Weird Handedness poll

[sid]

Poll #13622

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 56

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When I cross my arms, this arm is on top

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left
32 (57.1%)

right
24 (42.9%)

When I clasp my hands, this thumb is on top

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left
36 (64.3%)

right
20 (35.7%)

When I applaud, this hand is on top

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left
21 (39.6%)

right
32 (60.4%)

When I step off a curb, this foot goes first

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left
19 (38.0%)

right
31 (62.0%)

When I open a jar, this hand is on the lid

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left
19 (35.2%)

right
35 (64.8%)

I consider myself

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left-handed
8 (14.3%)

right-handed
42 (75.0%)

ambidextrous
2 (3.6%)

other
4 (7.1%)

After telling my mother about a strange event in gym class, where I had to move to the 'left-handed' line, she got a very strange look on her face and confessed that when she saw me consistently reaching for the dangly things over my crib with my left hand, she tied those up out of the way so I would reach with my right hand. So I consider myself to have been born left-handed and converted (to some extent, but not completely) while still an infant.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Uh, since most of my responses to this were complicated I thought I'd leave a comment instead. I'm right-handed. My right hand is also messed up with arthritis and other things, so I use my left hand for a lot of things I used to use my right hand for.

Arm-crossing: I don't usually cross my arms the way other people do. If I did it that way, left arm is on top. Instead I usually "cross my arms" so my hands are each clasping the other arm. When I do it that way, left arm is on top and right arm is in front.
Clasp hands: I've never crossed my thumbs. They sit on top, flat, next to each other.
Applause: Usually I hold both hands sideways and parallel. If my right hand is too sore I'll hold it flat and applaud with only the left hand on top.
Curb-stepping: Right leg first, but that's only because it's my worse knee and I use a cane and in order to use the cane I need to step with that leg first in conjunction with the cane.
Open a jar: Left. I could never open a jar with my right if I tried.

I used to do a lot more things with my right hand before it got messed up. For example, the jar-opening. And using a computer mouse, for which I now use my left hand. I've never been able to manage writing or doing detail work well with my left hand.

[sid]

I have tendonitis in my right elbow at the moment, which may be why this poll came about. Some things I have no trouble doing with my left hand, while others seem ridiculously hard. A simple thing like stirring a pot!

I've been using a cane occasionally this year. The one time I was really thrown for a loop was stepping off an airplane, with bags in one hand and the cane in the other, and a narrow little gangplank, with daylight visible below. Too much for my brain to juggle: Cane first? Cane in other hand? Go sideways? After a few seconds I gave up and called for help, and someone took my bags for me.

[sarkka]

I love polls =) *is loving polls weird ?*

I consider myself 90 % right-handed, my mom is left handed...so I do certain things like a lefty ;)

[sid]

One day my father stared at me and asked how long I'd been opening jars "that way." Um, all my life? LOL

I'm pretty definitely right-handed, but there are many clues that I wasn't born this way!

[cdayzee]

Very interesting poll! I never stopped to consider those things as well!

As for clapping, I tend to clap with both hands together, not really one on top of the other.

When stepping off a curb, I don't purposely step off with a particular foot; just whichever one lines up with my stride at the time or that I feel comfortable with. But since I tend to think I'm right leg dominate, I went with right.

I'm curious why your mother did that? Depending on how old you are, I do know that 'back in the day', being left hand dominate was not preferred, so adults tried making kids only use their right.

[sid]

Oh, I'm old enough to qualify for 'back in the day', all right. Did you know that, back in the day, no one ever said, "Back in the day"? LOL

What happened in gym class, when I stood in the right-handed line, was that we had to run up at a sideways angle to a bar, and then scissor-kick over the bar. Right-handed people jump right leg first. I ran up to the bar, started to jump, realized something was Horribly Wrong, caught myself before I pitched headlong over the bar...and walked to the back of the left-handed line. There was no way on earth my right leg was going over that bar first!

For the curb question, I was thinking more of someone standing waiting for the light to turn, and then stepping off. Which foot first from a standstill. Probably could've phrased the question better. *g*

[cdayzee]

Interesting.... At least you had the wherewithal to realize it & switch lines in gym & not just continue on.

I thought that's probably what you had in mind, in hindsight. In which case, for me, it would likely be right but there's the off chance that left at the time would feel natural as well. I'm iffy like that lol.

[annejack]

Ahh, I'm left handed as well in writing and other stuff. I was lucky that the only thing my mom converted me to was to eat right handed (if only a spoon or a fork is used) saying it'd be better for when someone's next to me at a table we wouldn't collide with our arms. I was left to do anything else I wanted with my left hand, but the only thing I really need to do with my left hand - because I just can't do it with my right hand - is writing

[sid]

I always had atrocious handwriting in grade school. I can't help but wonder if it would have been any better if Mom had left me to my own devices, and I'd entered school as a left-hander!

[annejack]

To me, from my today's point of view, I find it very sad that kids were 'converted' - forced - to use the 'right' hand for things even if they were left handed. I don't believe there's something like a wrong and a right hand. But I know that 'back then' views were differently and so I think lots of parents converted their kids and doing it in their best interest.

[sid]

Mom probably just thought it would be easier all around if I were right-handed, and it's true that most things are designed with right-handers in mind!

[annejack]

Yeah, that's true, too. Though (and I can only speak for Germany of course) there are lots of things for left handed ppl - like scissors and pens and rulers etc. But I don't know if these things were even available fourty or so years ago when I was a kid. I didn't have a lot of trouble though, I guess I'm maybe both-handed after all, except for a couple of things.

[delphia2000]

The DH is a lefty forced to right too. But it did do wonders for his soccer abilities because he can kick well with either foot.

[sid]

Hmm, in kickball I always kicked with my right foot. Swung a bat right-handed, held a badminton racket right handed. Archery right-handed. I don't know if that's because I was coached to do those things and they became natural, or if they felt natural all along!

[elaiel]

I'm theoretically righthanded, in that I write with my right hand, knit right-handedly, kick with right foot, etc etc, up to the point where my right hand is full leaving work and I sign out with my left hand, or the fridge on my left is open and I reach out and kick it closed with my left foot. So, not actually ambidextrous, but a little less discriminating. Weirdly though I'm even less discriminating between hands and feet and tend to use my feet to do stuff like close doors or even open doors if my hands are full, or to pick things up from the floor rather than bending down.

[sid]

Wow, it never occurred to me that there are two ways of knitting! I haven't done any since I was a kidlet.

You have very useful feet! Mine are mostly for tripping over...

[archersangel]

interesting that you post this today. just yesterday (for some reason) my dad, brother & i were discussing people not being allowed to be ambidextrous or left-handed in school.

[sid]

I love coincidences like that! :-D

[malachite]

the clasping hands part is actually genetic. where one hand feels right with the thumb on top, and the the other wrong. we learned about it in genetics class, but i can't remember which is dominant. it doesn't have to do with left-handedness though.

[sid]

Ah, that's the kind of stuff I was hoping to learn! Yes, the other way feels completely wrong, but of course I can't remember how it felt when I was first taught how to fold my hands, or which way I was taught.

In this tiny sample, it seems that 2/3 of us feel right having our left thumb uppermost.

[springwoof]

huh! interesting!

I'm pretty strongly right handed, as I learned when I badly broke (smashed, really) my right hand in a car accident. Not only could I not write with my left hand, I had to get my hair cut very short, because I couldn't even adequately brush my hair with my left hand. Even buttons and clothes fasteners (brassiers!) were almost impossibly difficult left handed. I considered it a great triumph when I finally (of necessity) learned to use a computer mouse left handed.

Here's a question for you: which of your hands is *stronger*?

I learned that, counter-intuitively, my left hand was stronger. My PT did strength tests--right versus left hand. Normally, your dominant hand is stronger, so after an injury, both hands might be at the same strength. After my injury, my right hand was significantly weaker, and after bunches of PT, only gained equivalent strength to my left. Discovered that I used the left hand for tasks that had to do with brute strength, but the right for tasks requiring fine motor control & manipulation. I hold jar lids with my right hand--but then my left hand turns the jar instead of the right turning the lid. Weird, eh?

thanks for the thoughtful question!

[sid]

which of your hands is *stronger*? I should know the answer to that, but I honestly can't remember, and since I have tendonitis in my right arm atm, I can't test it out! Today I've even felt like my right wrist was sprained, so I've been using the mouse left-handed. HARD.

[springwoof]

injuries complicate everything!

handedness

[justincase]

Of all my grandparents' grandchildren, all but one of their eight children has a male first born, I am the odd girl. Of all those first born, 6 are left-handed, with at least one of their sibs also left-handed.


an uncle told me both of his parents, my grandparents were ambidextrous.

Re: handedness

[sid]

Your family sounds like a good case for an in-depth study! Genetics are awesome.

Re: handedness

[justincase]

I did a genealogy chart of sorts with them to start, down to the last great great born by 1998, and had the lefties stared. I need to find that thing because it is interesting, now that I've become interested in tracing it again. I tend not to think on it most of the time.

[sharpiefan]

Left-handed adapted to a right-handed world means I open jars with my right hand.

And I tend to applaud with my hands vertical so neither hand is on top of the other! :D

[sid]

Jar opening with the left hand seems intrinsically better to me. You don't just grip the lid and turn your wrist, you get to apply some extra oomph pushing with the thumb!

If you see the palm of just one hand between claps, I'd deem that the bottom hand. If you lowered your arms it would end up on the bottom.

[sharpiefan]

I find if I grip the lid with the left hand, I'm trying to turn the jar the wrong way for my hand, though, and it's an uncomfortable motion.

[jelazakazone]

I could not resist this entry.

In general, I tend to think of myself as "right handed" although if pressed I will tell people I'm not strongly right or left handed. I do seem to do a lot of things "left handed" except write, eat, use toothbrush. I'm left-eyed as well. I do better at most sports when taking a left-handed position, but I'm so bad at sports, this may not really be meaningful:D On the other hand, I am equally good/bad at mini-golf with either hand.

Hands are vertical when I applaud, so neither is on top.

[sid]

The first time I had to participate in a golf outing for work, I was loaned a set of clubs. "Now, the question is, should I try playing right-handed or left-handed?" "Um, those are right-handed clubs..." "Guess that answers that question!" :-D

[jelazakazone]

LOL. That's a funny story!

[dieastra]

That's a really interesting entry!

I'm totally with you on the lid-opening. I have the left hand on top although I consider myself a right-handed person. People usually do it differently? Didn't even occur to me.

I think I also might step off the curb with the left foot first. What I have realized recently - I totally like to walk on the left side of the way. Usually, people walk on the right side, but something always draws me to the left. Then I have people coming from the front and we might collide ;)

I figured I must be a Brit at heart LOL

[sid]

People usually do it differently? My father certainly thought I was doing it wrong. "How long have you been opening jars like that?" LOL. It certainly had never occurred to me, either, that there was any other way!