Sides we prefer: The gap between the right and left

It’s almost a staple of whodunits. The dead body, the gun in the right hand, the injury on the right side of the head…the apparent suicide. Until the bright cop or private eye points out that the deceased was, well, left-handed. And, voila, you have a murder mystery on your, er, hands. It is curious how often people take it for granted that most earthlings are right-handed.

Theories about this range from analysis of brain activity, to genes and whatnot. But it really does seem that we really don’t know why one or the other side is privileged. And now new research at the University of Utah also has it that there is really nothing much in the assumption that some people are by default prone to using one or the other side of the brain.

The odd, and sad, aspect is — perhaps due to manners of ablutions leading to a perceived lessening in desirability — that many parents in these parts of the world still try to force their southpaw kids northwards. Perhaps they should pay attention to studies that posit left-handed people are more likely to be more successful or intelligent.

Or study the arguable fact that left-handed batsmen tend to be more graceful. Failing this, they can, like hacks, accept both. Struggling to fill blank spaces, many a journalist has resorted to “on the one hand…but on the other hand”. Both, you see, add up!