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What hand do you use most of the time?

Depends. I write right-handed, I play hockey and golf left-handed, and I swing a baseball bat left-handed as well. I eat right-handed, with the fork or spoon in my right hand, but I masturbate with my left hand. I text with my right thumb, yet I often dial the phone with my left.

It's not exactly equal use of both hands, because usually the hand you use for writing determines whether you are right- or left-handed, but I've never really been clear on why that was. I guess it works for most people, though, since my use of a hockey stick and golf club is opposite the norm.

I also skateboard with a goofy stance (right foot forward).

Like most people, I'm right-handed. I've tried to use my left hand more, but I just don't have the co-ordination: I can't throw with it, or write with it worth a pinch of coon shit. I've tried to juggle, but the left keeps holding me back. I can touch-type very well using both hands, though I've had decades of practice. I can swing the bat credibly left-handed, but I'm far more proficient doing so right-handed.

(When eating, though, if there's a knife involved I keep my fork in my left hand and the knife in my right. I've noticed that the silly habit of switching hands in order to bring the morsel of food up to one's mouth is rather seriously widespread in my part of the world.)

Phantasee wrote:It's not exactly equal use of both hands, because usually the hand you use for writing determines whether you are right- or left-handed, but I've never really been clear on why that was. I guess it works for most people, though, since my use of a hockey stick and golf club is opposite the norm.

I don't think that the two are all that strongly related. I've seen lefties like Bonds and Griffey sign autographs with their right hands, just as an example. My father, a lefty, can only bat right-handed. He says that that's because that's just how he was taught. (I realize that the plural of "anecdote" is not "data".)

SCRawl wrote:(When eating, though, if there's a knife involved I keep my fork in my left hand and the knife in my right. I've noticed that the silly habit of switching hands in order to bring the morsel of food up to one's mouth is rather seriously widespread in my part of the world.)

We do that here in Pennsylvania too. It's strange, hm?

Anyway, I am right-handed, except when using my computer I use the mouse with my left hand. That comes from years of playing FPS games the better way, with my right hand on the arrow keys. None of that laughable "ASDW" nonsense for me. It also allows me to use my right hand on a joystick for flight sims and keeps the left hand free for typing, or using the mouse for free look with sims that support it (IL-2).

SCRawl wrote:Like most people, I'm right-handed. I've tried to use my left hand more, but I just don't have the co-ordination: I can't throw with it, or write with it worth a pinch of coon shit.

I actually had to teach myself how to do things left-handed during the time I suffered a pinched-nerve injury which crippled my right arm and hand for a good six months. I'd gotten where I had no grip strength in the right hand, no strength in the wrist, and to even clench my fingers a quarter of the way to a fist was intensely painful. And I'm an artist, so you can imagine what this would have meant to any career I'd have as an illustrator. I worked, and worked, to retrain myself to draw and write with the left hand, on the theory that the talent resides in the brain rather than the hand you use. I got as good left-handed with drawing as I ever was with the right. Printing turned out well but signing in script was still a bit dicey but improving. I learned to type one-handed, after a fashion. I was in the middle of figuring out ways to manipulate a camera one-handed when the injury healed and I got my right arm and hand back. But it is possible to retrain yourself to do anything with either hand.

Right... erm, except for masturbation, I don't even know how to explain that one.

You don't need a poll to know what percentage of people use which hand. Left handedness is a recessive trait. This means that 1 in 4 people will be left handed. But, of these 1 in 4, only half of them will actually be true left handed, for whatever reason. So, only 1 out of 8 or 12.5% of the population will be left handed. Of course, this is a simplified view; new research is showing that handedness is even more complicated.

I only use my left hand for handwriting and a few odd tasks. My right hand does everything else. I am neither left nor right handed, nor am I ambidextrous. This is a form of cross-dominance.

I'm primarily right handed except for masterbation (it was originally an attempt to try to intentionally retrain myself and balance my handedness, but it didn't ever go beyond just that).

FSTargetDrone wrote:

SCRawl wrote:(When eating, though, if there's a knife involved I keep my fork in my left hand and the knife in my right. I've noticed that the silly habit of switching hands in order to bring the morsel of food up to one's mouth is rather seriously widespread in my part of the world.)

We do that here in Pennsylvania too. It's strange, hm?

Anyway, I am right-handed, except when using my computer I use the mouse with my left hand. That comes from years of playing FPS games the better way, with my right hand on the arrow keys. None of that laughable "ASDW" nonsense for me. It also allows me to use my right hand on a joystick for flight sims and keeps the left hand free for typing, or using the mouse for free look with sims that support it (IL-2).

I follow the best of both traditions, keeping my fork in my right hand always regardless of the knife, and adding the knife to my left hand. Dexterity bitches!.
I used to play left hand on arrow keys, right hand on the mouse, much better for FPS games .

I use my right hand for just about everything, I have minor hand-eye coordination/dexterity issues, so I'm clumsy enough without trying to juggle hilariously for about three seconds. I try to use my left hand whenever possible to help develop my brain (Brushing my teeth for example unless i'm in a hurry).

Both, I use my mouse with both hands, write with both, whichever is easier at the time. Text on my phone with either, depends which pocket it was in, I'll grab food with whichever is closer (but I don't switch hands after cutting up a piece of food, thats strange ). For a while I consciously stopped using my left hand because I was told that I should write with my right hand because thats "normal" in primary school. I've never really looked into what causes people to be ambidextrous though, is it having both genes? (I say that because my dad is a lefty and my mom is right handed)

ps. it's really hard to find good quality symetrical mice

Everytime I have come across the switching knife and fork thing, it's been presented as USA-style proper etiquette, while continental-style is fork in left hand, knife in right. I have no idea why, and I don't really care either because my left hand is my fork hand. The end.

My handedness seems to be pretty neatly split between precision and strength, with a few exceptions. My left hand has much finer coordination than my right, so it is the hand that manipulates pens, brushes, forks, combs, razors, chisels, etc. However, I bat, throw, punch, etc. with my right, and that's the arm that pulls hardest when I row. The biggest exceptions are scissors, which I used left-handed in grade school but use right-handed now, and PC mice and joysticks, which I use right-handed presumably because right-handed mice were all I had to work with. Means I can't draw for shit with a computer program, though.

Patrick Degan wrote:But it is possible to retrain yourself to do anything with either hand.

My dad's a trumpet player, only he uses his left hand (and modified his trumpet accordingly) because of an old spinal injury that left his right hand stiff. He says it's a 'next best thing,' though he wasn't playing trumpet back when his right hand was in top form.

I am right handed, although I have forced some activities to my left hand. Computer use is one because of my odd desk arrangement. If I used the mouse with my right hand, I would either have no leg room or twist my wrists when I type (because of the numpad being on the right side). Gaming-wise, this left handedness has some ups and downs. Ups being that I don't have to worry about button mashing when using WASD and downs being that my shot has been negatively affected, although it's improving.

At first I didn't trust my left hand to do anything right, it even felt weird to picture using my left hand extensively, but now I allocate tasks to my left hand normally.

Ps. I thought the topic was about politics at first.

Simplicius wrote:

Patrick Degan wrote:But it is possible to retrain yourself to do anything with either hand.

My dad's a trumpet player, only he uses his left hand (and modified his trumpet accordingly) because of an old spinal injury that left his right hand stiff. He says it's a 'next best thing,' though he wasn't playing trumpet back when his right hand was in top form.

I play trumpet (and tuba, and euphonium, just in case anyone cared), and although I'm pretty far from having professional-level skills, I can say that I could play equally well with either hand. The finger work isn't the tricky part, it's mostly in the lips.

I'm right handed almost to a fault. Though when I work on my heavy bag I can still box southpaw with some minor adjustments to my form.

Yet, and this is ranging into TMI, I've tried wanking with my left instead of right but just can't do it. I want to because it's a pain in the ass trying to use a mouse with my left hand and, with the way my machines are setup, a pain to try and use the DVD remote with my left hand but since I have no other choice...

Right handed for everything except the jab. I can't southpaw worth shit.

I was a little confused when I was learning to write, but my teachers insisted I was right handed and as such that is the hand I write with... however I find many sports easier with my left. Or at least I did until I injured my left shoulder now I favour my right side almost exclusively.

I'm pretty sure I could teach myself to write left handed though, my handwriting with either hand isn't particularly neat anyway.

Left-handed. Only when using a mouse both hands perform as required, otherwise the right is only a supporting actor. My handwriting is bad enough when writing left, with my right hand people wuld have a better chance trying to identify ancient runes than comprehend my notes.

In my family it correlates with gender: my father and I are left-handed, my sister and my mother right-handed.

And switching knife and fork after cutting ?

Fire Fly wrote:You don't need a poll to know what percentage of people use which hand. Left handedness is a recessive trait. This means that 1 in 4 people will be left handed. But, of these 1 in 4, only half of them will actually be true left handed, for whatever reason. So, only 1 out of 8 or 12.5% of the population will be left handed. Of course, this is a simplified view; new research is showing that handedness is even more complicated.

This is anecdotal only, but I've noticed that left-handed people tend to be a little smarter, on average, than right-handed people. Given that the environment here favours those of higher intelligence, I think that, if my observation is correct, one would see a higher than expected percentage of left-handed people.

Of course, my observation might just be the result of low sample sizes and being a poor judge of intelligence, but take it for what it's worth.

I use my right hand a bit more than my left, but I'm ambidextrous, and have no real trouble switching hands to do most anything.

My penmanship with my left hand is horrible. Nearly as bad as with my feet. Then again, my right handed penmanship is inconsistent to begin with.

I've been described as the worst lefty ever. I write lefty, eat lefty, wank lefty, but that's about it. I use a mouse right-handed. Anything related to sports I do right-handed, though I can switch-hit in baseball with an equal lack of skill.

Right-handed, but I do certain tasks with the left hand.

I simply can't pick mushrooms with the right hand. For that, the right hand is for holding the knife, cutting stuff off and brushing the mushrooms clean. Some other things are the same way, but they are few and specific.

Right-handed - although when I played little league baseball, I would occasionally bat lefty. I'm also apparently "cross-dominant", or so a guy told me at an archery range - my left eye is dominant, while I'm right-handed, so I shoot bows very oddly.

Ryushikaze wrote:I use my right hand a bit more than my left, but I'm ambidextrous, and have no real trouble switching hands to do most anything.

My penmanship with my left hand is horrible. Nearly as bad as with my feet. Then again, my right handed penmanship is inconsistent to begin with.

If you can't even write left handed how can you call yourself ambi dextrous ? Writting is the real test of being ambi dextrous. If your willing to risk a major exam at school writting left handed then you can call yourself one.

Being able to eat with a fork in left hand does not make one ambi dextrous.

I just have less fine controle over movements on my left hand/arm. I doubt that I can throw a ball very far or fast with my left hand. Both hands/arms are about equal strength however.