I love watching things about left handed people, because we’re special.
Check out this TED-Ed video from Daniel M. Abrams. It explains why, in a very soothing voice, people are left handed.
Turns out, it’s genetic, but the ratios are totally dependent on society. Whoah. Maths.
Abrams says that there are two things that determine the ratio of left handedness in society, which are 1 in 10 people. Cooperation and competition keep the level even.
Usually the rarer a trait is the more valuable it is, so evolution will bump it up to a 50/50 ratio. In a purely competitive society, left handedness would be an advantage when fighting, so it would eventually rise to 50% in the population.
But, in a cooperative society, with the need to share tools that are made for right handed people, it would eventually peter out altogether.
So, cooperation and competition work together until we achieve a left handed equilibrium of 1:10.
With a right handed mother and a left handed father, I had a 17% chance of being a leftie. Even though I grip my pen like a gorilla, and I didn’t learn how to use a fork properly until I was 10, I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Left handed people struggle with writing in notebooks, and learning guitar is a pain in the bum. But we’re smarter and we drink more, which to me means we have more fun.
#leftiesunite
Recent Comments