How to explain left-handedness?

Question

Is this genetic, or learned, or some accidental development ?
Southpaws, please tell us your experience and opinion. Is it hard living in a "right-handed world", or does that challenge make you better people?

Answer 1

Well there are actually many theories into lef handedness.
It is known to be genetic in certain families, but does not appear to be the cause in other cases.

Birth trauma (ie long/complicated births) apparently lead to left handedness in some people. Often Twins and in particular mirror twins, one twin is left handed and the other right handed.
There is a link between left handedness and learning disabilities and these are more often male.
They think also that hormone levels during pregnacy may also lead to lefthandedness in some...I tihnk its to do with testosterone, but don't quote me.

Of course left handedness has been seen as the "devils hand" and many people have been forced to use their right hands (my twin cousins are an example where my male cousin was left handed was forced when in a convent school to use his right hand, his twin switched to being LEFT handed in order to stick with him so he wouldn't be alone (how sweet)...she sufferes from some learning problems, so forcing people to use their non-dominant side can lead to problems.
Often people who are left handed are also lefties in other thing eg eye, ear, foot and things like hair swirling in the opposite direction.
I am pretty sure too that cave paintings done thousands of years ago show about an equal number of left and right hands being used...so it may be disadvantagous for some reason (being right brained????)
As a left hander, I like to think its genetic (I have my cousins and my maternal grandmother was left handed), but I was also born by caesarian and have slight learning problems...so who knows really. It is a fascinating issue and many people are really interested in it and do many tests to find out why.

Answer 2

I think it's predetermined before you're born whether you are right or left handed! It might be genetic, as my grandmother was left-handed, my oldest sister started out left-handed when she learned to write, but her teachers wanted her to change, so she ended up right-handed to write and left for everything else! I have always been left-handed, and it's really not a big deal, others make a bigger deal of it than I ever have! It's assumed that because I'm left handed, I am a very creative person- I guess it may be true, as my family is filled with creativity and artistic ability! The only thing that's ever annoyed me is that all the spirals on notebooks got in the way, but when I was in college I discovered that they make left-handed-notebooks!!! :D

Answer 3

I've learnt that left-handedness is often a recessive trait in a family. Eg; If your parent has a relative with left-handedness, or your parent is left-handed, then there is a 1 in 4 chance that you will born left-handed.

Answer 4

Well my daughter is left hand and me nor her father are, but my father is and his mother is so its genetic maybe.