"It’s no secret that left-handed people are a minority in the United States, and the world. But does handedness affect anything more than just writing preference? Science says yes, the same genes that affect handedness in fetal development can also affect everything from tumors and diseases to creativity." -- Declan mcmahon, 7th grade
It’s no secret that left-handed people are a minority in the United States, and the world. But does handedness affect anything more than just writing preference? Science says yes, the same genes that affect handedness in fetal development can also affect everything from tumors and diseases to creativity.
“I’m very creative with my drawing and art,” said Clara Story, 8th Grade Visual Arts student at OSA, “and I don’t think it’s connected to my handedness at all.” Contrary to Story’s opinion on handedness, there actually is a connection.
There has been a common belief for some years that left-handed people are more dominantly right-brained, and right-handed people are more commonly left brain dominant. Your right brain controls creativity and expression, while your left brain controls logic, mathematics and problem solving. However, this does not mean that a right handed person will be a mathematician, or a left handed person an artist. It doesn’t mean anything that important really, except that you trend toward one type of profession or interest slightly more than the other.
The theory widely accepted to explain the percentage of humans being left-handed (9-10%) is summed up by Live Science as “A high degree of cooperation [...] plays a key role in the rarity of left-handedness.” Cooperation is the keyword there. If you’re confused, don’t sweat it; I was too. In a nutshell, it means that our society, from the very beginning, cooperated with each other more, which resulted in mostly right-handedness.
The reason sophisticated societies and species trend toward one hand is the evolutionary need for universalism. An example of this is tools. Most tools are fashioned for right handers, but in the early days tools had to be made for both hands. Evolution slowly took care of this by slimming the amount of people who were left-handed, thus slimming the need for left-handed tools.
On the flipside of that, more competitive species or groups, such as rams and kangaroos, have closer to 50/50 odds in handedness and brain dominance by one side or the other, according to Live Science. That gives people more of an equal chance in fistfights, whereas in our society left-handed fighters have an advantage of rarity and surprise, and fighting a leftie forces a rightie to adjust their fighting style.
Stigma against left-handed people is also a prominent historical motif. In earlier days, the uncommon phenomenon of left-handedness was seen as “the devil’s hand.” Children born left-handed were shunned, stigmatized, and often forced to work odd jobs, as nobody wanted to hire them permanently or trust them with anything too important.
According to the site Left, Right, Left, Wrong?, during the 15th and 16th centuries, women who were left handed were often pegged as witches and suffered deaths by hanging or stoning. From the 18th to the 19th century, the stigma and the need for educational standards flared and left-handers were once again being stifled. Teachers would do such things as tie a child’s left hand to their chair, or use corporal punishment, such as flogging, caning, or paddling. Some of these practices dimmed throughout the years, but until even the 1960’s and 1970’s in some schools the procedure of systematically eradicating left-handedness, one way or another, continued.
Another interesting fact is the effect of handedness on diseases and tumors. At least that’s what it looks like on the surface, but it’s not actually handedness that’s affecting it, however, it’s just relative genes. In prenatal development, genes that affect left or right handedness also affect predisposition to tumors and diseases.
Handedness can usually be seen about three weeks into fetal development, based on which thumb the fetus sucks, or which side of the brain is enlarged. The same genes that affect this can mean left handed people have a natural ward against Alzheimer’s and ulcers, but are more susceptible to malignant tumors and other things than righties. Many people are surprised or even skeptic of this fact, including Eliza Ayres, 7th grade theatre student at OSA, who said, “I’m not sure about that...”
What is your dominant hand? Are you ambidextrous? Whatever you are, I encourage you to do more research on what this means in your body.
“I’m very creative with my drawing and art,” said Clara Story, 8th Grade Visual Arts student at OSA, “and I don’t think it’s connected to my handedness at all.” Contrary to Story’s opinion on handedness, there actually is a connection.
There has been a common belief for some years that left-handed people are more dominantly right-brained, and right-handed people are more commonly left brain dominant. Your right brain controls creativity and expression, while your left brain controls logic, mathematics and problem solving. However, this does not mean that a right handed person will be a mathematician, or a left handed person an artist. It doesn’t mean anything that important really, except that you trend toward one type of profession or interest slightly more than the other.
The theory widely accepted to explain the percentage of humans being left-handed (9-10%) is summed up by Live Science as “A high degree of cooperation [...] plays a key role in the rarity of left-handedness.” Cooperation is the keyword there. If you’re confused, don’t sweat it; I was too. In a nutshell, it means that our society, from the very beginning, cooperated with each other more, which resulted in mostly right-handedness.
The reason sophisticated societies and species trend toward one hand is the evolutionary need for universalism. An example of this is tools. Most tools are fashioned for right handers, but in the early days tools had to be made for both hands. Evolution slowly took care of this by slimming the amount of people who were left-handed, thus slimming the need for left-handed tools.
On the flipside of that, more competitive species or groups, such as rams and kangaroos, have closer to 50/50 odds in handedness and brain dominance by one side or the other, according to Live Science. That gives people more of an equal chance in fistfights, whereas in our society left-handed fighters have an advantage of rarity and surprise, and fighting a leftie forces a rightie to adjust their fighting style.
Stigma against left-handed people is also a prominent historical motif. In earlier days, the uncommon phenomenon of left-handedness was seen as “the devil’s hand.” Children born left-handed were shunned, stigmatized, and often forced to work odd jobs, as nobody wanted to hire them permanently or trust them with anything too important.
According to the site Left, Right, Left, Wrong?, during the 15th and 16th centuries, women who were left handed were often pegged as witches and suffered deaths by hanging or stoning. From the 18th to the 19th century, the stigma and the need for educational standards flared and left-handers were once again being stifled. Teachers would do such things as tie a child’s left hand to their chair, or use corporal punishment, such as flogging, caning, or paddling. Some of these practices dimmed throughout the years, but until even the 1960’s and 1970’s in some schools the procedure of systematically eradicating left-handedness, one way or another, continued.
Another interesting fact is the effect of handedness on diseases and tumors. At least that’s what it looks like on the surface, but it’s not actually handedness that’s affecting it, however, it’s just relative genes. In prenatal development, genes that affect left or right handedness also affect predisposition to tumors and diseases.
Handedness can usually be seen about three weeks into fetal development, based on which thumb the fetus sucks, or which side of the brain is enlarged. The same genes that affect this can mean left handed people have a natural ward against Alzheimer’s and ulcers, but are more susceptible to malignant tumors and other things than righties. Many people are surprised or even skeptic of this fact, including Eliza Ayres, 7th grade theatre student at OSA, who said, “I’m not sure about that...”
What is your dominant hand? Are you ambidextrous? Whatever you are, I encourage you to do more research on what this means in your body.
