Our highly unscientific but enthusiastically participated-in poll sort of aligned with the science: 17% of fediverse folk would describe themselves as left-handed (the article we posted said it was 1- to 15%). We like @kzeta's theory for that — she suggested that perhaps there's a bias in boosting: "I imagine if you're in the majority group, this poll might be a little less interesting.
But if you're in the tiny minority, dealing with a world made for the vast majority? Hell yeah, I wanna find the other outliers like me."

Things — and comments — got really interesting around the "I am ambidextrous/something else" categories.

@alex introduced us to the idea of mixed-handedness/cross-dominance, where you use one for some purposes and the other for others (and to the connection between left-handedness and neurodiversity).

So many cool examples of mixed-handedness in the comments, and how they came about, for example, @DavidBHimself, who was born left-handed but broke his left wrist when he was learning to write. "I'm not ambidextrous. The things I do with my right hand, I can only do with my right hand, and the things I do with my left hand, I can only do with my left hand."

We thought @pinky gave a great breakdown: "I write on paper with my left hand but on a whiteboard with my right hand. I paint pictures with my left hand but walls with my right hand. I brush my hair, teeth with my left hand, stir a pot with my left hand, and hold my phone in my left hand. I hold a racquet with my left hand but a cricket bat with my right hand. I throw with my left hand. I crochet with my right hand and use scissors with my right hand. I hold a fork and spoon with my left hand and a knife with my right hand. I cannot swap these things around! I consider myself left-handed."

Finally, @AlexsandraSmart introduced us to the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory, where you answer questions to determine where you fall on the lefty/righty scale. One of them was "When sweeping, which hand is at the top of the broom?" We asked our lefty to demonstrate, hoping she'd clean the floor, but alas, it was not to be.

@ScienceDesk I was born left-handed. I broke my left wrist right at the time I was learning how to write. Since, I've been right-handed for some things, and left-handed for some others. I'm not ambidextrous. The things I do with my right hand, I can only do with my right hand, and the things I do with my left hand, I can only do with my left hand.

@ScienceDesk

#Science #Biology #Evolution #Handedness #Genetics
I imagine that there will be a slightly higher reporting of non-right-handedness in Activity Pub instances,because we think differently.