Left Hand vs. Right Hand

by Makayla Fuller

Are right-handed people or left-handed people more likely to suffer? To get migraines? To be more creative? According to many studies, the dominant hand people use determines quite a few characteristics.

It’s very rare to be left-handed and almost extinct to be ambidextrous, as 10% of the US is left-handed and 1% is ambidextrous, according to the source “What Percentage Of The World Population Are Left Handed?” by Worldatlas.

Being left-handed has physical characteristics other than having to use a certain pair of scissors or pens at the bank having to be attached only on the right side. The source, “25 Amazing Facts About Left Handed People” by Leftyfretz explains that people can be prone to having allergies and migraines, having insomnia, using a certain part of the brain the most, and even being an alcoholic.

People whose left hand is their dominant hand tend to suffer more than being right-handed. As many people can see the world favors right-handed people since that’s relatively most of our population. When people use their right hand, they wouldn’t think of all the hardships, people who are left-handed, have to go through. The article “16 little ways that the world is designed for right-handed people” points out that on a camera all the important buttons are on the right side, the numbers on measuring tapes tend to be upside down, accidentally drinking someone else’s drink since it’s usually placed on the right when a table is set formally, playing musical instrument weirdly, shaking hands can be awkward, and swiping credit cards can be completely dreadful for ‘Lefties’.

There are even many celebrities who have to deal with this uncommon thing. As claimed by Ranker’s “Ambidextrous Celebrities | List of Famous Ambidextrous People” and Eonline’s “Happy Left-Handers Day! Let's Celebrate These Left-Handed Celebs” mentions A-List celebrities like Keanu Reeves, Tom Cruise, John Cena, Jim Carey, and Jimmy Hendrix who even had to play his guitar backwards, are all left-handed. Other celebrities and iconic people like Leonardo da Vinci, Lebron James, and Adam Levine are all part of the one percent that is ambidextrous.

Although it may seem like such a small detail, it can reveal many psychological facts about a person too.  Like when using the left hand people are considered more creative with the right side of the brain, using the right-hand shows that a person is logical with the left side of the brain, and using both hands can look like a person can multitask and is able to use both sides of the brain, explained by “What Being Left or Right-Handed Reveals About You” by PsyBlog.

On a survey for DWHS students on November 19 - 20, a total of 56 students responded if they were left-handed, right-handed, or both and if they were creative and imaginative, logical and reasonable, or both. Four students said they are left-handed and three said they are ambidextrous.

The four left-handed people said they are both creative and imaginative and logical and reasonable, while ambidextrous people said they are more creative and imaginative, and right-handed people said they are more logical and reasonable.

This survey shows that left-handed people are more likely to have both sides of the brain functions, ambidextrous people use the right side more, and right-handed people use the left side of the brain functions in our school. The survey showed that the percentage of DWHS students who are right or left-handed is similar to the statistics about people in the United States. As you can see, it’s proven in our school that there are a lot more right-handed people in this world, especially in our school.

The statistics, however, are very different shown in the survey answers. It shows that left-handed people are both, rather than having more of the right side of the brain, while ambidextrous are more creative and imaginative instead of both. Do you feel like the world is against left-handed people?