Why do Right Handed people outnumber Lefties?

[Munjibunga]

I steer left-handed because I eat right-handed.

 

[Michael B]

I'm guessing it would have been 50/50 except we killed off those freaks in enough numbers that the uneven distribution is what we have today.

And those lefties that fooled us by adapting to left or right are now ambidextrous and far superior for it.

 

[Mr. Sound]

The ratio in our family is 50:50 My wife and I are dexterous, both of our daughters are sinister!
Same as The Beatles..Ringo and Paul, both lefties!

 

[megafiddle]

Handedness is a bit puzzling.

No one plays bass (or guitar) "right handed". They may pick or pluck the strings right handed, but they fret the notes left handed. Likewise, there are no right handed or left handed piano players.

There are any number of things that we can do with our "off hand" just as well as we can with our "preferred" hand.

-

 

[48thStreetCustom]

Left handed people are aliens in disguise.

 

[Will_White]

I'm wondering how a left handed DBr plays now and if they have to get a specially made bass.

 

[Gazman]

The things that strikes me as odd is that it's not nearly half and half, but it's also not nearly everybody.

 

[Supadope]

Why isn't left/right handed a 50/50 thing?

I don't know, but I'm glad there are fewer lefties. They are sinister! ...at least that's what I learned in Latin class.

 

[Misfit]

I'm not ambidextrous, but all my gross motor skills are left handed, and all fine motor skills are right handed. Well not 100%, when playing baseball, I batted right handed, but that rule applies to everything else.

 

[powmetalbassist]

The real irony is all you right handed players have been playing left handed all along. You think picking/plucking strings is the hard part, but actually working the neck is where all the skill, strength and dexterity is needed, thereby making right handed basses left handed.

*insert evil laugh*

 

[S-Bigbottom]

The real irony is all you right handed players have been playing left handed all along. You think picking/plucking strings is the hard part, but actually working the neck is where all the skill, strength and dexterity is needed, thereby making right handed basses left handed.

*insert evil laugh*

Although I think that we should segregate lefties and put them at their own tables so they do not bump elbows with regular people, this statement is correct.

 

[Gravedigger Dav]

Because almost all other mammals (that we know about) have a left and a right hand gene; and one or the other is turned on in a pretty even 50/50 split;resulting in a fairly even distribution. Homo Sapiens, for some reason as yet unexplained, has only the right-hand gene. So, none of us are genetically left handed, as other mammals are. There is compelling evidence that, in humans, it's mostly caused by various traumas that result in oxygen deprivation, before/during birth. In my case, I was the first born child, and my Mom's labor was hard and prolonged. But, it's not genetic...

That seems to be debated Gene for Left-Handed Trait Discovered
I am the only child of 6 left handed. Of my wife's family of four siblings, 50% are left handed. She is not one of them. I know it is anecdotal, but I have a hard time believing genes are not involved to some degree.

 

[Gravedigger Dav]

How do you say milk man in German?

 

[fhm555]

My right hand makes a good counterweight to keep me from walking in circles, but that's about it. I play righty because my first teacher told me since I didn't know how to play it would be just as easy to learn either way, but playing righty opens up a whole wide world of choices in basses that would otherwise be lost to a lefty. I also use my toy car transmitter righty. Lefty versions are available and mine is convertible to either, but I learned on a righty rig so...I use a spinning rod left handed and a casting rod right handed, go figure.

 

[Alkali Ike]

My left hand is a nearly-useless appendage good only for assisting in tasks involving my right hand.

TMI perhaps.

 

[D M C]

Uh, it's because there are more of them! Dur!

 

[Downunderwonder]

The real irony is all you right handed players have been playing left handed all along. You think picking/plucking strings is the hard part, but actually working the neck is where all the skill, strength and dexterity is needed, thereby making right handed basses left handed.

*insert evil laugh*

I think you discount the subconscious flitting about muting that goes on with the plucking hand.

Testing my hands out the only thing my left does better in terms of independent fingers is waggling the 3rd finger side to side while the others wait for instruction. Do not try while on caffeine.

 

[steve66]

Lefty's have a shorter lifespan, but are more intelligent. To help out my situation, I play drums lefty and bass righty

 

[zontar]

Lets' see--for most stuff I am right handed, but when I play hockey--I shoot left handed-but if I play goal I play right-handed & still shoot left-handed)
If I go golfing or play mini golf I play right-handed.
Not sure why that is-other than it is a different motion/movement to shoot a puck and hit a gold ball.

If I play baseball I can strike out left or right handed.
(But I throw right handed)



And as I mentioned in another thread earlier today, I have a friend who is right-handed in most things, but he play guitar & bass lefty--and like me he shoots left playing hockey.

 

[ChrisB2]

Why isn't left/right handed a 50/50 thing?

Here's my totally unscientific guess using entirely made-up statistics:

It is a 50/50 thing... sort of. It manifests as 80/20 but here's why: 20% are born left-handed and can't be trained righty. 20% are born right-handed and can't be trained lefty. The remaining 60% favor neither at birth meaning the percentages for natural-born traits actually are distributed equally. Those in the 60% are able to learn either equally well, but society has evolved to favor right-handed so that's how those 60% learn, and join with the natural born righties to make up the 80%.

Like I said, a made-up guess but possible...?

Could also explain why many people switch up depending on what they're doing with no seeming pattern for such within the species...