I always thought that more people are right handed because being left handed was usually frowned upon and so people would "correct" those who used his/her left hand so that they would use their right. Mainly because people used to use their left hands to wipe themselves after going to the bathroom. That's why we shake with our right hands. Is this information incorrect?
This question is in response to my YouTube video this week on why people are left-handed, so definitely watch that first!
Approximately 9 out of 10 people on Earth are right-hand dominant. Some prefer the dextrous side for every task, and some just for most tasks. About 10% are left-hand dominant, also to varying degrees of “mixedness”. Very few people, less than 1%, are truly ambidextrous. Is this because of social stigma or is it just how we are? Spoiler: It’s just how we are. But the social stigmas are still important.
It’s definitely true that being left-handed was (and in some places still is) a source of social stigma. We see this in Judeo-Christian religion, like in Psalm 188: “The right hand of the Lord is exalted: the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly” and in Matthew 25:33: “He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left”
We see this in legends of magic as well. Black magic is known as “The Left Hand Path” while white magic is known as “The Right Hand Path.” Witches were said to curse with their left hands.
We also see it in cultures where one hand (the left) would be used to “clean” oneself, while the other would be used for food and greeting (the right). There’s multiple reports from the Middle Ages of left-handedness being sufficient grounds to declare someone a witch and burn them at the stake.
A 19th century physician named Cesare Lambroso fought to associate left-handedness with criminal tendencies. The Catholic church actively discriminated against lefties well into the 20th century, just ask any elderly Catholic with scarred knuckles and southpaw tendencies. My own father told me that his natural left-handedness was discouraged as unnatural by his mom, and for as long as he can remember he’s behaved as a righty.
Even after the cross-wired and asymmetric nature of the brain became evident in the late 19th century thanks to the work of people like Paul Broca, scientists were going overboard on lefties. Many psychologists tried to associate left-handers with stubbornness and clumsiness, or later, in the 1950’s, as Communists (which is ironic, because Soviet-bloc countries actively discouraged lefties in their own schools).
The odd reality is this: More people ARE right-handed. It is well-established in modern science, even after all the social stigmas have been stripped, that left hand dominance is a minority trait, just like red hair. Being left-handed is, in a very real way, a deviation from the norm (and I don’t use “norm” in the sense that is “correct”, just that it is the “usual”). That deviation from the norm used to scare people, and give them an excuse to discriminate or punish those that were different. Humans are weird like that. As wonderful as variety is for the health and development of our species and our cultures, we sure do like to beat it back into line. Luckily, our sense usually catches up to nature’s persistence, even if it takes several centuries.
What’s interesting today is that right handers really don’t notice lefties all that much, unless we happen to be facing one in tennis or baseball. But lefties can pick each other out of a crowd, they’ll connect with complete strangers after seeing a hooked hand holding a pen, or exchange a knowing glance if offered a southpaw handshake. That’s kind of neat, isn’t it? It’s a shared experience and common identity that’s 700,000,000 people strong, a shining facet in the jewel that is humanity.
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