Are Lefties More Susceptible To Accidents And Road Mishaps?
In this primarily right-handed society in which we live, it has never been simple for left-handers to navigate the world. Particularly, it would appear, when it comes to operating a vehicle on a real road. Yes, lefties generally navigate life just as successfully as the rest of us. That has been demonstrated by Mozart and Beethoven, Michelangelo and da Vinci, Gates and Zuckerberg, as well as Clinton and Obama. But let's be honest: A trusted ally is not referred to as the "left-hand man". People with two left feet who come out of left field... Oh, you don't want any of them. For lefties, simple chores like writing might be a complete jumble. Can you open a can with your hand? scissors being used? the worst.
Numerous studies on handedness and mortality have been conducted, with early research revealing that lefties experience a younger death rate. Since then, many academics have vigorously contested and even disregarded those findings. But more and more research is indicating that lefties are, at the very least, more likely to be involved in accidents, both on and off the road. So, returning to driving: Nothing is ever totally proven, but it might be wise to be on the safe side, lefties.
Research Tells Us So
A poll conducted by a British insurance provider. According to research from the previous year, left-handed drivers speed more frequently and are involved in more serious accidents. It's possible that survey wouldn't stand up to scientific review. But that doesn't make it wrong. Right here, we mean accurate. According to Howard Kushner, a historian of medicine and neuroscience and the author of "On the Other Hand: Left Hand, Right Brain, Mental Disorder, and History," left-handers undoubtedly have more accidents since the world is right-handed. The Left-Hander Syndrome: The Causes and Consequences of Left-Handedness, written by psychologist Stanley Coren in 1993, points to a reflex action that may work against left-handed drivers, at least in locations where cars operate on the right side of the road, which is, of course, most of the world. Coren threw foam rubber balls at participants in his study, and the majority of them made reflected attempts to stop the ball with their nondominant hand. If it occurred at rush hour on the freeway, that would be horrible news.
But a few years ago, researchers discovered that left-handers' brains entirely flipped those emotions. The feelings associated with approaching were on the left, or what you might call the "positive" side. On the right were the bad. Left is helpful to the left-handed brain. Right is undesirable. Casasanto claims that no one had ever proposed the idea that how we use our hands to engage with the outside environment affects how we construct emotions. We can tell it's true because the adage "Right is good, left is bad" is prevalent in all languages and cultures, as well as in right-handers' unconscious minds. Despite what language and culture would have us believe, the exact opposite is what left-handers think.
Back to the road: According to Casasanto, the brain activates an avoidance response if a left-handed driver perceives something dangerous up ahead. For the lefty, the right hand rises to avoid and either initially moves the wheel to the left or gives the dominant left hand a little more pull. If true, that might cause problems on the road. When it appears unusual to use your nondominant hand to block or avoid anything, Casasanto advises adopting a "sword and shield" mentality. Your strong hand is holding the sword. The other one contains the shield. All of this is still just speculation until someone wants to go full Mad Max and test these items in the actual world. However, it's an interesting one. Especially frightening for lefties.
Sometimes, we can give handedness entirely too much weight. The direction you throw the ball doesn't, in the end, make you more or less human, much as the color of your eyes or the tone of your skin. "We shouldn't overburden them with some kind of deeper meaning than they actually do," historian Kushner says of differences and other qualities like handedness, eye color, and other elements that cause people to look different from one another. However, there is some significance there. It is important to understand why and how different people think the way they do, why some people go left and others right. Because of this, researchers have been studying it for ages. It matters because our interactions with our surroundings have a significant role in how we learn, according to Casasanto. And the contact between a person and the outside environment is particularly crucial at the hands.
