Why evolution hasn146;t left behind southpaws

Now it seems that left-handers are more likely to thrive in a violent society. A team reported in Proceedings of the Royal Society Bulletin that because they are in the minority, left-handers have a strategic advantage in fights. The reason is not that they are innately superior but that their opponent is likely to be more used to combat with right-handers, according to Dr Charlotte Faurie and Dr. Michel Raymond of Universite Montpellier II, France. The team was inspired by the observation that left-handers have an advantage in sports such as fencing, tennis, cricket and baseball.

They reasoned that sports in western societies are special cases of fights, with strict rules. Thus it could be that being left-handed in a right-handed society may offer an advantage in fights. 8216;8216;If this is true, then the advantage of being left-handed should be greater in a more violent context, which should result in higher frequency of left-handers.8217;8217;

They decided to test their idea. Studies have shown the number of left-handers in the Kreyol people of Dominica, the Ntumu people of Cameroon, the Dioula-speaking people of Burkina Faso, Baka people of Gabon, Inuit people, and the Eipo people in Irian Jaya, New Guinea. When the team studied the rate of murder in each society, they found 8216;8216;a significant positive correlation between homicide rates and left-handedness frequencies.8217;8217;

In societies, being able to win fights meant more than killing opponents, enabling warriors to gain status, and impress women. The same forces are at work in sports. Athletes, particularly men, have more sexual partners than their couch-potato peers. Because left-handers often have a competitive advantage in sports, they are more likely to enjoy this benefit. 8212;Daily Telegraph