Righty, lefty, ambidextrous?

[Sanchez]

1. It's self selecting. If you ARE ambidextrous, you're far more likely to post about it and vote, than if you're just boringly right handed. Heck, only 12 percent of the world's population is left handed. 24 percent of the poll respondents claim to be lefties. Do you think they're lying, in order to make themselves feel special, too?

2. It's too small a sampling to accurately represent any large population. 30% is well within the margin of error when we've got just 50 people responding.

3. There's likely some confusion about what ambidextrous actually means. Most people use their left hand for some activities, despite being primarily right handed.

I see that your sense of humor is hiding somewhere.

I do agree with number 3. I would further suggest that many claim to validate IQ scores from a test found the on the internet. And then, you know, some people just like to stretch the truth.

 

[Magpie]

I see that your sense of humor is hiding somewhere.

I do agree with number 3. I would further suggest that many claim to validate IQ scores from a test found the on the internet. And then, you know, some people just like to stretch the truth.

I must have missed the IQ thread. Actually, I usually avoid those, because they bring out the nasty in people.

And worrying about whether people are being honest on a board like this will just make you crazy. Since it doesn't affect my life one way or the other, I prefer to take people at their word (until they start contradicting themselves, anyway). And I'd rather give someone the benefit of the doubt, than call a truthful person a liar.



(Besides, taking people at their literal word can be a special kind of entertainment.)

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Left handed for writing and whenever I could get the left-handed desks it was great...though smudge marks not so great.


But for some odd reason I bowl with my right hand, I use a scissor with my right hand, my purse goes on my right shoulder, my backpack when on I was in school growing up and in college went on my right shoulder but when I went ziplining I used my left hand for stopping and my right hand for holding onto the harness in the middle.

I use the computer mouse with my right hand.

I interchange my hands when I'm golfing (though I've only really ever done minigolf). Seems to be that way too when it comes to throwing a ball..it just has to feel right (no pun intended) at that time but I do think mostly I throw a ball with the left hand. I also interchange my hands when I'm playing pool.

A frisbee is right hand.

I also use my left hand for eating so I have the fork and spoon in the left hand but the knife always goes in the right. Pretty handy though when I need to cut something that I'm eating though.

I tend to hold my phone in my right hand when talking it in but I can easily change to the left.

I know when I was really young (probably 22-23 years ago) the daycare center I had been going to with nuns kept trying to make me be right handed...my mom took me out of that daycare center fairly fast when they refused to listen to myself and my mom and just let me hold that giant crayon in my left hand.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

The DIS never fails to impress. At this point 30% claim ambidextrous though statistically fewer than 1% actually are. DIS exceptionalism is not to be denied.

Look younger than you actually are? Claim to have a high IQ? Top 1% SAT scores? You are just one of many defying the odds!

I didn't vote....sooooo you can't include me in the numbers.

That's because while I will verbally say I'm left-handed which I am most times people are referring to what hand you write with rather than the endless list of things you could possibly do. I would call myself mixed-handed as I cannot do all tasks equally.

While I don't necessarily take offense to this post here (it's pretty hard for me to really get offended here on the boards) it is a bit harsh. Most of the problem with the term ambidextrous is because that is a term you most often hear. People don't say in everyday conversation: "are you mixed handed/cross-dominance?" they are more likely to ask "are you ambidextrous"

I will say at least as of 2015 (perhaps there is more updated information) there is currently no consensus in the scientific community on what handedness means, or how many classifications there should be for it. If the scientific community cannot come to a consensus how do we expect everyday people to do so?

 

[Uncranky Donald]

Left handed for writing and whenever I could get the left-handed desks it was great...though smudge marks not so great.


But for some odd reason I bowl with my right hand, I use a scissor with my right hand, my purse goes on my right shoulder, my backpack when on I was in school growing up and in college went on my right shoulder but when I went ziplining I used my left hand for stopping and my right hand for holding onto the harness in the middle.

I use the computer mouse with my right hand.

I interchange my hands when I'm golfing (though I've only really ever done minigolf Seems to be that way too when it comes to throwing a ball)...it just has to feel right (no pun intended) at that time but I do think mostly I throw a ball with the left hand. I also interchange my hands when I'm playing pool.

A frisbee is right hand.

I also use my left hand for eating so I have the fork and spoon in the left hand but the knife always goes in the right. Pretty handy though when I need to cut something that I'm eating though.

I tend to hold my phone in my right hand when talking it in but I can easily change to the left.

I know when I was really young (probably 22-23 years ago) the daycare center I had been going to with nuns kept trying to make me be right handed...my mom took me out of that daycare center fairly fast when they refused to listen to myself and my mom and just let me hold that giant crayon in my left hand.

This is exactly how my brother is though he writes with his right hand. He catches with his left, takes off the glove and throws with the left too! He'll grab his drinking glass with either hand but mostly his left. He too interchanges when playing pool and snowboards "wonky"(left). And if you catch him without telling him first, he naturally cuts his food like a lefty, but can switch. We're always excited to see which hand he will use for which activity

 

[PlainJane]

I used both as a kid, but when it was time to start writing I ended up defaulting to my right because it was the path of least resistance. Now I mostly use my right. I don't find it super difficult to do tasks with my left, though.

 

[Lehuaann]

I voted Left, because I believe true ambidextrous as having the ability to write or have equal dominance both L/R, which is extremely rare.

That's not saying I can't use my R hand for some activities (I was one of the forced to use R scissors in school), but my dominant writing hand and arm is my L...and my L shoulder pain always reminds me of that

 

[WiscMomof2]

I'm a lefty. I write left, but for sports I'm all over the place. Play tennis left, bowl left, serve volleyball left. Other things I'm a righty. Throw ball, golf, batting. It's probably one reason I'm not that great at sports!

 

[Disneylover99]

I write and play air guitar left handed.

 

[Atlas722]

I'm a righty.

 

[klmall]

Lefty through and through but I did force myself to learn guitar playing right-handed. I was in my teens before I realized that scissors and using soup ladles weren't hard for most people. And I 'mouse' using either hand depending upon the surface and how tired one hand is; came in handy when I broke my left hand last summer.

When I worked with the Boy Scouts I found that all my knots looked backwards/reversed and was often told that they were wrong until someone pointed out all you had to do was flip them over to make them look like the diagrams.

DH is also a lefty but DS is a righty. Genetist told us that at best we would have a 25% chance of having a lefty. He was right!

In both sides of the family lefthandedness skipped a generation so maybe DS will have a lefty someday!

I too went to a school where the nuns actually beat the hands of lefties (70+ third graders in my classroom) but since I sat near the back Sister Leonidas usually got distracted before my seat.

 

[EveDallas]

I was born right handed but an injury at nine left my right arm nearly useless. It took over a year of therapy to be able to get any function back. I do most things left handed now.