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Human handedness: A meta-analysis.

Marietta Papadatou-Pastou¹, Eleni Ntolka¹, Judith Schmitz²

¹Department of Primary Education.

Psychological Bulletin

|April 3, 2020

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Left-handedness prevalence ranges from 9.3% to 18.1%, with 10.6% as the best estimate. Factors like study methods, participant sex, and ancestry influence handedness distribution, impacting research in cognitive neuroscience and human evolution.

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Area of Science:

Human biology
Cognitive neuroscience
Evolutionary biology

Background:

Right-hand preference is historically dominant, yet precise prevalence of left- and right-handedness remains unclear.
Existing research on handedness lacks large-scale, comprehensive reviews and reliable distributional estimates.
Understanding handedness frequency is crucial for fields like cognitive neuroscience and human evolution.

Purpose of the Study:

To conduct a large-scale meta-analysis to determine the prevalence of left-handedness.
To identify factors that moderate the prevalence of handedness.
To provide a comprehensive review of handedness distribution and its influencing factors.

Main Methods:

Conducted 5 meta-analyses on hand preference across various manual tasks.
Analyzed data from hundreds of empirical studies on handedness.
Examined study characteristics (publication year, measurement methods) and participant characteristics (sex, ancestry).

Main Results:

Left-handedness prevalence estimates ranged from 9.3% (stringent criteria) to 18.1% (lenient criteria).
The overall best estimate for left-handedness prevalence was 10.6% (10.4% excluding elite athletes).
Prevalence varied significantly based on study and participant characteristics, including measurement techniques, sex, and ancestry.

Conclusions:

Handedness prevalence is influenced by study methodologies and participant demographics.
Evolutionary pressures likely maintain a 1:10 left-handedness ratio, while cultural factors modulate its magnitude.
Standardized assessment and data sharing are urged for future handedness research and understanding hemispheric asymmetries.