Left Handed Struggles

By Kay Riley

A recent study found that right-handed people live six to 11 years longer than those who are left-handed.

Psychology professor Diane Halpern and researcher Stanley Coren conducted the study comparing death and accident rates of left and right-handed people last year to determine why there is a smaller left-handed elderly population.

The study found left-handed people were more likely to die from accidents than right-handed people. This could possibly be explained by how engineering has built cars and many other things to use one’s right hand and foot, Halpern said.

Justine Long, a left-handed freshman studying communications at Stonehill, said she has issues in the classroom.

“I can’t do whiteboards, pencils are a struggle because of the smudging,” she said.

Some coaches don’t know how to teach their left-handed players skills, several said.

They are often told to just do the opposite or mirror the coaches with their left hand, senior Gabby Damico, studying Marketing from Syracuse, New York, said.

Senior Megan Lutinski, a psychology and education double major, learned how to play softball with her right hand because that is the way her dad taught her because he is right-handed.

This raises a possible struggle for left-handed players in not getting the right foundations for their sports early on in life; as right-handed people do.

Some lefties have prevailed in sports.

“All the great sports legends are left-handed; Ted Williams and Wayne Gretzky just to name a few,” Michael Wackle, a left-handed freshman studying graphic design, said.

In some sports, like fencing, lefties have an advantage against right-handed opponents Alyssa Manfredi, a freshman studying Psychology at Stonehill, said.

Just how lefties can still use their right hand in some aspects of life, righties also can sometimes do everyday tasks with their left hand naturally.

Senior Ben Clark, a right-handed health science major from New Bedford, Massachusetts, finds himself using his left hand to pick up drinks while eating.

He said that may be because he sees his father, who is left handed, picking up drinks with his left hand.

Junior Jessy Iwuala, a political science major, said she never realized how stressful being left-handed could potentially be, especially when finding a desk.

“I’m just looking for an open seat; not even considering if its left or right handed.”

Some left handed disadvantages, other than daily struggles, is their statistics on age of death. The study said “the researchers found that the average age at death for right-handed people was 75 and for left-handed people, 66.”

Halpern said her study “should not, of course, be used to predict the lifespan of any one individual. It does not take into account the fitness of any individual.”