Do left-handers die sooner than right-handers? Commentary on Coren and Halpern's (1991) "Left-handedness: a marker for decreased survival fitness".
Cross-sectional life span studies of handedness typically show decreasing percentages of left-handers in older age groups. In an article in Psychological Bulletin, S. Coren and D. F. Halpern (1991) argued that this age trend reflects the shorter life span of left-handers than right-handers. They presented 2 studies of their own providing what they regard to be direct evidence that left-handers, on average, die sooner than right-handers. They also proposed a variety of reasons for what they called left-handers' "decreased survival fitness." I discuss Coren and Halpern's reasons for rejecting a more conventional explanation of the life span data; the 2 studies that they offered in support of their argument; their analysis of other evidence they invoked to account for left-handers' putative decreased survival fitness; and, finally, new studies in which the longevity explanation was tested by more direct means than have been used thus far. I conclude that the case for the "decreased survival fitness" hypothesis cannot be sustained.
Harris
L J
LJ
Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing 48824.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015982:Bias; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008136:Longevity; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009017:Morbidity