Seeing if real world statistics apply to the forum. (Please participate)

[gmpd2000]

Okay, the experiment is as it follows:

The supposed percentage of left-handed people is around 10%, about 80-90% is right-handed, while the rest is either ambidextrous or ambisinister (no dominant hand).

I wanna see if those statistics apply to the forum too.

Read carefully:

1.Vote in the poll above.

2. If you don't have a forum account, vote here: http://strawpoll.me/4879196

3. If you have a forum account, vote in the poll above AND here: http://strawpoll.me/4879196

4. Post if you want.

I'll begin.

I am right-handed as of now.

Edited July 10, 2015 by gmpd2000

[Teilnehmer]

Is ‘ambisinister’ a kind of joke? If not, how can one distinguish between ambidextrous and ambisinister people?

[kmMango]

So far, they seem pretty spot on.

[Bill Phil]

Define the terms "right handed", "left handed", and the other ones in the poll. They can mean different things to different people, so...

[Xeldrak]

Define the terms "right handed", "left handed", and the other ones in the poll. They can mean different things to different people, so...

They can?

[heng]

hehehehe, that was a nice troll, switching 'left' and 'right' choice's position in the two polls :-)

almost got me.

i voted right, since i use my right hand more often, including writing.... but i play chess with my left hand.

Edited July 10, 2015 by heng

[Esme]

I can write only with my right hand, but can type with both or either hand individually, use the mouse either true right-handedly or true left-handedly,and when I was a child, there's wasn't a great deal of difference in my performance (generally poor) if I played bat-and-balll games left handed or right-handed (IIRC I was slightly better left-handed on the pool table, and prefered playing badminton right-handed (doesnt imply I was any better playing right-handed than left))

Sorry, unsure how to answer the poll question :-}

[JetJaguar]

Left handed, but I can work a computer mouse equally well with either hand. In fact, I keep a shortcut for mouse settings on my desktop because I routinely switch back and forth. I'm all over the map with sports. In baseball, I throw left-handed but bat right, I golf right-handed but can swing a club left-handed well enough to punch the ball out of trouble (flip the club 180 degrees, toe pointed downwards, to make a makeshift lefty club). Ice hockey, I'm a right-handed skater but a left-handed goalie. I play a sport called Gaelic hurling, and I normally swing the stick right-handed, but depending on the situation I will occasionally flip it around and swing left.

BTW, I suspect the majority of lefties are at least partially ambidextrous simply because the world is designed for right-handed people, so you're regularly forced to use your off-hand.

Edited July 10, 2015 by JetJaguar

[Cydonian Monk]

Fully ambidextrous here, along with a mild case of the whole directional dyslexia thing that usually accompanies it. I was forced to write with my right hand in school (since left-handed people are children of Satan or some BS like that), so my left-hand writing is a bit less precise (yet still legible).

[FireFaced]

I was forced to write with my right hand in school (since left-handed people are children of Satan or some BS like that), so my left-hand writing is a bit less precise (yet still legible).

I generally let people have their own religious opinions, but that..... wow. Very strange school.

[Cydonian Monk]

I generally let people have their own religious opinions, but that..... wow. Very strange school.

Just the nature of the Appalachian society I grew up in. Some folks are hyper-superstitious, and the superstitious are often more prone to hysteria. This was also only a decade or so after we had a general labor strike (and school firebombings) because they wanted highschoolers to read Allen Ginsburg, James Joyce and Malcom X. (See: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanawha_County_textbook_controversy for a primer on that.)

[Leszek]

My grade 7 teacher was left handed but was forced to write with her right hand. The idea is that Lucifer sat to the left of God before he went rogue. Grade 7 was some time ago for me and she retired the next year after that.

It isn't really a crazy idea compared to things we do for superstitions, but since it is anachronistic its silliness is much more obvious to us. Think about it, we have buildings that don't have a 13th floor! (In China, buildings have a lack of floors that end in 4) The Intel Pentium went from 333 to 667! There is a house in our county that was assigned an emergency number of 666, the owner wasn't able to sell it until he changed it to 667. Actually all instances of 666 are taboo in most western countries even though according to the text it only applies if worn on the forehead or back of the hand.

Heck even NASA has a lack of 13's after Apollo 13. There is not an STS-13 mission. (Though to be fair NASA skipped a bunch and jumped around after STS-9.)

We Humans are a crazy bunch.

Back to the topic. I have found references to ambisinistrous. The first was on the Wikipedia page for handedness but there is no source listed and the entry is marked with a dubious tag. Which in a Wikipedia context just means someone else viewed the statement with incredulity. So I searched farther and found this (It is the same line from Wikipedia and I am not sure which is citing the other.):

"Ambilevous (or ambisinistrous) - where people have equally poor dexterity (are equally clumsy), with both hands. This is a very rare occurrence, usually resulting from a debilitating physical condition."

From http://www.rightleftrightwrong.com/what.html

I am not sure how trust worthy they are but the provided definition doesn't seem all that suspicious, it seems like that option in the poll is a real choice. (And I see someone chose it.)

Edited July 10, 2015 by Leszek

[Randazzo]

I am right handed now.

When I was five or six, I was ambidextrous (I played little league and could bat and throw/catch with either hand - this is the only reason it sticks out in my memory), but at some point it was decided for me that I would be right handed.

[kmMango]

Fully ambidextrous here, along with a mild case of the whole directional dyslexia thing that usually accompanies it. I was forced to write with my right hand in school (since left-handed people are children of Satan or some BS like that), so my left-hand writing is a bit less precise (yet still legible).

A teacher once yelled that at my stepdad:D:rolleyes:

[Randox]

I would assume that unless specified, the question refers typically to the hand you write with, or else the hand that is usually dominant when only using one hand.

For me, my right hand is dominant, in so far as it's much more co-ordinated. I switch preferences for two handed work like golf or hockey. From being a goalie in hockey, I can also catch well with my left hand, and because I used my brothers paddle when I was young, I paddle left hand.

While thinking about this, I decided to test ocular dominance, and am surprised to find that for most people if they point at a distant object in front of them and then focus on it, their finger won't be doubled. I assumed everyone had that. In line with a couple other tests I tried, this suggests that I have no ocular dominance, though people watching my eyes when I test always seem to pick my left eye, which is also the side of my body that carriers more weight, so there is probably some favor to the left side.

And now I know why I can aim with both eyes (I can't hold a gun right hand forward, but if I could, I could aim it just fine).

But really? Most people don't see double images of objects that are far off the depth they are focusing on? Weird.

Oh, and ambisinister? Really? That's kind of an awesome name, in a "people were probably horribly mistreated" kind of way.

Edited July 10, 2015 by Randox

[Sidereus]

Neither "Left-handed" or "ambidextrous" really applies to me, so I'm having a hard time choosing which to go with.

Cross-dominance I think is the term that fits best. I write left-handed, but I do a ton of stuff with my right hand as well, such as throwing or batting. I consider my left-hand best for detail work, and my right hand/arm best for things that require more strength. Also, while I can't write right-handed with a pencil on paper, I can do it just fine on a chalkboard.

- - - Updated - - -

While thinking about this, I decided to test ocular dominance, and am surprised to find that for most people if they point at a distant object in front of them and then focus on it, their finger won't be doubled. I assumed everyone had that. In line with a couple other tests I tried, this suggests that I have no ocular dominance, though people watching my eyes when I test always seem to pick my left eye, which is also the side of my body that carriers more weight, so there is probably some favor to the left side.

And now I know why I can aim with both eyes (I can't hold a gun right hand forward, but if I could, I could aim it just fine).

I shoot long guns left-handed (because it feels more natural to use my right-arm as a support), but it turns out I'm right-eye dominant. The end result is that I can shoot pistols (and long guns off a rest or bipod) ambidextrously.

Edited July 11, 2015 by Sidereus

[kmMango]

Neither "Left-handed" or "ambidextrous" really applies to me, so I'm having a hard time choosing which to go with.

Cross-dominance I think is the term that fits best. I write left-handed, but I do a ton of stuff with my right hand as well, such as throwing or batting. I consider my left-hand best for detail work, and my right hand/arm best for things that require more strength. Also, while I can't write right-handed with a pencil on paper, I can do it just fine on a chalkboard.

- - - Updated - - -

I shoot long guns left-handed (because it feels more natural to use my right-arm as a support), but it turns out I'm right-eye dominant. The end result is that I can shoot pistols (and long guns off a rest or bipod) ambidextrously.

My left eye is dominant but I am also right handed. Shooting is extremely awkward for me. Interestingly, my dad is the same way. I wonder how much of my visual impairment is hereditary?

[DestinyPlayer]

I'm right-handed, but for some reason, all of these common instinctive things (like which hand is on top when you cross your hands on your chest), point to my left hand. Never had anybody force me to use the right hand, I just had a pen(cil) put into my right hand, and so I got used to it. And also I feel only somewhat impaired with doing things other than writing with my left hand. Maybe I'm a hugely untrained ambidexter or something?

[windows_x_seven]

Fully ambidextrous here, along with a mild case of the whole directional dyslexia thing that usually accompanies it. I was forced to write with my right hand in school (since left-handed people are children of Satan or some BS like that), so my left-hand writing is a bit less precise (yet still legible).

I'll just quote this in the "what made you facepalm" thread. This is just... I think I lost another IQ.

[InterCity]

Ambidextrous. I write with my left hand, but use my right hand for mouse. I use the left hand to hold a knife when eating, but usually grab stuff with my right. It's hard to tell. Might be ambisinister, though, because my handwriting takes a joint team of MI5 and CIA cryptographists to read, although it has probably something to do with the fact that I work as a doctor.

[NFUN]

I'll just quote this in the "what made you facepalm" thread. This is just... I think I lost another IQ.

Not the most nonsensical Medeval superstition (at least it had some twisted logic as a basis), but annoyingly long lived. Besides Lucifer as mentioned above, Judas was on Jesus's left side during the Last Supper, which helped create the left-hand hatred. Ambisinister is a strange term, because "sinister" in the original Latin meant "left", which also goes to show how pervasive that attitude was.

[Starwhip]

Right-hand dominant here.

That normally correlates to left-eye dominant (Which I am), if I remember my Psychology course correctly, but maybe not.

[longbyte1]

I chose left-handed even though I use the right hand for the mouse.

I think that the definition of ambidexterity should be a bit stricter, where you can write legibly and perform tasks well with either hand.

[RAINCRAFTER]

Right handed.

(Of course. It's fun to write with your left hand! I don't even know.)

[Yukon0009]

Fully ambidextrous here, along with a mild case of the whole directional dyslexia thing that usually accompanies it. I was forced to write with my right hand in school (since left-handed people are children of Satan or some BS like that), so my left-hand writing is a bit less precise (yet still legible).

Satanism?

No seriously, I am mostly left handed, and am I a child of Satan? No. I'm human.

Dude, where do you live?