Right, Left, Right, Wrong! An investigation of handedness - some myths, truths, opinions and research


Introduction
What is Handedness?
Measuring Handedness
Handedness Statistics
Handedness and the Brain
Theories of Handedness ‣
Other Handedness Issues ‣
History of Handedness ‣
Famous Left-Handers ‣
A Few Final Thoughts
Sources
 
 
 
 
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Other Handedness Issues - Handedness and Combat
The Fighting Hypothesis claims that left-handers have an advantage in one-on-one combat
It has been argued, particularly by the French evolutionist Michel Raymond et al, that left-handedness confers an advantage in combat (and by corollary in fighting sports and other one-on-one sports - see the section on Handedness and Sport), an idea that is sometimes referred to as the Fighting Hypothesis.

The basis of this �infrequency advantage� is that the vast majority of opponents faced by left-handers are right-handers (the majority of the population), so that they are well practised at dealing with the kind of asymmetry offered by other right-handers. It is, however, relatively rare for a right-hander to face a left-hander (which make up a small minority of the population), and are therefore much less practised at dealing with the different angles, stances, etc, employed by left-handers.

The Fighting Hypothesis also claims to explain the greater frequency of left-handed males than left-handed females, which is repeatedly found in studies, on the grounds that male-male fighting is a more common occurrence than other combinations and so it is the males who stand to profit the most from the left-handed fighting advantage.

Although far from conclusive, a 2004 study by Charlotte Faurie and Michel Raymond of nine undeveloped societies in five continents found some support for their hypothesis that left-handed combatants in such societies hold an advantage. They found that, in those primitive societies with higher levels of violence and higher murder rates, the incidence of left-handedness was higher, (ranging from 3.4% among the largely pacifist Dioula community in Burkina Faso, to 22.6% in the notoriously violent Yanomamo culture in South America), perhaps indicating that such violent societies favoured left-handed criminals.

Spiral Staircases

Spiral staircases and towers in castles typically spiral clockwise going up, and this was purportedly a deliberate design to afford an advantage to the (largely right-handed) defending soldiers at the top of the stairs, who had plenty of room and good angles to swing their weapons at the (largely right-handed) attackers below, who had little room and were impeded by the central column of the stairs. Left-handed attackers, it is argued, therefore held an advantage (or at least less of a disadvantage) in such circumstances.

The famously left-handed Kerr clan supposedly built anti-clockwise spiral staircases in Ferniehirst Castle in the Scottish Borders during the Middle Ages in order to give themselves a similar advantage (although one would have thought that this would also yield an advantage to the right-handed attackers below!)

 

Back to Top of Page
Introduction | What is Handedness? | Measuring Handedness | Handedness Statistics | Handedness and the Brain | Theories of Handedness | Other Handedness Issues | History of Handedness | Famous Left-Handers | A Few Final Thoughts | Sources
 
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