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Why Is Nearly Person Right-Handed—But Not Every Ape and Monkey? New Research Explores the Evolutionary Origins of Human Handedness
Key takeaways
- The vast majority of people alive today use their right hand for everything from writing and throwing to eating to brushing their teeth.
- New research, published in the journal PLOS Biology, suggests human right-handedness may be related to the development of our larger brains and the shift to walking upright on two legs.
- Scientists reached this conclusion after using evolutionary and statistical methods to analyze handedness across 41 different primate species.
Pexels. The vast majority of people alive today use their right hand for everything from writing and throwing to eating to brushing their teeth. But why? Humans are the only primate species with such overwhelming right-hand dominance, and scientists have long puzzled over the evolutionary origins of this trend.
New research, published in the journal PLOS Biology, suggests human right-handedness may be related to the development of our larger brains and the shift to walking upright on two legs.
Scientists reached this conclusion after using evolutionary and statistical methods to analyze handedness across 41 different primate species. They probed several of the leading explanations for the evolution of human right-handedness, such as diet, social organization, tool use and habitat. Two factors emerged as the most likely drivers: brain size and the relative length of our arms to our legs, a proxy for bipedal locomotion.