# How many Dopers are Lefties?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-are-lefties/1027201
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [January 30, 2026, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-are-lefties/1027201 "2026-01-30T16:31:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@bobsmom101](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobsmom101)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-are-lefties/1027201/1 "2026-01-30T16:31:41Z")
Not political for a change! Inspired by @susan ‘s [Left-handed fountain pen use](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-handed-fountain-pen-use/1027153) thread. I’m betting that this Board has more than the usually cited 10% proportion of sinistrals, including yours truly. The nuns just _hated_ Southpaws; I was the only one in my tiny parochial 5th grade class, and Sister Mary Louis tried mightily to shift me. Didn’t work.
Anyhow, here’s the poll:
_Poll ([view on site](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-are-lefties/1027201/1))_
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-are-lefties/1027201/2 "2026-01-30T16:37:02Z")
I’m pretty profoundly right-handed. I’ve twice broken bones in my right arm, and was pathetic at doing anything with my left-hand while the good arm healed.
That said, I have cross-dominant vision (my left eye is my dominant eye), so for certain sports activities, like hitting a baseball/softball or firing a bow or shotgun, I do it left-handed, as it gives me better vision for that activity.
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### Author:  [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-are-lefties/1027201/3 "2026-01-30T16:37:39Z")
> [@bobsmom101](#):
>
> The nuns just _hated_ Southpaws; I was the only one in my tiny parochial 5th grade class, and Sister Mary Louis tried mightily to shift me.
Ha, I had one nun (Sister Ancilla, very unaffectionately known as Chili Beans) who used to say that lefties like me were minions of Satan, because God would seat evil people on his left at the last judgment.
I do everything left handed except throw, and I suspect that’s because I had my older brother’s baseball mitt when I was a kid. I’ve tried tossing darts lefty, and got good enough that I stopped righty.
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### Author:  [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-are-lefties/1027201/4 "2026-01-30T16:39:11Z")
I believe that I was forced to use my right hand in Catholic grade school.
My handwriting is atrocious.
I still find myself naturally using my left hand for things like playing pool and other generic tasks.
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-are-lefties/1027201/5 "2026-01-30T16:41:57Z")
This is an interesting question–but, if you don’t mind, when I teach my kids about statistics, I might use it as an example of how statistics can be misleading :).
Who’s likelier to open a thread about left-handed people: left-handed people, or right-handed people?
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### Author:  [@bobsmom101](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobsmom101)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-are-lefties/1027201/6 "2026-01-30T16:43:15Z")
Man, you guys are _fast!_ I was trying to set up a poll, but messed it up big time. Trying again:
Not political for a change! Inspired by @susan ‘s [Left-handed fountain pen use](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-handed-fountain-pen-use/1027153) thread. I’m betting that this Board has more than the usually cited 10% proportion of sinistrals, including yours truly. The nuns just _hated_ Southpaws; I was the only one in my tiny parochial 5th grade class, and Sister Mary Louis tried mightily to shift me. Didn’t work.
_Poll ([view on site](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-are-lefties/1027201/6))_
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-are-lefties/1027201/7 "2026-01-30T16:43:17Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> This is an interesting question–but, if you don’t mind, when I teach my kids about statistics, I might use it as an example of how statistics can be misleading :).
The ever-popular and ever-problematic “convenience sample.”
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### Author:  [@bobsmom101](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobsmom101)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-are-lefties/1027201/8 "2026-01-30T16:45:18Z")
OK, messed up again. Why is the poll showing 2 responses? I only posted one.
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### Author:  [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-are-lefties/1027201/9 "2026-01-30T16:45:24Z")
I have mixed dominance. For writing and things that require fine motor control I use my left, but for sports and larger motions I use the right.
Regarding your poll choices, I am not sure you used ambidextrous correctly as I always understood it to mean you can do everything equally well with both hands (which is what you called non-binary). If you do some things exclusively with one and other things exclusively with the other it is mixed dominance.
But perhaps someone knows better than I do?
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### Author:  [@Jegpeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jegpeg)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-are-lefties/1027201/10 "2026-01-30T16:45:41Z")
Not sure whether to answer the poll almost 100% left handed or ambedextrtrous leaning left.
Anything that involves one hand (eg writing, using a screwdriver) I will use my left hand though almost anything that involves using two hands I will tend to do the “right handed” way. When I eat I have my fork in my left hand and knife in my right, if I play baseball or golf I will play right handed.
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### Author:  [@bobsmom101](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobsmom101)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-are-lefties/1027201/11 "2026-01-30T16:48:42Z")
> [@Orville\_mogul](#):
>
> If you do some things exclusively with one and other things exclusively with the other it is mixed dominance.
Thank you
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#):
>
> Who’s likelier to open a thread about left-handed people: left-handed people, or right-handed people?
Thanks guys! Not trying to be “scientific” but I should have checked for correct terminology!
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### Author:  [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-are-lefties/1027201/12 "2026-01-30T16:49:14Z")
> [@Jegpeg](#):
>
> When I eat I have my fork in my left hand and knife in my right,
Actually for me, I hold a fork in my right and chopsticks in my left. I can eat Chinese food twice as fast as everyone else!
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-are-lefties/1027201/13 "2026-01-30T16:52:00Z")
> [@Jegpeg](#):
>
> When I eat I have my fork in my left hand and knife in my right
Which is, as I understand it, the typical European style of eating. Americans tend to use their dominant hand for both the knife and the fork, switching back and forth.
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### Author:  [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-are-lefties/1027201/14 "2026-01-30T16:54:52Z")
Can only write with my right hand but would only play guitar left handed.
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### Author:  [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-are-lefties/1027201/15 "2026-01-30T16:56:29Z")
I voted “almost 100% left-handed” and “ambidextrous primarily left”; I’ve never figured out how to quantify it.
I write lefty… I shoot left-handed, dominant eye is left. However, I am generally a very adaptable person, so I’ve never used left-handed scissors or used a mouse left-handed, I just used what was available (which was right-handed setups, of course). When I was taught to swing a bat, it was by right-handed people, so that’s just how I did it. There are probably other examples of me just rolling with it like that…
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### Author:  [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-are-lefties/1027201/16 "2026-01-30T16:59:04Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> Americans tend to use their dominant hand for both the knife and the fork,
Huh? How do you use just a knife and fork easily with just one hand? So you just stab at your steak? Grab your steak using your bare left hand to hold it in place? Use a spoon in your left hand to hold it? Use them both in the same hand like chop sticks? Nail the steak down with the fork and the proceed to cutting?
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### Author:  [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-are-lefties/1027201/17 "2026-01-30T17:10:07Z")
More or less exclusively left-handed and left-eye dominant. I even chew primarily on my left side. I effectively can’t write with my right-hand at all - if I struggle carefully, I can manage a very slow, shaky, wandering block print. Never had anyone try to beat it out of me thankfully, but since I’m a “pushing-leftie” my handwriting was notoriously awful in the days of note-taking with pencils and smearing pens.
The only exception I can think of is my computer mouse. The left-handed mouse wasn’t common when I first started playing around with computers and I trained myself to use my right. Now that just feels automatic and using my left slightly awkward (though I can do it).
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### Author:  [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-are-lefties/1027201/18 "2026-01-30T17:13:16Z")
> [@Jegpeg](#):
>
> Not sure whether to answer the poll almost 100% left handed or ambedextrtrous leaning left.
I wasn’t sure how to answer this either, but I chose the first one. Writing, throwing, batting, golf swing is totally left-handed. Scissors and guitar totally right-handed (for the former, I think because there were usually only right-handed scissors in school; for the latter I made a conscious choice to learn righty).
Other stuff I feel like I do equally well lefty and righty, like shooting a pistol or bowling (though I don’t do either very often).
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### Author:  [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-are-lefties/1027201/19 "2026-01-30T17:18:28Z")
I’m right-hand dominant, but I use my left hand for many things that others use their dominant hand. Off the top of my head: turning keys, spinning dials, opening door knobs, opening jars, typing most keys, punching numbers on phones, eating soup. Things that are exclusively right hand: writing and chopsticks.
> [@Si\_Amigo](#):
>
> > [@kenobi\_65](#):
> >
> > Americans tend to use their dominant hand for both the knife and the fork,
>
> Huh? How do you use just a knife and fork easily with just one hand? So you just stab at your steak? Grab your steak using your bare left hand to hold it in place? Use a spoon in your left hand to hold it? Use them both in the same hand like chop sticks? Nail the steak down with the fork and the proceed to cutting?
Some Americans hold the knife in their right and fork in their left to cut, then set down the knife, switch the fork to their right hand, then use the fork to put the food in their mouth. Otherwise, they stab themselves in the eye or whatever. 😉
Less clumsy Americans can put food in their mouth with a left-hand fork just fine.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2026, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-dopers-are-lefties/1027201/20 "2026-01-30T17:18:53Z")
ETA: ninja’ed
> [@Si\_Amigo](#):
>
> Huh? How do you use just a knife and fork easily with just one hand? So you just stab at your steak? Grab your steak using your bare left hand to hold it in place? Use a spoon in your left hand to hold it? Use them both in the same hand like chop sticks? Nail the steak down with the fork and the proceed to cutting?
The “official” good table manners for a righty to eat a steak (or really anything needing cutting, including veggies) in the USA is ..
Hold the fork inverted in the left hand, stab the bulk of the food near the left edge, then use the knife in the right hand to separate a bite sized piece that includes the fork.
Then set down the knife on the edge of the plate, sorta between 1 and 3 o’clock and sharp side in, transfer the fork with food bite impaled to the right hand right side up, and then use the fork to move the food to your face. When done, transfer the fork back to the left hand inverted, pick up the knife in the right, and repeat the process for the next bite.
Lefties do the same, just swapping which hand does what.
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