Are You Right-handed Or Left-handed? Know What Your Dominant Laterality Means

There is still no consensus on why someone is right-handed or left-handed. It is believed that there is a significant genetic influence on this aspect, but this is a question that remains unanswered.

Around 9 out of 10 people around the world are right-handed, which can cause some inconvenience for left-handed people, as most of the instruments and objects we use in everyday life, such as scissors and can openers, for example, were designed for right-handers.

But is the laterality of the human being related to the personal characteristics of each one? Do right-handed and left-handed people have different abilities that go far beyond using their hands?

Many believe so, and claim that the ease of performing certain tasks has a significant relationship with the fact that we are right-handed or left-handed.

Want to know what these characteristics are? We’ll talk more about it in this article.

Laterality and the cerebral hemispheres

The brain dominance theory suggests that each individual has a hemisphere that predominates in their brain, and this dominance has also been associated with laterality.

In other words, many claim that being right-handed or left-handed has a direct relationship with the priority use of one or the other cerebral hemisphere.

It is often said that right-handed people have a predominant left hemisphere, while left-handed people have a predominant right hemisphere.

The left hemisphere is known for its logical and rational capacity, being responsible for language and sequential information processing. On the other hand, the right hemisphere is commonly associated with creativity, processing bodily and spatial information, and controlling holistic functions.

From this initial perception, some studies were conducted that found interesting results regarding the differences between right-handed and left-handed.

The difference between being right-handed and left-handed

It is believed that left-handed people can be more creative and even have a certain amount of “genius” in their activities. They would also have greater artistic skills and gifts than right-handers.

Another study identified that the brain of left-handed people is structured differently, and this fact, associated with the presence of some genes, makes them able to stand out in various activities.

Some even consider them smarter than right-handed people when we look at the average of the two populations.

The advantages of left-handed people are also significant in the field of music. A study of professional orchestral musicians found a significantly higher proportion of left-handed compared to right-handed people, even on instruments designed for right-handed people, such as the violin.

More about the difference between being right-handed and left-handed

Finally, a field in which left-handed people tend to stand out is sports, especially those that are “one on one”, such as tennis, boxing and judo.

As 90% of the population is right-handed and only 10% is left-handed, both right-handed and left-handed people are much more used to playing against right-handers.

Therefore, when a right-hander faces a left-handed, it usually has more difficulty getting used to their style of play, giving left-handers an interesting advantage.

But it’s not all flowers for left-handed people. Studies have shown that one of the genes associated with left-handed people is also linked to schizophrenia.

Furthermore, correlations were found with inflammatory bowel diseases and alcoholism.

Anyway, as we said before, it is important to emphasize that there is no consensus on this subject, and many studies were inconclusive.

Of course there are also right-handers who are creative and left-handed with the most logical thinking, so we can’t generalize or take these characteristics too literally.

Perhaps one day scientists will be able to figure out what exactly makes a person left-handed or right-handed. In addition to the genetic component that has already been found, nothing can be said with certainty about this topic for the time being.

And the ambidextrous?

Being ambidextrous means being equally skilled with both hands. This condition is extremely rare, and being born naturally ambidextrous is something that only occurs in about 1% of the world’s population.

What is relatively more common is for people to train ambidexterity. For example, a naturally left-handed person can practice and learn to use the right hand to perform different functions, and thus become ambidextrous over time.

Ambidexterity can provide an important competitive advantage in many sports, which is why it is something that some athletes try to achieve so they can improve their performance.