# Do a lot of americans write with left hand ?? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 24, 2008, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-a-lot-of-americans-write-with-left-hand/434823 "2008-01-24T15:26:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-a-lot-of-americans-write-with-left-hand/434823/1 "2008-01-24T15:26:33Z")
americans = U.S residents. ( for this post) At least 30 % of the people I met in my professional life (company executives, managers ,consultants,white collar professionals) were left handed (in writing.) It seemed to be a very high ratio… Is it really so ?? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-a-lot-of-americans-write-with-left-hand/434823/2 "2008-01-24T15:31:31Z")
The ratio is about that in Spain, from what I’ve heard in TV blurbs. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-a-lot-of-americans-write-with-left-hand/434823/3 "2008-01-24T15:34:01Z")
Approximately 8-10% of people in the world are left-handed, including Americans. About 95% of left-handed people write with their left hand. In the past, many schools encouraged or forced left-handed students to write with their right hand. This is no longer done in the US, but perhaps some traditional British-influenced schools in India still do it? As for your American friends, the high incidence of left-handedness is most likely a coincidence. For another coincidence, in the 1992 US Presidential election, all three major candidates were left-handed. Clearly we’re doing something right. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-a-lot-of-americans-write-with-left-hand/434823/4 "2008-01-24T15:40:39Z")
[QUOTE=friedo] Approximately 8-10% of people in the world are left-handed, including Americans. About 95% of left-handed people write with their left hand. In the past, many schools encouraged or forced left-handed students to write with their right hand. This is no longer done in the US, but perhaps some traditional British-influenced schools in India still do it? 😛 [/QUOTE] I don’t think any school in India will now force students against a natural trait. I envy those lefties . . I find it incredibly sexy when they write. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-a-lot-of-americans-write-with-left-hand/434823/5 "2008-01-24T15:45:23Z")
You find us left handed people sexy huh? _waves at **indian** with my left hand_ I am an American and I write with my left hand. I can’t speak for anyone else though and I am not sure of any statistics about it one way or the other. ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-a-lot-of-americans-write-with-left-hand/434823/6 "2008-01-24T15:48:04Z")
FWIW, I, an American, write left handed (though not very well), but everything else is right handed. Throwing, kicking, golf, baseball, scissors, guitar, all righty. The only thing I do lefty is eat and hold mini- **Flander** while using the restroom. Oh, and I skateboard goofy-footed (lefty equivalent). ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-a-lot-of-americans-write-with-left-hand/434823/7 "2008-01-24T16:13:47Z")
[QUOTE=friedo] As for your American friends, the high incidence of left-handedness is most likely a coincidence. For another coincidence, in the 1992 US Presidential election, all three major candidates were left-handed. Clearly we’re doing something right. 😛 [/QUOTE] Don’t you mean, “doing something left?” ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-a-lot-of-americans-write-with-left-hand/434823/8 "2008-01-24T16:34:47Z")
I’m right-handed, but it has always seemed to me that left-handers were disproportionately represented among accomplished students, scholars, artists, businesspeople, and athletes. It could be a misperception on my part, though. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-a-lot-of-americans-write-with-left-hand/434823/9 "2008-01-24T16:39:46Z")
Speaking as a lefty, 30% sounds high. There definitely are cultural differences - in the US, teachers stopped beating kids who used their left hands at an early age in an attempt to break them of the “habit” a few decades ago. Well, perhaps not beating, but rapping knuckles with a ruler, tying the left hand down so the kid had to try and figure out how to use their right hand, and similar tactics. There are places (India is one of them) where the cultural norm is to eat with the right hand exclusively as the left hand is reserved for toilet functions. To use your left hand there would be shocking, at the least. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-a-lot-of-americans-write-with-left-hand/434823/10 "2008-01-24T16:41:36Z")
[QUOTE=acsenray] I’m right-handed, but it has always seemed to me that left-handers were disproportionately represented among accomplished students, scholars, artists, businesspeople, and athletes. It could be a misperception on my part, though. [/QUOTE] I heard somewhere that 25% of the Apollo astronauts were left-handed. Back when I worked in a graphics shop, the majority of us were left-handed, which was just weird. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-a-lot-of-americans-write-with-left-hand/434823/11 "2008-01-24T23:54:19Z")
i’ve worked at arch., eng., and int. des. firms, they are nearly even lefties to righties. i would figure close to 40% lefty, 60% righty. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2008, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-a-lot-of-americans-write-with-left-hand/434823/12 "2008-01-25T02:52:37Z")
[QUOTE=friedo] In the past, many schools encouraged or forced left-handed students to write with their right hand. [/QUOTE] And part of the reason for this, if I understand correctly, is that, since English is written from left to right, if you write with your left hand, you’re more likely to smudge what you’ve written (back in the days when you dipped your pen in the ink, and had to worry about smudges). Anyway, here’s [Wikipedia on left-handedness](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-handed). ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2008, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-a-lot-of-americans-write-with-left-hand/434823/13 "2008-01-25T02:58:33Z")
If it is really 30%, then I think that is high enough that people stop trying to shove things at me to sign with the wrong damn angle. Sometimes they will struggle with me for a couple seconds until I snap, “I need it pointed _this_ way to sign!” Also, I’m a little annoyed at the way the credit card swipey things at the check-outs are angled. Some of them swivel so that I can turn it all the way crooked and sign at the insane angle that I need. Some of them don’t swivel. I kinda broke one because I thought it did when it didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![SomeUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e480ec/32.png) [@SomeUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SomeUserName)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2008, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-a-lot-of-americans-write-with-left-hand/434823/14 "2008-01-25T12:01:44Z")
I have to say I know more left handed people now then I did as a kid. Maybe because the schools stopped forcing them to use the right hand. My brother was the only one I knew as a kid. Now I know two, my SO and my boss are both lefties. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2008, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-a-lot-of-americans-write-with-left-hand/434823/15 "2008-01-25T12:24:43Z")
There was a study done back in 2000 which confirmed the popular notion that [left handed people are more creative than right handed](http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20000808/ai_n14319855), although it was limited to what the researcher calls “true left-handedness”, where the left eye, ear, foot, and hand are all the dominant. He also found that these “true lefties” were better at problem solving and had a higher rate of high IQ. On the other hand, he found that they were more forgetful. Mixed dominance people, like Flander, were found to be no different than we righties. I cannot, however, find any repeat studies or other studies which back up this researcher’s claims, so take it with a grain of salt (thrown over the left shoulder, of course 😉 ) Still, if true, and if the OP is in a creative or problem-solving field, it could help explain why his coworkers are not representative of the general population when it comes to percentage of lefties. Of course, it could also be confirmation bias - if you happen to sit between two lefties, you may think, “huh, lot of lefties around here,” and then notice every lefty you come across and not notice the righties. Over time, you’ll have an over-inflated awareness of lefties. Only by going through your office with a notepad and actually counting can you get an accurate idea of the percentage of lefties. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2008, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-a-lot-of-americans-write-with-left-hand/434823/16 "2008-01-25T12:43:32Z")
[QUOTE=indian] I envy those lefties . . I find it incredibly sexy when they write. 🙂 [/QUOTE] This is a great day; you’ve suggested a sexual fetish I never even thought of before. Come to think of it, I’ve known some very sexy left-handed women. ---
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2008, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-a-lot-of-americans-write-with-left-hand/434823/17 "2008-01-25T12:54:15Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] This is a great day; you’ve suggested a sexual fetish I never even thought of before. Come to think of it, I’ve known some very sexy left-handed women. [/QUOTE] 😃😃 ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2008, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-a-lot-of-americans-write-with-left-hand/434823/18 "2008-01-25T16:07:44Z")
[QUOTE=Flander] FWIW, I, an American, write left handed (though not very well), but everything else is right handed. Throwing, kicking, golf, baseball, scissors, guitar, all righty. The only thing I do lefty is eat and hold mini- **Flander** while using the restroom. Oh, and I skateboard goofy-footed (lefty equivalent). [/QUOTE] My sister is the same way. Half my immediate family is left-handed, but she happened to fall after three righties in the birth order. So she learned how to play baseball, soccer and basketball as a righty. But writing and playing guitar she learned lefty. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2008, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-a-lot-of-americans-write-with-left-hand/434823/19 "2008-01-25T16:12:00Z")
[QUOTE=Thudlow Boink] And part of the reason for this, if I understand correctly, is that, since English is written from left to right, if you write with your left hand, you’re more likely to smudge what you’ve written (back in the days when you dipped your pen in the ink, and had to worry about smudges). [/QUOTE] Graphite smears too, fwiw. Inner Stickler (Who came away from many an essay test with graphite smears on his fingers and a vaguely readable test.) ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2008, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-a-lot-of-americans-write-with-left-hand/434823/20 "2008-01-25T16:12:50Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] On the other hand, he found that they were more forgetful. [/QUOTE] Welp, I’ve got that part down for sure! 😛