do we choose to be left-handed or are we born with it?

Question

when my mum taught me to write as child, i remember switching the pencil from my right hand to my left everytime she left the room. i still dont know wether i was just being stubborn or i was born left-handed (if there is such a thing).
somebody help me out.

Answer 1

i think u are born with it. i'm left handed too =)

Answer 2

Born that way. I'm left-handed, and my father started out that way, but my grandmother made him switch to right-handed as a child, because she saw it as a sign of evil (she was very superstitious). My father's handwriting looks like the graph from an EKG.

Answer 3

You're born left handed. Like I was!
My parents just let me get on with it, for example, they laid the table in the usual way, and I eat with my knife and fork in the same hands as a right-hander. But if I'm cutting a cake or some cheese I hold the knife in my left hand.
But like you I always switched a pen to my left hand.

Answer 4

The people that I know who are left-handed, have inherited it from a parent or grandparent. So I think it is something that runs in the family. If you worked hard enough using your left hand though, I think you could become ambidextrous. That means you can use both your right hand and left hand.

Answer 5

We are born right or left handed. I believe it is something to do with the way we were laid in the womb. But there are famous examples of left handed people who were forced quite brutally to write with thier right hands (left hand tied behind back, beatings etc) A prime example was King George VI.

Answer 6

Definitely born with it.

Think of all those kids who used to have their hands tied down and were beaten for using their left hand, people used to think that it meant you were influenced by the devil and you could get into real trouble for it. Why on earth would anyone choose that?

Answer 7

You were probably born like that, I mainly write with my right hand, but I use my left hand too =)

Answer 8

Every person is born with a tendency to use a certain side of their body, however whether they do is mediated by their environment. For example in the 1800 to the1900s- it was considered bad to write with your left hand so the majority of left handed tendency children were forced to write with their right hands.

Did your mother consider writing with your left hand as wrong? She may have conditioned you to write with your right hand.

Answer 9

Everybody's brain is split into two sides; Left & Right. Which ever side is dominate will be the side the individual will automatically use from birth. For example writting, leading foot (when walking) and kicking a ball.

Answer 10

You are born to be either predominately left or right handed. It depends on which side of the brain is dominant. With practice a lot of people become ambidextrous, being able to use both hands equally well, whereas other people can do very little with their non dominant hand.

Answer 11

It is definitely something a person is born with, years ago schools tried to encourage/force lefties to use their right hand because they thought it was a defect or something.
My aunt is a lefty and she has many horror stories about having her left hand tied behind her back at school to make her use her right.