Yeah, sure, I've heard that before... master/slave, black/white lists... and now, north/south. I wonder what they'll come up with now to explain reading from left to right (don't even think about the majority of right-handed writers, that would ruin the fun).

".snoitnevnoc fo yticilpmis eht dnihneb noitnetni neddih a eb ot dnuob si erehT"

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padjo 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

Who’s “they”?

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nemomarx 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I mean several languages are right to left?

I'd be interested to see if handedness in those countries is different.

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sings 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

I suppose that would make those employing Boustrophedon ambidextrous?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boustrophedon

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Martin_Silenus 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> I mean several languages are right to left?

So?

Anyway, handedness bias is a humanity thing.

You're not interested to see if they don't care about majority, are you? But let's be honest: it's just other cultures to me. I don't even think WE often care about majority either.

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nemomarx 4 days ago | parent [-]

I'm wondering if they have the same handedness for writing and for other tasks or not, if practice writing rtl makes them on average more ambidextrous on average etc. Does it have any cultural impacts like how we had the "sinister" thing in English?

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Martin_Silenus 4 days ago | parent [-]

There is nothing cultural about an individual's ability to write with their right hand. Studies have been conducted on this subject: it is a physiological/neurological factor (which also applies to other parts of the human body).

I know this because, well... I'm a left-handed writer and it interested me at one point (strangely enough, I find it very difficult to throw something with my left hand; and I'm right-handed at tennis, and I kick with my left foot in soccer).

Culturally, there has been pressure in the past to use the right hand for writing. But this has been considered harsh for decades and is now seen as an archaic practice.

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nitwit005 4 days ago | parent [-]

In the past, left handed people were sometimes punished and forced to write with the other hand. Their right handed writing was an artifact of that culture.

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Martin_Silenus 4 days ago | parent [-]

> Their right handed writing was an artifact of that culture.

Sure. But that does not define a person as a right-handed writer. That's precisely why I wrote "individual's ABILITY to write with their right hand".

	▲	nitwit005 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		If you can't write with your left hand, because you never learned to do so, and you can with your right hand, you're a right handed writer. That's the only form of writing you can do. Yes, the underlying handedness is independent of culture, but the actual ability is cultural.