have noticed other lefties do the same thing adding to the possibility that us lefties process information diffrently than dexters.If any other lefties do the same thing please notify me via email(markfrankmu@rocketmail.com).To the author keep up the good work and please if ,you can add to this article.
being a left handed person i found i had a wider imagination then my right handed siblings. drawing and imagining came natural to me. i do everything with my left hand…heck i do everything with the left half of my body! i found i can only wiggle my left ear and when picking something up with my feet it is always my left.(i got monkey feet) as i was saying before i got off track. i hardly ever use my right hand unless im busy with my left. the only problems i ever head really was when i was a child i hard a hard time telling my left shoe from my right… and today i still have problems trying to unlock locks.
I am a left-handed person, that has learned to do many things right-handed. I see this as an advantage that most right-handed people do not possess. My grandmother, on my mother’s side, was left-handed, as is my uncle and his son. I am, however, the only one in my immediate family that is left-handed. I think differently than they do a lot of the time. They refer to my way of reasoning as “Margaret’s Logic”. I can tell people that something is on the right, while pointing with my left hand, to the left. I still to this day cannot tell my left shoe from my right, until they are on my feet. When I am backing out of a parking space, I have to stop and think about which way I need to turn the wheel. (That could just be me, I don’t know. But would love to know if anyone else has trouble with driving.) One person said that it is fun to see right handed people trying to use your mouse when it is on the left. That is the hilarious to watch!! Almost 100% of the time, they will have to switch the mouse to the right side before they can use it effectively.
I have learned that many people will be amazed at the fact that you are left-handed, if you can use both hands for different tasks.
I have learned how to do a lot of things with my right hand. Most of which I learned when i was 7. I broke my left arm, I had to learn how to eat with my right, brush my teeth and my hair, get dressed, and generally pick things up with my right. I never really thought about learning in school, but now that I look back, certain letters were hard for me to learn. They taught me how I needed to hold my pen and position my paper, THAT HURT! So now I write and position my paper like a right-handed person. In fact many people have commented on the fact that my handwriting is legible, and not at all slanted. Oh Wonder of Wonders!
i have trouble telling which way to turn while backing up to!!! it made me fail my driving test!!!
Being Very Left handed. I remember being called a child of the devil in first grade for being left handed and having my hand hit by the nuns in school. We have come a long way in the last 50 years.
One thing that has always fascinated me was the claim that left handed people are more creative then right handed people. On this subject I have given much thought.
Creative skill must blossom in any child who, without knowing, must subconiously deal with a right handed world. The constant creative exercise of staying alive in a hostile enviroment sharpens the mind.
This alone would make it a worthy to be left handed, if not for the injury and depression that can come from not finding the solution fast enough. I would love to see a study on Creativity/Depression in left handed teen. Children who grew up knowing about left handed tools and those without.
We do not need to make all things left or right handed. But we must make sure that at least the deadly right handed tools (Chainsaw safety devices) are made safe and that our childen know that when things do not work they may not be to blame.
OMG…. I forgot about being called “…a child of the Devil!”
Well… of course, as the class clown, I was devilish, but those nuns had it in for me and were determined to make me ‘right’… no matter the cost. In this case, of course, it was the horrendous stuttering problem that emerged…hahahahahahahahahahahaha!
No one could figure that one out. Not the expensive therapist, not even me. I just remember beginning to stutter.
Now… nothing is worse than a stuttering child, especially if they are Math-oriented and can quickly produce the right answers.
‘Yep… we gotta bring thet kid down.’
So I was greeted with a chorus of laughter everytime I stammered or blocked — That’s when your vocal appartus is so blocked, veins stand-out on your neck, and the more I stammered, the more laughter I received.
So finally, I decided to ‘make ‘em laugh’ ….at least I’d be in on the joke, and I developed my weird interpretations and free-flowing, goofy impressions of cartoon characters, which, by the way, most nuns and later teachers were greatly entertained. I didn’t stutter when I mimiced “Goofy” or “Mickey” or, my favorite, “Bullwinkle.”
Actually, I was almost cast as “Bullwinkle” in the recent movie but I was involved in another project, but deNiro’s casting agent, Ms. Nixon, actually was amazed by my prowess with the voice — I’ve even ‘riffed’ with June Foray (who did “Rocky” several times at industry events).
Nevertheless, when I began to give into this burbling to the top of this latent lefthandedness the stuttering began to quieten down. I felt a little odd at first keying the door with my left hand but it did it rather well. Two of my cars, a fifty-seven T-Bird and a far newer Porsche, had left handed ignitions (by the way, car makers would put the ignition on the left BECAUSE it was cheaper to manufacture with all the electronics on that side…Scary).
But here I am at sixty and I finally have conquered stuttering and am able to do EVERYTHING left-handed… if I want.
The other day, I was adding cream to two of my iced Starbuck’s coffees and stirring them simultaneously with the straws and some young woman commented: “I wish I could do that.” It’s just natural with me.
Maybe what I should do to complete the Karmic cycle of my life is perform stand-up…. after all, I have written for almost every major comedian on Tv going back to Bob Hope. My wife, the Golden Globe nom. actress, has been pushing me ofr years to hit the stage; perhaps I should…
Whatta life, huh? All because I had the devil inside and he was writing through my left handedness — Who knows….
Greetings, sera possible that thus also they think the left politicians that are left-handed, and everything what is of right detests it, example the Venezuelan case with its president.
I LOVE this website! It’s so wonderful to read about and see things relating to being a lefty. I’ve never been discouraged from being a lefty, as my maternal grandmother was. The only two female cousins on my mother’s side (me and my cousin Dina) are lefties. While my grandmother was forced to write with her right hand in school, that didn’t happen to Dina and I.
What IS different, however is that Dina is a math WHIZ and I stink at it. I’ve always struggled with doing even simple addition in my head, but especially have a difficult time with word problems. I hate them to this day! It wasn’t until I was in college taking a Math class for future elementary education students on “How to teach Math” that I found out what “my” problem is. My college professor, the late Stacey Wahl, was a very “hands on” learner so that’s how she taught. We did lessons using oragami and lessons using mini marshmallows and toothpicks during which we made these beautiful geometric shapes… her class was awesome! I went to her one day and asked her why now, after years and years of struggling through math classes, did I understand these concepts? She answered my question with a question: “What hand do you write with you?” All of sudden the tears welled up in my eyes because I realized that after all these years of belittling myself over my inability to do well in math I wasn’t stupid! I just learned differently. It was such an emotional revelation and I will never, ever forget Professor Wahl.
Professor Wahl passed away not too long ago and when I read the article in my hometown paper about her passing the tears came again. She wrote a book entitled “The Flavor of Our Lives: Grandma Stacey’s Memoirs” published in 1995 which I can’t wait to find and read. She and her husband John (a nuclear scientist) also wrote a book called “I Can Count the Petals of a Flower” which is a beautiful photobook intended to teach preschoolers counting by literally having them count the petals of each flower.
Thanks for this website and for connecting all of us “Lefties” out there!
FELICIDADES A TODOS LOS ZURDOS DEL MUNDO!!!!
ARRIBA LOS ZURDOS!
In my early forties, I noticed that little leftie stuff began appearing: It was easier to manipulate tools left handed, cut food when processing, eating, etc.
Then it came back: I remembered being changed to a right-handed student in early grammar school, the conversations about being left; I remembered the harness and the declarations to “do it right” and all the many negative implications of using the left hand.
I am wonderfully ambidextrious now (altho, I began stuttering as a child at that age) and find myself using whatever hand is the most convenient in most applications; I’ve always been a better baseball hitter using my left hand; all the coaches were impressed with my ability to hit long line drives while left-handed, etc.
After I relented (in my forties) and began using both hands for everything, the stuttering abated; for the first time in my life, I could actually hold a conversation and not worry about stammering — It was scary.
Being a comedy writer, I had always wanted to do stand-up but was reluctant to stand before a crowd and display this disability.
I think some research should be done on the link between stuttering and being changed…
Hi I come from a family of left handers, my grandmother was left handed she had 7 children and 5 of them including my mother were left handed. My sister and I are both left handed as is my son. With regards hand writing I was taught to write Italic and remember having a fountain pen with a twisted nib, because we used ink I learnt to write with the paper twisted like some of the earlier contributors so as not to blot my work.
When my right handed daughter decided she wanted to learn to knit I had a bit of a problem as I had been taught the left handed way, in the end my right handed mother in law took up the challenge of teaching her. For me coming from a predominatley left handed family I do not really remember as a child having too many issues, its when you get to the work place that the fun starts. Buts thats another story.
I’ve never read such a load of nonsense. Zebra and Panda – which is the good and which the bad animal?? All animals are essentially good. Whilst I suppose one might think of a predator as ‘bad’ (though perfectly natural in the food chain), or a slimy snake or scary spider as ‘bad’, a zebra is a beautiful animal and a panda is cuddly, so both to me feel ‘good’.
When I was at school around 1960 a researcher came and asked which of us was left-handed on the basis they thought left-handers were better at maths – and we were certainly the brightest at maths in the class.
The article makes no mention of bi-handedness. According to research I’ve read, whilst most right-handers are totally right-handed, about half of left-handers are really bi-handed – ie they write and do some tasks left-handed but do a different set of tasks with their right hands.
I found this to be true for me when I fractured my right elbow and realised how much I had used my right hand for and had to re-learn with my left. By the time my right arm was functioning again, after several months, I had a painful tendon problem with my left arm, and had to things with my right hand instead. Eventually I reverted naturally to doing things the way I always had.
Interestingly years ago when I was referred to a Neurologist because of a tremor, the very first question he asked was whether I was left- or right-handed.
The article makes no mention of creativity, left-handers tend to be more creative. When teaching spinning and weaving I found that in one class of 12 students and myself nine of us were left-handed.
Like many of the contributors, I’m left-handed but can do many things with both hands. I’m most delighted to read about this research as inability to do maths has plagued me all through life and now I know why. I shall still persevere with it but realise it’s probably not explained in a way I can follow easily.
At school in the 1960s we were taught “italic” writing with Osmiroid pens and my parents had to order the special lefty one for me. I was in “extra writing” class constantly because my writing sloped “the wrong way” and quite often the ink smeared because of my hand dragging over it. Focusing on the italic shapes of letters and using this wretched special pen was the bane of my otherwise good school life. Oh – the left-handed desks at uni were about one per lecture theatre. You had to be quick to grab it! Mousing – right so can write with the left, but can use one on either side as well.
My son is left-handed and he is the only left handed person in our family. I have 6 children, 4 have grown up and my son who is left handed and his little brother. I find it hard to teach him to do things like tie his shoe laces, and when he learnt to write as he does things opposite to me. I feel sorry for him at school also, as things are harder for him as a left hander, I just had to purchase some left handed scissors for him to use in the class, as he was having trouble using the class scissors which the teacher said was for either hand, but since getting the left handed scissors he is no longer having problems cutting out, when he has gone to hit a ball people always give him the bat in his right hand and he has trouble hitting the ball unless I tell them to swap the bat to his left hand, also learning to space words was harder for him before as he wasnt able to finger space like right handed children, so I think school should take more notice of left handed children and design programmes and give equipment for left handers to use, I have also noticed he is more sensitive than my other children and wonder if this is too do with him being left handed, but left handed or not he is one cool kid.
I am a Primary school teacher and a mother of a left handed kid. I am very grateful to the person who created a website like this. Reading through the comments of left handers frustrations, I as a teacher have learned to be more understanding and sensitive to the needs of lefties in my classroom. This year I had five lefties and all of them achieved high—- all because of the learning I gained from this site. Thanks to everyone who adds to my knowledge. You all are wonderful gifts to our world.
As a lefty, it never occurred to me not to use the computer “mouse” with my right hand. That still lets me use my left hand to write. Very logical to me. (And I’m totally dysfunctional using my left hand to operate the “mouse”.) I also bat and play golf right handed….I’m told that also has something to do with one’s dominant eye……..HOWEVER I did have a very progressive teacher in the learning-to-write stage…She let me turn my paper so that my hand did not drag across the surface. I don’t write “upside down” pushing the pen/pencil in front….my husband writes that way. It is painful to watch (and read) the writing.
I am an extreme left handed person. growing up with a right hand mom, made things seem upside down, but when I grew up and got my own home, I started to realize that reteaching myself how to go through everyday motions, made my life much more comfortable. I often refer to my thinking as left hand logic because alot of my friends and co workers are perplexed at my fast thinking, or methods that I use to get to conclusions. I am very proud to be left handed! Its too bad that we are not recognised more for our talents because of our left handed advantage.
I do agree that left handed people think differently. I grew up in a right handed world which at times was most difficult. I learned how to do many things with my right hand because there wasn’t any left-handed items to choose from. In kindergarten, my teacher use to slap my knuckles with a ruler because I used my left hand. I do believe left-handed people learn differently and are very creative. I am a painter using a spray gun which I can spray using both my hands, which irritates people because they can’t. I can do a lot of things with my right as well as my left. It irritates me when I’m told by some “you are not a true lefty when you can do much with your right hand.” I tell them “Well it’s because I live in a right-handed world!”
Being left handed has been one of my weird traits you could say. Everyone in my family is r/h except for myself. With my two little ones I have problems teaching them to write b/c they want to copy me. I am home schooling my 2 yr old and my 4 yr old is starting prek. But I noticed that the practicing bks I bought for them show the letters from starting top to bottom on the lines, but I go from botom to top. I learned this b/c I was always teased as a child for being a lefty. I went to Catholic school and I would get in trouble with the nuns for my writing. I used to write over handed, which is normal for lefties. But I taught myself to write underhanded so as not to draw so much attention to myself. The difference now is that I have my paper sideways when I write. This is the trouble that my little ones are copying. I can hardy do anything with my right hand, and I don’t in any way discourage their handedness. It is just a luck of the draw. But I think I have inadvertantly taught them the way I do things b/c of being lefthanded, and some of it is backwards. I can only hope that they will learn the “right” way, and be able to do both without being teased like I was.
I get sooo frustrated when I try to put on a pendant necklace. The clasp is always on the right and my fingers have it all figured out on the left!! Then I have to take it off and start all over again with the right hand. Often I cannot do it and have to find another necklace without a clasp.
I used to have a lot of trouble giving directions. I would say, “take a left.” when I meant a “right”. I would confuse people because I pointed in the correct direction.
I do agree that left handers are social chameleons! An example of that is that after years of reaching into a handshake with my left hand I finally realized why it was so awkward and practised reachging with my right hand. Now it’s second nature! I have three left handers in my family and a fourth little one who has just started writing seems to favour his left. His mum is my younger cousin and she could not be happier that he writes with the same hand I do! I rarely felt picked upon or awkward growing up. In fact, people rarely notice that I am left handed. See…..Social Chameleons!
Being Left Handed is Awesome!
Lefty as is my twin sister, rest of siblings r/h. I tutor adults in Maths and English. For Maths my l/h is a bonus in this role. If a learner is l/h I normally expect to tackle the Math from a diff perspective. I normally ask the learner to show me how they see the sum 1st then I can work with them to get solution rather than dismiss and try and teach them a method I know they will not retain long term. Dont know if ever thought of before but for research I would set up a simulated classroom with lefty teacher, all l/h pupils and ask two scientists to observe, one r/h to learn by watching and one l/h to interpret for the r/h the logic of a left hander if struggling to understand. Emjoyed reading comments.
I love being left handed. I am so left handed that I think my right hand is going to fall off from rust and dust lol! I eat, brush my teeth, and even fetch things left handed. I am my mothers only child that’s left handed, but we do have like 3 other relatives that are left handed. I feel that it’s unique. When I was in public school I used to look around to see who all were left handed, noticing I was like the only one, I used it to my advantage because I got the best because I claimed to be “different”. Lol I mean we’re not different, society just seems as though it isn’t made for us. But what are the ods, my roomate is left handed lol. That’s crazy! But hey we should be just alike then. From left to right is my favorite line! Have a great day lefters!
My 7yr old son is the only left hander in our family. I am convinced his so called ‘under achieving’ at school is down to the teachers not allowing for his left handeness. They get most irate when i tell them he can do more at home than he can at school! After 3 years of education we have both had enough, i bought him several items of equipment from anthing left handed but he is not allowed to use them!! My son is left handed give him a chance to be proud of who he is & blossom!!
Janice,
I have 3 sons, two are lefties. When the lefties were in the first, second, third and fourth grades, ( 4 years apart) they too were having “problems” with the teachers and the lack of their understanding the left handed difficulties in the right-handed world.
I made an appointment with each of the teachers as the children got to those grades,and talked to them and actually challenged them to put their right hands behind their back and do what my son was required to do as a lefty. After each of these teachers did this for 15 or 20 minutes in front of me, there was a sudden change in the teachers attitude. Each one of them thanked me for making them aware of the difficulties that lefties are challenged by everyday. All lefties are challenged all the time, even in their own homes, so if a short visit to see a teacher makes it a little better for the child in school, then go and do as I did. IT DID HELP MY BOYS !
I’m sorry Janice, I forgot to tell you that I am also alefty and proud to say that. My parents were r/h, but my mother was a very smart lady and when the nuns tried to change me to r/h she went to school and raised hell. She demanded that they not try to change me and I am thankful for that. I am now almost 70 years old, so you know I
was in school in the fourties when they always thought everyone should be right handed.
Both my parents are right handed. My brother and I are the only two lefties of 4 siblings. My mother accused me of only being left handed because I copied my brother (utterly ridiculous) I can only write right-handed if I am simultaneously writing mirror writing with my left hand, which is a party trick another left-handed friend can do! I can mouse and play badminton with both hands – but golf, archery, unlocking doors, toothbrushing, eating, drinking etc… has to be with the left.
I am a teacher and I always look out for the number of lefties in the classroom. It seems to average at about 2 per 25 students. Sometimes the left handed students seem odd (not to me) – moody, unusually quiet, – usually in trouble for overdue homework, some are struggling, many are musicians with crazy hair and a quirky sense of humour. One conventionally “disturbed” looking young man with a real “back off” attitude, had a wonderful method of thinking things through – always able to argue both cases and look deeply into the subject matter.
I love being left handed, but I don’t really notice the clashes – except at the dinner table. I do get angry that a lot of struggling students are lefties -I wish teaching methods and lesson plans could be fairer. I flunked maths, but excelled at art and music – I was advised not to follow a career in the arts – no call for it our society, apparently. Sorry I rambled on. Bye.
I think being left handed does influence the way i think.I usally think differently from my friends that are right handed they at times think it weird.I am the only lefty at my home so at dinner table my elbow crashes with my brother.
I love the fact that I am left handed makes me different!
I find that most L.H’s are adaptable by necessity as society is still caters for the right Hander. I am the only L.H. of four siblings , my parents are both rights too so I grew up realising that I was different.
I have always felt quite proud to be a “southpaw” and I hate to hear Right handers use the terms Cack and Gammy handed, I usually ask them can you write with your left, the answer is usually NO. my right grip is probably as strong as my left and I bat with my right.
Jane
All this research makes sense! I am a Leftie and married a Leftie…no problems withthe kissing or dancing for us! BOTH ourt children are Lefties too. The computer mouse thing is interesting though, because I find that by using the mouse in my right hand means I can type quicker, answer the phone and write, whilst mousing…so personally I think that it makes more sense to use the mouse in your non dominant hand..so maybe we have one over on the righties after all!
I do have problems with medical equipment at work sometimes, as it is all designed for righties and during my training was shouted at by a senior doctor for putting a stitch on a stitch holder the wrong way round( well for him it was)and the scissors are awkward
I look forward to the next lot of research
When my children were infants I always carried them with their heads in the crook of my right elbow. This facilitated doing anything with/for them, such as feeding them or giving them a bottle of milk. Taking them in for their well-baby checkups was another story: when placing them on the examining table I would lay them down with their heads on the right. When the pediatrician would enter the room I would have to turn them to face the opposite direction. It took a while, but I finally figured it out – the doctor was a RIGHTY!
When my children were infants, I always carried them in my arms with their heads in the crook of my right elbow. This facilitated doing anything with/for them,such as feeding them or giving them a bottle of milk. Taking them in for their well-baby checkups, I would place them on the examining table with their heads on the right. This upset my pediatrician because their heads BELONGED on the left side of the table. It took me a while to figure out that the doctor was a ‘righty’…
I agree with all of this. I have always gone to sleep on the left hand side of the bed for one! And yes, I always go for a kiss on the left cheek – now it explains the collison – seriously I had never worked it out!
My worst experience was learning to write. In UK schools in the 70′s you use to have to write a word and then put a finger space in between each word. V easy if you are right handed but if you are left handed you are forced to have to write over the top of you right hand which is down on the page for the finger space. Seriously, give it a go!
Talking about how lefties solve problems it is because we learn to adapt. An example – have you ever had a right handed person sit down and try to use your mouse which is not only on the left hand side of the computer (now steady on!!) but also programmed with ‘left’ friendly buttons. I have and every right handed person is unable to use it even when I say ‘oh it’s left handed’ – I on the otherhand (excuse the pun) can use a right handed mouse . . . prob because sometimes there is no other choice!
Interestingly I work in PR / Advertising and adverts on the right hand side of a page are always more expensive to buy than those on the left because apparently the eye is always drawn to the right first . . . or so they think!
I agree with the statement of right handed people setting up classrooms and text books. Alrhough being a rightie myself my 6 yr old daughter is a leftie. In year one of school, she started coming home with spelling lists that she had to copy in her book, but the “rightie” teachers always stuck her spelling list on the left of her book, so she couldn’t see it. I had to request that her list was added to the right of the page so she could see the words she was suppossed to be learning and copying. The teacher hadn’t even thought about it, but when i raised the topic, the could see my point of view .
How wonderful to read that others struggled with the same issues I did. I LOVE being left-handed. I feel it gives me an edge! I tell right-handed people who do not understand that it’s like waking up one morning and their whole world is backwards. The looks are priceless! Yet it is so much more complex than that. I’m so glad there is research on this and look forward to reading more. There is a difference on all levels and it’s nice that it is being brought to the forefront. Thanks to websites like yours and products you make available to us lefties our world is a much better and might I say “safer” place. I love to give my left-handed tools to righties and watch them try to figure it out. I have a left-handed swiss army knife and suggest every lefty get one it’s wonderful. Thank you and keep up the good information and work. God Bless lefties as they are truly in their right minds!
and I agree with Tracy – I tend to just avoid kissy greetings and hand shakes!
Kath
I would love to see or even take part in more of these kind of tests! fascinating!
I teach African drumming – I think I learned to play the Djembe quickly because my teachers have always been righties, so by sitting oposite them, I could mirror their moves – mirroring is something I have always done naturally, strangely I thought that by teaching right handers to play, they would find it easy to mirror me, but they seam to really struggle, so I write the notion down for them – but I ALWAYS write it for both the left and the right handers – and I make sure the right handers know I am doing this as a favour to them – like they do with us hehehehe
I LOVE PEOPLE!
Kath
As a left-hander I was able to enjoy left-handed desks in elementary school: 1) because they had them and 2) because my parents insisted I get one. Unlike many lefties today, I was taught how to write correctly (turning the paper to the right, for instance) so that I did not smudge my writing or have to write back-handed. As my lefty son was growing up he almost always put up his left hand or turned to the left when asked to put up his right hand or turn right. We learned real early to say “That is correct” instead of “That is right” to help him avoid the confusion.
I sttcih the way I do the first sttcih when i start something new. I can never remember which way so I have to watch closely as i go along or I find reversed sections that have to be unpulled (or worse grimace sttcihed over once more to reverse the direction). I can feel an admonishment coming on .sigh!
About the social kissing phenomenon–I’m a lefty and seem to go for the “kissee’s” *right* cheek; in other words, I turn my head toward the left, which feels the most natural. And yet there’s always some awkward collision or near collision. Since most everyone I peck is a righty, I don’t quite understand this article saying that lefties go for the *left* cheek. (Regarding handshakes: by now I know better, but no wonder I try to avoid this mode of greeting, period!)
I’m left-handed and I have two sons of three that are. I had to fight quite a few battles with teachers for my sons during their school years. It helped that I knew what they were going through, and I understood the biases of teachers and their perchance to use the term ‘doing it wrong’. I’m in my 70s, but I’m still fighting the battles, pointing out what seems obvious to me that the right handed world can be a bit of a snot at times.
I’ve already commented on this on another part of the website, without realising – but I totally agree, I do think that lefties think differently. I get really confused with ‘left’ and ‘right’ and often say them the wrong way round that now my family know when I say left I mean ‘right’ and vice versa. It is sometimes known as a form of dyslexia, but what if it is simply that to me, my left side is my right side?? I’m going to think very hard in future about how I feel about an object based solely on where it is in relation to me, and see if I notice a trend. Very exciting stuff!
I am now 74 years old and have allways had to adjust to a right handed world, thhis included elementary school where I was punished every day for a term for having dirty copy book, writing left handed with a soft pencil meant my hand dragged oover the writing, hence dirty. later in life I was described as coping very well with poor situations and I believe this ability developed from coping with being left handed in a right handed world
Hi Alan, about your question on the zebra and panda: it has nothing to do with the zebra or panda as such, but with the place they take on te page. If the zebra sits on the left side of the page, we lefties see this animal on a more positive manner because of its place on the page, the left; whether righties would choose the animal on the right side. If that is a panda, they would say that a panda is a more positive animal.
And I had trouble with math in school, because the teachers did not explain it in a way that I would understand. And yet, when I do math in IQ tests, I score pretty high. So I think we do think differently than righties.
While studying to do a complete physical exam as a physician would do, I was told to ALWAYS, ALWAYS stand on the right, not left side of the exam table. At the time, it didn’t occur to me that my preference was drawn from my left handedness. It merely seemed wrong to me, and now I realize how prejudiced this was.
I’ve always believed this to be true. I was rubbish at maths in school until I was taught by a left handed teacher. I work in a library and used to get into trouble for arranging books on the shelves the ‘wrong way round’. And… (I will finish my rant in a minute) try drawing a map of somewhere familiar and then compare that map with someone elses who is right handed – it will be different. therefore I conclude that if we look at the physical world from a different angle then we probably look at the theoretical world from a different angle too. (Feel much better now)
I agree about the zebra and panda. What makes a zebra or a panda bad or good? These particular animals are not even classically stereotyped (such as comparing a dog, which generally has positive associations, with a snake, which generally does not). Interesting choice of test animals.
All I have to say is: It’s about time. I had such a difficult time in my grade school years. I was punished for using the “wrong” hand while learning to write in the 2nd grade. By High School level I had repeated two grades. That was when not everyone “succeeded” and there were no failures. It was a big deal among peers. By than my self confidence and self esteem were already quite low. Still are at 59. Just to add. I’m in the process, with the help of the “anything left hand” store, of turning my home into a LEFT HANDED haven!!
I do not understand the bit about the zebra and the panda. The article said that one of these was a ‘good’ animal and one was ‘bad’. Which is which, and why?
I am not left-handed but my daughter is and I now understand how biassed society is. But I’d like to add that being left-handed doesn’t mean that you use more your left foot/feet/ear/eye and so on. My daughter uses predominantly her right eye and ear while being left-handed and can get her wires crossed quite badly.
How did you discover which ear and eye your daughter relies more on?? Aside from having a hearing disability or sight impairment on one side I thought that most people used both ears and eyes equally. I’ve never heard of depending more on one eye or ear more than the other.
You can find out which eye you use by stretching out your arm and lining up your index finger with something in the further distance, then check by closing one eye and then the other to see which eye you lined up with. Although I am left-handed, I always line up with my right eye.
OK I tried this. I am 60 yo and left handed. Maybe because of age, nearsighted and becoming more farsighted,but I see 2 fingers or 2 of anything with which I try to align it/them depending on where I focus. So that didn’t work for me. Maybe that’s why I always had trouble with sports involving throwing and catching-Which one to catch?
I am only 36 y/o and when I do this excercise, I too, see 2 fingers, I was told this is because I do not have a dominant eye and that it is very unusual. I do have a dominant ear, my right ear, I always talk on the phone with that ear. Oh, and of course I am left handed. :0)
I was always in trouble during my nursery nurse training for doing things the wrong way. it all seemed perfectly OK to me
inputing on my last comment my mother is right handed.
this is an interesting topic for i also think that lefties think different and i would like thurther research to be put forward to this because im fed up of being nagged at every time i do something different to my mothers liking.
Super research which begins to lift the lid on life for lefties. We not only think differently to righties, we also learn and solve problems in different ways to right- handers. This has huge implications for schools and the structure of syllabii and teaching strategies. I will await future research in this area with eager anticipation.