# Is left-handedness more common in cultures where language is written right to left? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 18, 2007, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-left-handedness-more-common-in-cultures-where-language-is-written-right-to-left/392689 "2007-02-18T06:53:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cagey\_Drifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-left-handedness-more-common-in-cultures-where-language-is-written-right-to-left/392689/1 "2007-02-18T06:53:03Z")
I suspect that handedness is at least in part due to cultural conditioning, so I am curious if is there a higher percentage of left-handed people in places where the written language is read/written from right to left. Any thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-left-handedness-more-common-in-cultures-where-language-is-written-right-to-left/392689/2 "2007-02-18T07:06:05Z")
Not that I’ve noticed. The fact that Hebrew is written right-to-left doesn’t make society more “tolerant” towards left-handedness. My FIL is a lefty, and he was forced to learn how to write with his right hand - just like his 1950’s couterparts in left-to-right cultures. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-left-handedness-more-common-in-cultures-where-language-is-written-right-to-left/392689/3 "2007-02-18T07:48:26Z")
[QUOTE=Cagey Drifter] I suspect that handedness is at least in part due to cultural conditioning [/QUOTE] I don’t think that is correct. It seems to be entirely related to neural connections in the brain, and is thus completely physical, determined by your genes. It could be possible that certain cultures are more or less tolerant of left-handedness, and so people might attempt to conceal this. That could lead to the _reported_ percentage of left-handed people being higher or lower. But the actual percentage is probably the same across cultures. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-left-handedness-more-common-in-cultures-where-language-is-written-right-to-left/392689/4 "2007-02-18T11:07:51Z")
[QUOTE=Cagey Drifter] I suspect that handedness is at least in part due to cultural conditioning, so I am curious if is there a higher percentage of left-handed people in places where the written language is read/written from right to left. Any thoughts? [/QUOTE] I’m interested to learn what cultural conditioning you think might be taking place. Are you talking about old school “the left hand is the Devil’s hand” nonsense where left hands were smacked or tied down during penmenship lessons? Except maybe for some of the whackjob private Christian schools, I doubt this is happening much anymore in the US, where writing is left to right. There are still some grownups around who were victims of such nonsense, but by the time I was in school there were left-handed scissors and pencil sharpeners and other tools which indicated that lefties were accommodated, not renovated. On a practical level, I find myself handing things more often to a toddler’s LEFT hand as we play. If we’re seating facing one another, I’ll hand her an object (say, a hammer) with my right hand. Holding it straight out means it’s nearer her left hand than her right. If anything, it’s easier for me to help a lefty with her penmanship, because I can sit at her left side and help guide her hand with my right. With a righty, I have to either sit on the left and wrap my arm around her or sit on her right and cross my arm in front of me. Neither is conducive to neat writing! It’s weird. Babies and little toddlers use both hands pretty equally. Then something just “clicks” between 2 and 3 and they start to show a preference - well before most people learn to write. As my husband is a lefty and I’m a righty, we’re eagerly awaiting our daughter’s decision. So far, she’s frustratingly ambidextrous! ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-left-handedness-more-common-in-cultures-where-language-is-written-right-to-left/392689/5 "2007-02-18T13:20:52Z")
[QUOTE=Alessan] Not that I’ve noticed. [/QUOTE] That goes double for me. You will be amused to learn Saudi southpaws ‘hook’ when writing in both Arabic and English. ---
**Author:** ![Cagey\_Drifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-left-handedness-more-common-in-cultures-where-language-is-written-right-to-left/392689/6 "2007-02-18T15:21:24Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] I’m interested to learn what cultural conditioning you think might be taking place. [/QUOTE] Maybe different cultures have different associations and expectations regarding handedness, even if these expectations are subtle. In India, for example, using your left hand for anything but wiping yourself is unconscionable. I don’t doubt there are other examples, but I just don’t know what they are. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-left-handedness-more-common-in-cultures-where-language-is-written-right-to-left/392689/7 "2007-02-18T15:37:22Z")
[QUOTE=Cagey Drifter] Maybe different cultures have different associations and expectations regarding handedness, even if these expectations are subtle. In India, for example, using your left hand for anything but wiping yourself is unconscionable. I don’t doubt there are other examples, but I just don’t know what they are. [/QUOTE] Somehow I doubt you’re left-handed, or you’d not be raising the question in this way. I’m not a lefty because I happen to write with my left hand. I’m a lefty because I have superior fine motor control over my left hand. This means it’s much, much easier for me to write with my left, and so I do. But most people can with patience and practice learn to write with their off hands, and doing so doesn’t change their handedness. If I’d grown up in a culture with strong expectations about being right-handed I’d still be a lefty, even if in practice I did pretty much everything with my right hand. Because I’d still have superior fine motor control over my left hand. ---
**Author:** ![Cagey\_Drifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-left-handedness-more-common-in-cultures-where-language-is-written-right-to-left/392689/8 "2007-02-18T16:03:55Z")
[QUOTE=Gorsnak] Somehow I doubt you’re left-handed, or you’d not be raising the question in this way. [/QUOTE] Actually, I am left-handed. I grew up for a while in India, and I was strongly discouraged from using my left hand. But I moved to the US at a young age, and because it was not a big deal to use my left hand here, I could go on using it. But if I had stayed in India, I’m sure that someone would have seen to it that I didn’t use it, or at least badgered me about it regularly. Believe me, there is a strong stigma against it there, and literally every time I write when I am in India, someone will approach me and say incredulously, “YOU’RE A LEFTY???” This is apparently a big enough deal that _everyone_ notices. For this reason, I’m sure that many young children with left-handed tendencies are socially conditioned to use their right in India. It does not seem so much a stretch to think it happens elsewhere as well. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-left-handedness-more-common-in-cultures-where-language-is-written-right-to-left/392689/9 "2007-02-18T16:06:32Z")
Forgive my ignorance. Do they write right to left or left to right in India? ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-left-handedness-more-common-in-cultures-where-language-is-written-right-to-left/392689/10 "2007-02-18T16:26:30Z")
[QUOTE=Cagey Drifter] Actually, I am left-handed. I grew up for a while in India, and I was strongly discouraged from using my left hand. But I moved to the US at a young age, and because it was not a big deal to use my left hand here, I could go on using it. But if I had stayed in India, I’m sure that someone would have seen to it that I didn’t use it, or at least badgered me about it regularly. Believe me, there is a strong stigma against it there, and literally every time I write when I am in India, someone will approach me and say incredulously, “YOU’RE A LEFTY???” This is apparently a big enough deal that _everyone_ notices. For this reason, I’m sure that many young children with left-handed tendencies are socially conditioned to use their right in India. It does not seem so much a stretch to think it happens elsewhere as well. [/QUOTE] Then I guess I just don’t understand your question. Of course lefties in some societies are conditioned to use their right hands. But you obviously already know that. So what are you asking, exactly? ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-left-handedness-more-common-in-cultures-where-language-is-written-right-to-left/392689/11 "2007-02-18T16:39:31Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Forgive my ignorance. Do they write right to left or left to right in India? [/QUOTE] The devanagari script used to represent Hindi is left to right. However, India has a multiplicity of regional languages and writing systems, and I would not be surprised if some of them are right to left. In fact, Urdu, sometimes considered a separate language from Hindi for political and cultural reasons, is represented in the Arabic alphabet, so I suppose it’s right to left. Urdu is used in Kashmir. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-left-handedness-more-common-in-cultures-where-language-is-written-right-to-left/392689/12 "2007-02-18T16:45:32Z")
[QUOTE=Gorsnak] Then I guess I just don’t understand your question. Of course lefties in some societies are conditioned to use their right hands. But you obviously already know that. So what are you asking, exactly? [/QUOTE] I think he’s asking if that tendency (or at least the tendency of natural lefties to become functional righties) is correlated with right-to-left writing systems or left-to-right writing systems. [QUOTE=yabob] The devanagari script used to represent Hindi is left to right. However, India has a multiplicity of regional languages and writing systems, and I would not be surprised if some of them are right to left. In fact, Urdu, sometimes considered a separate language from Hindi for political and cultural reasons, is represented in the Arabic alphabet, so I suppose it’s right to left. Urdu is used in Kashmir. [/QUOTE] Thanks for fighting my ignorance. Sounds like there’s too much variation to use it as data one way or the other. We can’t just look at the functional righthanded rates in “India”, we’d have to find them for davanagari writers, Urdu writers and all the other variants. ---
**Author:** ![badkittypriestess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8baadc/32.png) [@badkittypriestess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badkittypriestess)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-left-handedness-more-common-in-cultures-where-language-is-written-right-to-left/392689/13 "2007-02-18T16:53:33Z")
\*\*Waves left hand in the air furiously and says, “I am a lefty too” I think leftyhanded people rock! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2007, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-left-handedness-more-common-in-cultures-where-language-is-written-right-to-left/392689/14 "2007-02-18T17:28:09Z")
For some reason I always notice whether people are left- or right- handed, and I can’t say I have noticed more left-handers here in Egypt, though it seems like it would be better for writing right to left (so you don’t smear the ink by passing your hand over what you’ve already written). In some Moslem cultures (whether they use Arabic, like Egypt, or a left-to-right language like Indonesia) it is considered rude to give people things with your left hand, especially money. ---
**Author:** ![Cagey\_Drifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2007, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-left-handedness-more-common-in-cultures-where-language-is-written-right-to-left/392689/15 "2007-02-19T00:51:50Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] I think he’s asking if that tendency (or at least the tendency of natural lefties to become functional righties) is correlated with right-to-left writing systems or left-to-right writing systems. [/quote] That’s correct. I’m asking if there is a statistical correlation between right-handedness in left-to-right-writing cultures, or left-handedness in right-to-left-writing cultures. [QUOTE=WhyNot] Thanks for fighting my ignorance. Sounds like there’s too much variation to use it as data one way or the other. We can’t just look at the functional righthanded rates in “India”, we’d have to find them for davanagari writers, Urdu writers and all the other variants. [/QUOTE] I do not know of any Indian languages that are right-to-left, but there are so many scripts that there’s bound to be one… maybe? ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2007, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-left-handedness-more-common-in-cultures-where-language-is-written-right-to-left/392689/16 "2007-02-19T04:36:41Z")
Why would you want to limit the amount of wealth? Wealth is a Good Thing. Can you have a rich society with no rich people in it? Poverty is the problem. We ought to tax poverty instead. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2007, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-left-handedness-more-common-in-cultures-where-language-is-written-right-to-left/392689/17 "2007-02-19T05:21:30Z")
[QUOTE=Paul in Saudi] Why would you want to limit the amount of wealth? Wealth is a Good Thing. Can you have a rich society with no rich people in it? Poverty is the problem. We ought to tax poverty instead. [/QUOTE] Yes, but when you make money hand over fist, is it the right fist or the left? 😉 Anyway, Japanese was traditionally written vertically, with columns proceeding from right to left (when written horizontally, it reads from left to right) and if anything, left-handedness seems less prevalent than in the US. Probably because there are far fewer concessions made for leftie school equipment and far more pressure on kids to conform to the ‘proper’ way of doing everything. ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2007, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-left-handedness-more-common-in-cultures-where-language-is-written-right-to-left/392689/18 "2007-02-19T07:20:42Z")
Probably not. Like **[t-bonham@scc.net](mailto:t-bonham@scc.net)** said, it might change the observed or reported incidence of left-handedness, but it won’t change the actual rates. There’s plenty of evidence that handedness is governed by brain lateralization, which is mostly inborn. There are some factors of birth stress that correlate with left-handedness, but even there, there seem to be some changes in actual brain structure and organization. Japanese in vertical script is written left to right, but everyone is taught all activities as if they were right handers. I don’t know how things were in the past, but if my experience with _shodô_ (brush calligraphy) and notoriously traditional and conservative martial arts traditions are any indication, no provision was made for lefties. I’ve never found a _shodô_ teacher who was willing to teach left-handed, and every one I’ve asked has said that it’s “impossible” because you’re supposed to rotate the brush at some parts of the stroke to get the proper shape. You do _kendô_ and _kyûdô_ right-handed. Period. More than one _kendô_ teacher has gone so far as to say that lefties have an advantage because the back hand is where the power is supposed to come from (IMNSHO, that’s bullshit). When it comes to unarmed martial arts, both sides are developed and trained, but even there a bias toward right-handed opponents is obvious. For tool-using martial arts, it’s all right side, all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2007, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-left-handedness-more-common-in-cultures-where-language-is-written-right-to-left/392689/19 "2007-02-19T10:16:44Z")
[QUOTE=Gorsnak] Somehow I doubt you’re left-handed, or you’d not be raising the question in this way. I’m not a lefty because I happen to write with my left hand. [/QUOTE] Lefty who writes with her right here… finding out that my memories of being forced to write and draw rightie were not “a child’s overheated imagination” and that I actually do most things better if I do them lefty-style was such a relief! ---
**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2007, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-left-handedness-more-common-in-cultures-where-language-is-written-right-to-left/392689/20 "2007-02-19T12:59:19Z")
[QUOTE=Sublight] Japanese was traditionally written vertically, with columns proceeding from right to left (when written horizontally, it reads from left to right) [/QUOTE] Before WW2 Japanese was written right to left when written horizontally. The change to left-to-right was, I think, the result of American influence during the Occupation. But regardless of direction, horizontal writing (except on WWW pages etc.) is only ever used for signs and suchlike, not for blocks of text. In books and newspapers, etc, the vertical top-to-bottom style is still used. In the 1960’s some Japanese publishing houses experimented with adopting left-to-right horizontal script for books, but it didn’t catch on. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-left-handedness-more-common-in-cultures-where-language-is-written-right-to-left/392689.md?page=2)