handedness
Sign in to saveAlso known as manual laterality, hand dominance
thumb|Stenciled hands at the Cueva de las Manos in Argentina. Left hands make up over 90% of the artwork, demonstrating the prevalence of right-handedness. thumb|A schoolgirl writing with her left hand In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to and causing it to be stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjectively preferred, is called the non-dominant hand. In a study from 1975 on 7,688 children in US grades 1–6, left handers comprised 9.6% of the sam
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~32 min read
Article
35 sectionsContents
- Types
- Measurement
- Evolution
- Causes
- Genetic factors
- Prenatal hormone exposure
- Ultrasound
- Epigenetic markers
- Language dominance
- Developmental timeline
- Correlation with other factors
- Intelligence
- Early childhood intelligence
- Music
- Health
- Income
- Sports
- Sex
- Sexuality and gender identity
- Mortality rates in combat
- Episodic memory
- Corpus callosum
- Divergent thinking
- Products for left-handed use
- Bias against left-handers
- Negative connotations and discrimination
- Discrimination in education
- International Left-Handers Day
- In other animals
- See also
- General
- Handedness
- References
- Further resources
- External links
thumb|Stenciled hands at the Cueva de las Manos in Argentina. Left hands make up over 90% of the artwork, demonstrating the prevalence of right-handedness. thumb|A schoolgirl writing with her left hand In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to and causing it to be stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjectively preferred, is called the non-dominant hand. In a study from 1975 on 7,688 children in US grades 1–6, left handers comprised 9.6% of the sample, with 10.5% of male children and 8.7% of female children being left-handed. Overall, around 90% of people are right-handed. Handedness is often defined by one's writing hand. It is fairly common for people to prefer to do a particular task with a particular hand. Mixed-handed people change hand preference depending on the task.
Not to be confused with handedness, ambidexterity describes having equal ability in both hands. Those who learn it still tend to favor their originally dominant hand. Natural ambidexterity (equal preference of either hand) does exist, but it is rare—most people prefer using one hand for most purposes.