Science Frontiers

ONLINE No. 58: Jul-Aug 1988 Issue Contents



Do right-handers live longer?

"Several findings suggest that lefthandedness may be associated with reduced longevity. For instance, Porac and Coren reported that 13 per cent of 20-year-olds are lefthanded but only 5 per cent of those in their fifties and virtually nobody of 80 or above. We believe that this absence of left-handers from the oldest age groups reflects higher biological and environmental risk."

To investigate this asymmetry further, D.F. Halpern and S. Coren repaired to The Baseball Encyclopedia , where longevity and handedness are duly recorded for many players. Here again, they found that, although mortality is about the same up to age 33, thereafter about 2% more right-handers than lefthanders survive at each age.

Halpern and Coren suggest a few possible causes: (1) prenatal and perinatal birth stressors are more probable in left-handers; (2) the immune systems of lefthanders may be reduced by ge netic effects and intra-uterine hormones; and (3) left-handers may suffer more accidents in a world designed for righthanders! (Halpern, Diane F., and Coren, Stanley; "Do Right-Handers Live Longer?" Nature, 333:213, 1988.)

Reference. A variety of handedness phenomena are cataloged in BHB20-23 in Biological Anomalies: Humans I. To order this book, visit: here.

From Science Frontiers #58, JUL-AUG 1988. © 1988-2000 William R. Corliss