Left writer or right writer?

[Legendary Apophis]

I'm quite curious to know who here is a left writer...for some reason it tends to be rare to be a left writer. If this place happend to be a refuge of left hand writers (who knows?)

Disclaimer: this isn't a marketing recruiting move in favour of Nedward "Ned" Flanders' shop.
(if anyone sees what I mean? )

[Zeratul]

we're partially ambidextrous... we favor right, but we often use left... (especially on computers... there it hardly matters which hand we use...)

[kojak]

Both... I used to be left but when I broke my wrists I learned to write with my right so I can now use both, I play most sports right handed TBH.

My mouse is in my right hand..

[[BoT] Jason]

Lefty but to be honest most sports dont cater for left handed ppl so i do everything right handed. Except swimming. But that doesnt matter. My mouse is in the right hand to

[[BoT] Jason]

Thats probs coz its curves were made to fit in a right hand palm

[Legendary Apophis]

Right hand mouse.
Right hand writing.
Right side politics.

I'm always right!

Now, all jokes aside, I've tried writing with my left hand, it looks like someone writing while facing a mega earthquake!

[Q Man]

actually seems most are left handed

and so am i, but i play some sports with my right hand (golf) and some with my left (tennis). my mouse is also on my right?

i'm also left footed, but still spectacularly awesome with my right

[Kit-Fox]

All left-handers rejoice for the following reasons

- left handed folks make better fighters as they are able to adapt quicker and better than those who favour the right side of their body

- left handed folks are much more likely to earn higher wages (or so its said)

- left handers are more likely to type faster and make less mistakes

- left handed folks are more likely to be ambidextrous

- left handed folks make better swimmers, been able to adapt to the underwater environment better

and finally

- left handed people are more likely to have a high IQ than those who favour the right side of their body (of course this doesnt translate into left handed folks are always clever, just that their raw IQ is likely to be higher)

EDIT: i forgot to add that left handed folks are more likely to be astronauts too based on the figures. probably this is related to the underwater thing, that is the ability to adapt better to differing environments

[Q Man]

its because we use the right side of our brains, which is much more useful

[Legendary Apophis]

All left-handers rejoice for the following reasons

- left handed folks make better fighters as they are able to adapt quicker and better than those who favour the right side of their body

- left handed folks are much more likely to earn higher wages (or so its said)

- left handers are more likely to type faster and make less mistakes

- left handed folks are more likely to be ambidextrous

- left handed folks make better swimmers, been able to adapt to the underwater environment better

and finally

- left handed people are more likely to have a high IQ than those who favour the right side of their body (of course this doesnt translate into left handed folks are always clever, just that their raw IQ is likely to be higher)

EDIT: i forgot to add that left handed folks are more likely to be astronauts too based on the figures. probably this is related to the underwater thing, that is the ability to adapt better to differing environments

I don't buy it...

In 2006, researchers at Lafayette College and Johns Hopkins University in a study found that left-handed men are 15 percent richer than right-handed men for those who attended college, and 26 percent richer if they graduated. The wage difference remains unexplained, and does not appear to apply to women.[30]

Coincidentiality at its best..

[[BoT] Jason]

good article

[spoiler]ScienceDaily (Sep. 28, 2000) — Erie, Pa -- Although the percentage of left-handed people among those over age 60 is lower than in the rest of the population, there is no indication that left-handedness leads to an early demise. Rather, a complex combination of factors combine so that fewer of the old and oldest old report left-handedness, according to a Penn State researcher.

Some factors involved include pressure to switch hands, more women than men in the older populations, adaptation to a predominantly right-hand world and a rightward trend caused by the aging process.

"Recent work reports that over 80 percent of left-handers older than 75 remember an attempt to switch hand preference to the right side as compared with a report rate of 24 percent among young adult left-handers," says Dr. Clare Porac, professor of psychology and director, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Penn State Erie, the Behrend College.

When those over 75 years were children, pressures to change preference from left-handed to right-handed, especially for writing, were strong. Since then, these pressures have lessened greatly.

Porac and Ingrid C. Friesen, Ph.D. candidate, University of Victoria, looked at studies of age difference in the incidence of right and left-hand preference published since 1980. They found two possible sources of confusion related to the exact nature of age-related differences in hand preference.

"Relatively few individuals over the age of 60 participated in hand preference research over this 20-year period," says Porac. Also, the various studies used differing methods to define the oldest group and some included children in their studies while others did not.

In their own study, reported in a recent issue of Developmental Neuropsychology, the researchers looked at 1,277 elderly people to determine the incidence of left versus right handedness, if this incidence was age related and the relationship of handedness to life experiences such as efforts to switch left handers to a right-hand preference. The study included both older adults -- aged 60 to 74 -- and oldest-old adults -- aged 75 or over.

Participants were asked which hand they used for five actions -- writing, picking up an object, throwing, striking a match and eating with a fork without a knife. These particular activities were chosen to encompass both skilled and unskilled actions -- writing and picking up an object -- and culturally pressured and unpressured behaviors -- writing and throwing.

Overall, they classified 6.9 percent of the individuals as left-handed and 93.1 percent as right handed. At the same time, 10.3 percent reported an attempt to convert a left-handed preference to right handedness, while only 1.8 reported an attempt to shift toward left handedness. The remaining 87.9 percent indicated no attempt to change hand preference.

The researchers then divided the participants into four age groups -- 65 to 69, 70 to 73, 75 to 79, and 80 to 100 -- and looked at individual activities.

"Age-related reduction in the incidence of left-hand preference across the 35-year age span of the participants in this study was found only for the writing hand behavior," says Porac.

As the age of the subgroups increased, so did the incidence of right-handed writing. For the youngest group (65 to 69), 6.8 percent were left-handed writers, while for the oldest group (80 to 100) only 3 percent were left-handed writers. For the oldest-old group, the number of left-handed writers was 5 to 6 percent lower than the number of people who indicated a preference for left-handedness in the other three categories.

Pressures in the first quarter of the past century to force children to write right handed appear to have had some effect, but they do not totally account for all the discrepancy in the amount of left-handed people in elderly and young populations. Gender differences in the make-up of the oldest old population may have an effect because women predominate in populations of the oldest old.

"The data revealed that women over the age of 73, who had experienced a rightward shift attempt, showed a very low incidence of left-hand writing compared to men," says Porac. "Women are more likely to report being pressured to switch their hand preference and are more frequently among those who have been shifted to the right side successfully."

Even accounting for high numbers of women, the numbers of left-handed oldest old are still too low. Porac suggests that with increasing age, biologically related developmental effects shift toward right-sided preference. This is exhibited in a shift toward right footedness as well.

One other factor may be that left-handed people shift their hand preference to accommodate pressures of a right-handed world. While more research is needed to account for the existing discrepancy, the researchers believe that the shift to right-handedness is not caused by a propensity for accidents or premature death.[/spoiler]

[Q Man]

not really?

it is true that people who are left and right handed use different parts of their brains, which could supply evidence to support the facts

[Legendary Apophis]

not really?

it is true that people who are left and right handed use different parts of their brains, which could supply evidence to support the facts

I use my left hand for some things (like opening bottles) and my right for others (writing), then, what would it make me if those so called facts posted by kit fox were true?
An "hybrid"?

[Kit-Fox]

heh pops only a few of those were what would be considered facts & i said they were reasons to rejoice, not that they were facts. be fair now, dont go putting words in my mouth again damn it!

Anywho to answer your question yes there is scientific evidence to show that those who are left handed use the right side of their brain predominantly and vice-versa for right handedness.

In fact its a field of constant study for those interested in neurology & psychology. The changes that lead to such a predominate use and why some people are able to change their natural hard-wiring after catastrophic events such as losing a limb.

EDIT: Just for you pops to balence things out for you, left handed people are more likely to show what might be considered signs of evolution (or perhaps biological experiments by a 'creator'). The balance bit is that these sign/experiments dont always work out leaving the poor sod who has them to either die or be in agony for their life. Either outcome leaves them less likely to breed, ending their genetic histroy by not being able to leave and sucessors. And before someone questions it, yes that is born out by medical records in that left handed people are more likely to suffer from genetic 'disorders/disfunctions' (ie deviations from the 'norm') and are more likely to present something previously unseen.