Are left handers an entirely different race?

I believe that they are Klingons. That is the latest rumor.

As a left hander, I'm starting to get the feeling that there is some type of conspiracy going on with the percentages of left handers that really exist. For us to only populate 13% of the entire world, I sure do see a lot of left handed people around. If there are so few many of us, you'd think we'd be like bigfoot or something where people claim to have seen us, but you never know if they really did!

[edit on 1-9-2010 by shaolyn]

Ok it was not I who resurrected a "dead" thread however, this is talking about lefthanders, something I am obsessed about so I am compelled to give a response:

I am lefthanded.

Originally posted by ViolatoR
How many lefties are twins? Something like one out of five, thats how many. I'm a twin and lefty, anyone else? (This compared to 1 out of 20 for non-twins.)

I remember reading somewhere that many lefties, even if a single birth, actually had a twin at the very beginning stages of pregnancy. The twin, who would have been the mirror-image, was miscarried at such an early stage in pregnancy that no one, not even the mother, knew about it.

Of course I don't recall where I read this. I should use my bookmarks more often. Maybe on Cracked? I'll have to dig around and see if I can find a link.

I'm left-handed and proud.

In both college and grad school (BFA and MFA respectively) there were far more lefties per capita than had been in my K-12 education. I think there is a strong correlation between creativity and hand preference. It's also interesting that many ATSers seem to be left-handed. We just think differently.

"Not that I can recall any of this, but my parents told me when
I began to learn to write, I broke my right-arm. Therefore forcing
me to use my left hand, thus I am left-handed. I don't know if my
broken arm made me left handed, or if I would have naturally been
left-handed, but from my point of view, left or right is not genetic."

There are a couple of tests that can help determine which you truly are:

1)Hold your finger up, line it up with a distant object, then quickly draw
your finger back to your eye while still watching the object. This will show
which is the dominant eye.

2)Have some one observe which shoulder is higher while you stand with your
eyes closed and your arms outstretched. The dominant side will tend to be
higher.

In Morocco it is extremely impolite to use your left hand for eating or even writing.
While there, I greatly improved my abilities with the right hand. I now eat with
either hand and can write passably also.

I wonder if being left handed had a survival advantage that counteracted the negatives.
Lefties tend to have stronger immune systems. It could be that there was a slight advantage
during epidemics. Other wise why would such a disadvantageous trait survive?

Somewhere I heard that lefties tend to be more accident prone. This is supposed to explain
why only 1 in 200 80 year old's are lefties.

A percentage of lefties are so because of either brain injury or extreme stress in infancy.
This may explain why a disproportionate percentage of institutionalize people are lefties.

Both the top and the bottom of the IQ spectrum are disproportionately represented by lefties.

Being left handed gives you a distinct advantage when playing racket sports against righties.

Really messes with their brain.

Originally posted by chicken on seaweed
I believe that they are Klingons. That is the latest rumor.

You made my morning, with your comment. What clarity!

The best part of language of hand is watching the mirror image between a lefty and a righty.

My x husband was left handed in fact both x husbands were and how my rightness never managed it.

I've always been ambidextrius,with no real preference for either side, but I don't know left from right without stopping to really think about it,a really big problem when giving or receiving directions.
I've always chosen which hand to use by whatever is comfortable at the moment .
My mother, who is right handed,is the artistic one,and can also write backwards fluently.
My father,left handed,is the least artistic person I've ever met,he's also 85 years old,evidently another lefty oddity.

My father, my husband, my brother and my daughter are left-handed. That is a lot of aliens I live among. I must admit I do their bidding!!!!!

While left handedness is not a ticket to higher IQ (or, to put it simply, it does not guarantee you're smarter than the average Righty Joe), statistically lefties do better at Math. One example for that is that at some point during the 1980s, 4 out of 5 of the chief engineers in Apple Computers were lefties (you know, the guys that put Intel to shame with their groundbreaking processors ).

For my part I am a weird case of a righty. While I write and eat with the right hand exclusively (I even change hands when using a knife!!), I cannot drive with the right hand alone while I have not the slightest problem of handling a steering wheel with my left. I hold my Dunhills with the left hand exclusively (I know, those things will kill me but who wants to live forever?). I cannot throw well with my left though, almost useless in that area.

I believe my wiring is faulty at some weird part of my brain

reply to post by Maegnas


Well I excelled in Math...Calculus 2, could have went higher if I wanted to. But I did lousy in other subjects particularly any language course...English, Spanish, German. I am horrible at those.

reply to post by cyberdude78


I am one of the converted.


Fortunately I'm able too use both hands for most tasks, though my writing is shocking, I find it more natural to use my left but I am forced too use my right and gets quite frustrating sometimes.

Originally posted by Tinkleflower
I did a post on this a few weeks ago...

And according to another study (this time by Wysocki), people of Asian (9.3%) or Hispanic (9.1%) lineage are slightly less likely to be left-handed than whites, blacks, or North American Indians.\

Weird. My brother and I are both Asian and we're both lefties. We must be real freaks

Where does that leave us bis?

Am I left? Am I right?

No wonder I am confused!

Originally posted by SerialLurker

Originally posted by Tinkleflower
I did a post on this a few weeks ago...

And according to another study (this time by Wysocki), people of Asian (9.3%) or Hispanic (9.1%) lineage are slightly less likely to be left-handed than whites, blacks, or North American Indians.\

Weird. My brother and I are both Asian and we're both lefties. We must be real freaks

Well I am hispanic so I am even more of a freak than you! thanks .2%

.

[edit on 5/9/2010 by Hedera Helix]

i write with my left hand; throw with my right hand; i'm teaching myself to be ambi dexterous with a knife partly to make carving with a knife easier and partly cos i like cooking and think it would be cool to be able to dice an onion with either hand (a knife would make it easier of course )

reply to post by Hedera Helix


thanks for the link. lot of great stuff on that!
i am such a dork

Originally posted by CPYKOmega
Well if left handed people are an entirely different race, then my parents should be worried, because their son would be an alien!

IMO left handed people are smarter then right handed people. This may or may not be true, and may just be a myth. I know there is scientific evidence which may back up my assumptions, but its 7:42am and I just woke up and I don't feel like looking it up.

Laziness at its finest.

Some of the Dumbest people I've ever met are Lefthanded....

In my experience actually, all the Left handed people I know, are the people who make some of the Dumbest common sense decisions in Life I've ever heard of.........

I've yet to meet one left handed person who I considered "smart".....

Originally posted by nikelbee
I don't know about smarter but definitely not adept with scissors or can openers

Also something about right hemisphere controlling creativity and languages.

There are interesting lefties like Ben Franklin, Lewis Caroll, Mark Twain, Ned Flanders, Fidel Castro, both Kennedy children (JFK), Bill Clinton, Kurt Cobain and Leonardo Da Vinci.

Also - Herbert Hoover, Harry S. Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George Bush (senior) and Oliver North.

Big list here - too many to mention

renesassessment.blogspot.com... -stupid.html

I would guess it has some deeper ancient meaning......