Most are born left-handed men

09/07/2014

Most are born left-handed men in certain months of the year

An investigation reveals an unexpected and striking pattern in the birth of left-handed men, suggesting that environmental factors linked to a season influence mechanisms responsible for a man to have a greater natural tendency to be left-handed than right-handed development. This phenomenon does not occur in women. They also, according to the study, have a higher percentage of right-handed than left-handed.

Men born in November, December or January, traditionally cold months in the northern hemisphere, which has carried out this research, are more likely to be left-handed than those born during the rest of the year.

Several manual tasks in everyday life require the use of the right hand or are optimized for righties. About 9 out of every 10 people in the general population are right-handed, and only 1 in 10 they are left-handed. The study of Ulrich Tran, Stefan Stieger and Martin Voracek, of the University of Vienna in Austria, was based on two independent samples of nearly 13,000 adults in Austria and Germany.

Overall, 7.5 percent of women and 8.8 percent of men were left-handed. The surprise for the scientists came to see that this imbalance was due largely to more left-handed men who were born in November, December and January. Monthly average, 8.2 percent of left-handed men were born during the period from February to October. During the period from November to January, the number rose to 10.5 percent.