Left-handers flourish in violent society

[Dover]

Left-handers flourish in violent society

Michael Hopkin

Southpaws have rarity value when it comes to fighting.
Being left-handed is an advantage, in both fighting and sports.

© Getty

Left-handed people thrive best in the most murderous societies, according to a study of tribes across the world. The discovery may help to answer the riddle of why a minority of left-handers persist in human populations.

Being a southpaw is an advantage in a host of confrontational situations. Lefties are far more common at the top of sports such as boxing and fencing than in normal society. The benefit comes from the element of surprise: most opponents will be less used to facing a left-handed adversary.

But left-handedness comes at a cost. Developmental experts think that stress during development or birth may divert the nervous system from its default, right-handed path. And developmental stress is also linked to reduced lifespan, low birthweight and increased incidence of immune and nervous disorders, meaning that natural selection might be expected to weed out lefties altogether.

Weigh it up

So might this combination of cost and benefit be what keeps left-handedness at its constant yet low level in the population? Charlotte Faurie and Michel Raymond, of the University of Montpellier II in France, investigated by studying eight different traditional societies. They compared the frequencies of left-handers in the tribes with the murder rates in their societies...cont'd

http://www.nature.com/news/2004/041206/full/041206-6.html

[Cronus Protagonist]

1. Hmmmm violent left handers, eh?

I'm afraid we'll have to watch all these violent Mac users... they might be trying to take over the world.




http://brainbuttons.com/home.asp?stashid=13
Buttons for brainy people - educate your local freepers today!

[samplegirl]

2. Just waiting for John Stewart

to Jab someone with his Left

[LostInAnomie]

3. Nice! C'mon you right handed bastards! I'm tired of your shit!

YYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!

[chaska]

4. Hell yeah, let's open up that can o' whup ass we been savin' for righty.

Yee haaaaa!!!!

[illflem]

6. Speaking of shit

in poorer societies there are very few left handers. Reason most often sited is because they can't afford toilet paper and wipe with their bare left hand.
Read this on NASA's website.

[LostInAnomie]

7. That's BS right handers propaganda...

... Time for a whoopin' Rightie!

[Hekate]

5. My goodness. How ... sinister

Men in my family tend to left-handedness, but not to violence. (My son, his dad, my dad and my brother.) Since all of us, regardless of gender or handedness, tend toward non-conformist thinking I thought it was just another variable... Still think so. ;-)

Hekate
dextrous

[patdem]

9. Sinister...yes...I read the book...Sinister People...I am left handed and

my mother is also left handed...which makes me a mirror image of a right handed person!!

[Lady Sonelle]

8. As Far Back As I Can Reliably Trace

My family has been left handed!

My mother was left handed as was My Grandmama (she was actually ambidextrous) both My aunts on my mother's side and My father as well. His brother, My uncle was left handed and My cousins are. I have often wondered at this anomaly. I remember My great Grandmama being left handed as well and there is a tintype of My great great grandfather holding a rifle in his left hand.

Very strange, indeed.

Lady Sonelle
Oh... and I, too, am left handed!

[patdem]

10. We only go back as far as my mothers father and my mother and me!

All raised as Catholics, so my grandfather got his hand slapped and was forced to be right handed by the brothers, my mother went to public school in New York and I went to Catholic school and although they did not slap my hand for being left handed...they certainly did for other indescritions!!!

We were all lefties!!!

[IHeart1993]

11. Check out this site if Left Handed

http://www.anythingleft-handed.co.uk/