I’ve heard on several occasions that as a general rule left handers have an edge over right handers, how true is this?
Edge with regards to what?
complete WAG here, but if this is true - and I’m not necessarily saying it is - then it cuold be due to the fact the majority of people are right-handed, so you are more likely to practise (i’m assuming we’re talking about sports here - I don’t think it applies in general life) against a right-hander - therefore, when you face a left-hander, you have less experience of his/her techniques etc…
Sinister topic, this one.
No, I’m not binding the view to sports. Indeed there is a higher percentage of people who are right handed, that may not be the grounds for stating the same. Technically speaking, or whatever, you use the one side of the brain to ‘think’ whereas the oppsoite applies for creativity. It is another beleif that left handers are more artistically inclined. This maybe due to the fact that they use the creative side of the brain, and thus making an assumption that a right handed person MAY be smarter since he uses the ‘thinking’ side of the brain and not creative side.
And thats what causes reason for debate.
SPOOFE edge with regards to ‘in life.’
SPOOFE
Yes, sinister. Maybe even gauche.
I’ve also heard that right-brained people are superior to left brained people, in exactly the same way the Leos are much smarter than Taureans. Ditto for people born in the year of the Tiger vs those born in the year of the Sheep.
It isn’t that the left side is the thinking side and the right side is the creative side. It’s that the left side is more language oriented and the right side more spatial. One isn’t better or more indicative of intelligence — let alone superiority — than the other. You can think either inductively or deductively.
Interesting link this. “Is it right to be left handed”
I can back up the stuff I said earlier, because a friend of a friend swore that it was true.
Some years ago, the 17-year-old son of a colleague of mine was involved in a serious auto accident. The worst injury was to the head, which had caused substantial brain damage. The prognosis for recovering all or most of the brain function was not good.
However, the boy ended up recovering pretty much completely.
Doctors apparently stated that the fact that the boy is left-handed probably played a part in his unusually strong recovery. The reason? The connective thingy (cerebral cortex?) between right and left halves of the brain is supposedly larger in left-handed people. And this allowed for more efficient cell regeneration.
Disclaimers: IANAD, and the information in the preceding paragraph was told to me second-hand.
Is there a doctor on the thread?
corpus callosum
Well left handed baseball players have a couple of advantages. First, they are closer to first base, second their swing takes them towards rather than away from first base and third they get to bat against right handed pitchers more often and the platoon advantage may be substantial. I wold imagine that all these advantages could easily add .050 to a batting average.
I have heard, although with no confirmation, that left handed boxers have an advantage since they are used to boxing right handers and right handers are not used to them. This could also work in such sports as fencing.
On the other hand, some (by no means all) left handers seem quite awkward. I have sometimes wondered if they are awkward because they are left handed in a world made for right handers or they are left handed because of some brain malformation (in the left motor areas) and are awkward for the same reason. Just for the record, I and every member of my extended family that I know of, are right handed.
Hell, the homo sapians do tend to be opinionated in favour of left handers having an advantage, however, whatever happened to high school desks, camcorders, hockey sticks, shirt buttons, that were all designed for the majority of the world.
However the question also lies : are left handers smarter?
So, …ambidextrous rules… The power of the minority… yee haw …
The brain controls opposite sides of the body. Left-handers are the only people in their right minds.
Everyone is born left-handed. You turn right-handed when you commit your first sin.
Such adroit phrasing.
I am ambidextrous myself, perhaps i more of a left hander.
I may second the the fact, that ambidextrous rule,
but i beg to differ on the power of minority, if only that existed, hell, would there be commodity discrimination.
As I recall (I’m not going to bother looking for cites for this, so take it with a grain of salt, if you like), there’s actually very little evidence to connect the theory of left-brain being logical and right-brain being creative with handedness - in fact, my understanding is that there’s not a whole lot of support for the theory on its own.
That said, I think that it’s very unlikely lefties could be said to have “an edge” in life; some studies have suggested that on average, they (well, “we”, since I’m a lefty) die six to nine years younger than right-handers (although this claim was recently refuted by a British study). So, at least in quantity of life, lefties would seem to either equal or lag behind righties.
As for quality of life, being left handed can be very frustrating at times, in a largely right-handed world. Besides the obvious irritations (scissors, musical instruments, spiral notebooks), there are also some rather dangerous issues for lefties - such as power tools (electric drills, skill saws) which are made to be used right-handed. It has also been suggested that left-handed drivers are at a higher risk for accidents, either because of the organization of controls in a car, or because of road layout (though of course this varies by country).
As for sports, yes, in some sports left-handedness is considered an advantage, although I understand that lefties are banned from playing polo or hockey.