A Reader wrote:
I am looking for data that would prove that left-handed people are the world's largest minority. Thanks. great website. Please Email me at danpinard@mac.com
June 20, 2006
14 comments:
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There are some difficulties even defining what it means to be left-handed. I am not aware of any "official" count of left-handed people. It also depends on how you define minority. Men slightly outnumber women in the world as a whole, so you might make an argument that women are the largest minority. I would expect there are a number of ethnic, religious, or political groups that could more realistically make such a claim, or perhaps people with certain kinds of easily measurable physical characteristics. Blue-eyed people probably are a very large minority.
ReplyDeleteI actually was about to suggest that "men"were the largest minority, but Rosemary thinks otherwise! How left handed coud it get? I think I shall do some reasearch and check back later...
ReplyDeleteLike Aden, I was about to claim that men are the world's largest minority. I was under the impression that they comprise 48% of the Earth's population. Aren't lefties estimated to be about 10%?
ReplyDeleteAccording the the CIA World Factbook, men slightly outnumber women in the world as a whole. The statistics are different in different countries (and among different age groups), and depend on factors such as differences in the social and legal status of men and women within a particular society.
ReplyDeleteI found this site because I came to the same conclusion.
ReplyDeleteI am a leftie who has had to live with this bias (every pun intended!)
WHY ???
Is there no-one to represent me in this day and age where everything goes and the C word is racialism or genderalism or religiosism (OK so I made that word up) and every other 'ism'
Why is politics are left and right and capitilasm HATES the left, is it because we USE our brains?
Show me a leftie who ISNT a genius.
IF you read this I want to hear your views...
cos we ARE UNDERSTATED,UNDERATED ETC ETC
Well it's pretty straightforward. In my class there is one student who is left handed and maybe my brother is left handed too. It is a minority. There aren't that many lefties. Consider yourself lucky. I'm not a left-handed person but who cares if some people are left handed. It's a recessive and dominant trait just like any trait we are given. Funny thing is my brother is left handed but no one else in the family is left handed from either my mom's or dad's side. That's it from my side. :P
ReplyDeleteAre you serious? Who cares if some people are left handed? I'm a lefty, and don't think you can just walk around saying thats not a big deal...growing up as a lefty you deal with so many obstacles. Scissors that make your hand cramp,banging into binder rings and getting pen all over your hand when you write. In sports coaches set up drills so its easy to throw, swing or hit with your right hand, and people just think your a straight up freak when they find out your a lefty.....for the record Marek, I'm 17 years old and still don't know how to cut with scissors, i wish i was lying but I'm not. But somehow, i love being left handed.
ReplyDeleteI am wondering if any certain ethnic groups have more numbers of left handed people in their society. I have three sons-in-law, who are all left handed and are IRISH. My father was also left handed and his mother was Irish. Has anybody ever conducted a survey on what ethnic group the lefties belonged to. I am right handed but do a lot of manual things, sports etc. with my left hand.
ReplyDeleteI don't think any studies have linked handedness with ethnicity or nationality. It would be extremely difficult to do, because some cultures actively suppress left-handedness more than others, so the true numbers would be difficult to know. Anecdotally, it often seems as though lefties run in some families, and there probably is some kind of genetic link to handedness, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it is related to ethnicity.
ReplyDeleteYa, I'm not sure about left handed people being the biggest minority but I know we are the most over-looked. I know from experience being left handed and all.
ReplyDeleteI'm left handed, blue eyed and blonde. That is a huge minority! I think being albino is the biggest minority.
ReplyDeleteI think the last commenter is confused about the meaning of words such as "big" and "minority". This is the kind of thing that reinforces certain stereotypes about blondes! Albinos are extremely rare, much, much less than 1% of the human population. That would make them a very small minority. Compare that to left-handers, who are estimated to be between 10 and 15 percent of the population (similar to the percentage of the U.S population that is African-American). Guess what! Ten is bigger than one! If you pick only the lefties who are blonde, you have now reduced the number. So it is now a smaller group, not a bigger one. If you reduce it again by picking out only those with blue eyes, it is even smaller.
ReplyDeleteI did some reseach and found that only about 10 to 7 percent of the world is left handed
ReplyDeleteKen - Any time you cite "research" you need to explain what that means. For example, if you just asked your neighbors what hand they use, that's research, but it's not enough to extrapolate to the world. If you read it on a website, you have to tell us what website so we know if it's reliable or not. Same with a book, newspaper article, etc.
ReplyDelete