Left-handers may have competitive advantage over right-handed people
New research suggests that about 10.6 percent of people are left-handed, and that this minority may have a psychological advantage over right-handers in competition.
This advantage is now believed to be linked to greater competitiveness among left-handed people and may help explain why left-handedness has persisted throughout human evolution, even though right-handers make up almost 90 percent of the population.
Left-handedness has long been associated with having advantages in some sports, but psychologists at the University of Chieti‑Pescara in Italy set out to understand whether this was actually the case and, if so, what causes it.
They started by collecting data from more than 1,100 volunteers who filled out detailed online surveys measuring handedness, motivational drive, and various personality traits.
From these responses, the team calculated each participant’s “Laterality Coefficient,” a score that indicates how strongly the person prefers one hand over the other.
Using these results, the researchers then selected two precisely defined groups (483 strong right-handers and 50 strong left-handers) and asked them to fill out a second set of questionnaires.
This round explored competitive instincts and levels of anxiety or depression, testing whether a pronounced handedness was linked to certain psychological patterns.
Finally, to see whether these traits translated into real-world performance, the team invited 24 left-handers and 24 right-handers into the lab to undertake a timed task that required the participants to insert nine small nails into a board using only one hand.
This simple challenge was designed to find out whether the psychological differences implied in the surveys would also show up in speed, dexterity or confidence under pressure.
Left-handers emerged from the study with a different psychological profile: They scored significantly higher on hypercompetitiveness and, unlike many right-handers, were much less likely to avoid competition due to anxiety.
However, this mental superiority did not translate into superior physical performance. In the pegboard challenge, 11 of 24 right-handers completed the task faster; This suggests that the advantage left-handers have lies in mentality, not dexterity, and that left-handers have a keener appetite for a challenge rather than any innate mechanical skill.
“Importantly, higher levels of hyper-competitive orientation emerged in left-handers than in right-handers,” the study authors said.
“A minority of the human population consists of left-handers, and one possible advantage of belonging to this minority is a higher ‘surprise’ effect in fighting and sports.”
They also suggested that belonging to a minority group could increase frustration levels in left-handers, which could push them into even tougher competition.
Research It was published in the magazine Scientific Reports.
