Are Left-Handed People More Competitive? A Look at the Latest Scientific Study
Approximately 90 percent of the world’s population uses the right hand as their dominant hand. Meanwhile, only about 10.6 percent are left-handed or more left-dominant. Although smaller in number, left-handed people have remained stable throughout the course of human evolution.
A recent study published in Scientific Reports reveals a possible explanation. The researchers found that left-handed individuals tend to be more competitive than those who are right-handed. The findings offer a new perspective on how simple differences such as hand preference could relate to survival strategies in human evolution.
To answer this question, a team of researchers conducted two large experiments involving more than 1,100 participants.
Based on the LQ scores, the researchers selected 483 individuals who were strongly right-handed and 50 individuals who were strongly left-handed to participate in the second phase. In this phase, they completed additional questionnaires to measure levels of competitiveness, anxiety, and depression.
The aim was to see whether strong hand preference relates to certain personality types, particularly attitudes toward competition.
From this group, 24 left-handed individuals and 24 non-left-handed individuals were invited to the laboratory to undertake a physical test called the 9-Hole Peg Test. In this test, participants were asked to insert nine small pegs into a board as quickly as possible using only one hand.
However, interestingly, no significant relationship was found between hand preference and physical dexterity. In the peg test, 11 of the 24 right-handed participants completed the task more quickly.
This indicates that the advantage of left-handed individuals lies not in physical skill alone, but in the mental drive to compete.
In other words, the motivation to win appears to be more influenced by psychological factors than by motor ability.
In their paper, the researchers write: “Our results substantially confirm this hypothesis: we measured the laterality quotient (LQ) in healthy individuals and linked it to various measures of competitiveness… The pattern of results is in line with ESS, confirming that left-handed individuals (LH) are more prone to be competitive than right-handed individuals (RH), while right-handed individuals are more likely to avoid competition.”
In other words, right-handed people may be more adept at building collaboration within large groups, whereas left-handed people have a stronger tendency to compete in individual situations.