does left-handedness affect how smart you are?
928271
Hmmmm ... it's difficult to say.  Maybe people who are left handed are smarter since they have to learn to cope in a world made for right handed people.  \n\nWhile there is an unresolved debate within the scientific community on how to operationalize both intelligence and creativity, some studies have demonstrated a small positive correlation between left-handedness and creativity/intelligence.  In his book Right-Hand, Left-Hand, Chris McManus of University College London, argues that the proportion of left-handers is rising and left-handed people as a group have historically produced an above-average quota of high achievers. He says that left-handers' brains are structured differently in a way that widens their range of abilities, and the genes that determine left-handedness also govern development of the language centres of the brain.\n\nI hope this helps.
456453
I was once told if you are left handed you use the right side of your brain and if you are right handed you use the left side.  So, I guess it would depend.
1158220
I am the opposite of you. I am a left handed but i mostly do things with my right, I've been told that such persons who use both hands for something are balanced, they don't do everything with one hand. :)
1167633
Left handed people use the right side of their brain to perform tasks such as writing, because the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, and the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body.\n\nI've heard that some, but not all, left handed people have their speech centers in different locations than most right handed people.\n\nIf a person switches their hand of dominance, for example, a left handed person starts writing with their right hand, they will eventually use both sides of their brain to perform this task.
1049855
actually, no. this has never happened to me, I actually died after I was born and revived, so not all my brain cells are functioning, that's probably why I am lefthanded too
523803
Yes. \n\nMost chimpanzees are, in fact, left handed. This may have been a contributing factor in the speciation of humans and chimpanzees from each other.
626954
I've done it, its hard being a lefty and all.. but its doable.  Plus it adds a little mystique to the whole experience.  Kind of like a "WHOA! Am I really alone?!!" Then go back and forth and you can really confuse yourself.  Could always trying sitting on a hand or both too, that way you really mix it up ;)
829625
Not sure why now.....but years ago when my kids were learning to write   all the specialists said if you think they are tending towards left-handed..........hand them everything in their right hand   pencil, fork, etc.   Seems they used to think left-handed was not a good thing, and it was better to teach them to be righty's.
409862
So does this cause you to lean the the left?
26739
I am also left handed, but I do not understand your question.  Please elaborate.  I'd like to help.
899467
So handedness isn't a simple dominant-recessive trait.  It's actually linked to lateralisation - a process during development where the two halves of the brain each become specialised for particular tasks.  So all people who are right-handed are typically lateralised in the same way, for example they have an area of cortex on their left hemisphere dedicated to language (Broca's area) with parts of the right hemisphere dedicated to processing facial expressions (these are just two examples, there are many other left-right specialisations).  But left-handers and a small minority of right handers have different speciaisations.  So Broca's area may be found on the right hemisphere in these people.  Other features of the typical left-right patten may or may not be swapped producing several different patterns of lateralisation within the human population, one dominant pattern, seen in about 90% of people and several other patterns seen in just a few percent of people.\nWhich pattern of lateralisation an individual is, (including whether they are left-handed or right-handed) is determined by their genes.  Incidentally, a very small minority of people are naturally ambidextrous and don't actually have a genetically-determined hand preference.  However, experience and development also play a role.  So a genetically left-handed person who is made to use their right hand will, by virtue of practise become better at using their right-hand.  Similarly, people can teach themselves to be "ambidextrous" by practising with their non-preferred hand, but this isn't the same as natural ambidextrousness.\nSo to (finally!) answer your question about why you aren't left-handed, lateralisation patterns (which determine handedness) are influenced by many different genes and different combinations of these genes will produce different patterns, so while left-handedness will "run in the family" it can't be predicted as easily or reliably as hair colour, or eye colour or any other single gene trait.
429685
That's not necessarily true. It kind of depends on what side of your body you use most. Right-handed people tend to work the right side of their bodies more than the left side. So the right right side has slightly more muscle than the left therefore it's bigger. I'm right-handed, but I use my left hand for colorguard, rifle team and billiards, so my left forearm and hand are larger than my right. And, then again, humans aren't perfect. God (if you believe in Him) made us this way. No two things are exactly the same.
714097
Although some people said that left handed people die earlier than right handed people is not true because the sources I've seen are statistically inaccurate.  \n\nThe cause of left handiness is unknown at the moment. There's no concrete evidence of it being hereditary, The cause is still being investigated.  But, I can give a few facts first.\nMales are more likely to be left handed than females.\nOn average lefties make up 10% of the total population.\nA leading theory of left handiness is the amount of the male hormone testosterone is given during gestation.
19752
Not actually, in fact from olden times, they were inferior.  The myth goes that left-handed and right-handed people were in equal numbers.  However, the human heart is slightly on the left side of the body.  So during a war a right-handed person held his shield in the left hand which protected his heart from a direct enemy strike.  However, for a left-handed person, he held a sword in his left hand and so the possibility of him taking a fatal strike on the heart was manifold.  This probably resulted in the death of a lot of left-handed people making the right-handed people a majority.  The left-handed people who survived were smart enough to protect themselves, and hencce, the myth that left-handed people are superior.
778860
It is determined by which hemisphere of your brain is most dominent.  By the way, left handed--dominent right brain individual, right handed--dominent left brain individual.  Some people can learn to use the other hand (such as the case of amputee victims) but they can never use it as well.
259723
Roughly 10 to 12 percent in a population that doesn't supress left handedness as being unnatural.
1065951
Researchers who study human hand preference agree that the side of the preferred hand (right versus left) is produced by biological and, most likely, genetic causes. The two most widely published genetic theories of human hand preference argue that evolutionary natural selection produced a majority of individuals with speech and language control in the left hemisphere of the brain. Because the left hemisphere also controls the movements of the right hand--and notably the movements needed to produce written language--millennia of evolutionary development resulted in a population of humans that is biased genetically toward individuals with left hemisphere speech/language and right-hand preference. Approximately 85 percent of people are right-handed. These theories also try to explain the persistent and continuing presence of a left-handed minority (about 15 percent of humans). \nThe genetic proposal to explain hand preference states that there are two alleles, or two manifestations of a gene at the same genetic location, that are associated with handedness. One of these alleles is a D gene (for dextral, meaning “right”) and the other allele is a C gene (for “chance”). The D gene is more frequent in the population and is more likely to occur as part of the genetic heritage of an individual. It is the D gene that promotes right-hand preference in the majority of humans. The C gene is less likely to occur within the gene pool, but when it is present, the hand preference of the individual with the C gene is determined randomly. Individuals with the C gene will have a 50 percent chance of being right-handed and a 50 percent chance of being left-handed. \nThese theories of hand preference causation are intriguing because they can account for the fact that the side of hand preference of individuals with the C gene (most left-handers and some right-handers) can be influenced by external cultural and societal pressures, a phenomenon that researchers have documented. These theories can also explain the presence of right-handed children in families with left-handed parents and the presence of left-handed children in families with right-handed parents. If the familial genetic pool contains C genes, then hand preference becomes amenable to chance influences, including the pressures of familial training and other environmental interventions that favor the use of one hand over the other. The proposed genetic locus that determines hand preference contains an allele from each parent, and the various possible genetic combinations are DD individuals who are strongly right-handed, DC individuals who are also mostly right-handed, and CC individuals who are either right-handed or left-handed. These genetic combinations leave us with an overwhelming majority of human right-handers and a small, but persistently occurring, minority of left-handers.