Why Are There More Right Handed People?

Most animals have a tendency to favor one side of their bodies. 7 out of 10 chimpanzees are right handed. While almost all kangaroos are left handed. In cats the females tend to be right handed, while the males are generally left handed. So how come such a vast majority of the human population turned out to be right handed?

The answer may lie in the fact that humans are essentially social animals that need to live and work in groups to survive. This means that they need to be able to use the tools that have been developed by other people in the group. Somewhere between when the first tools were developed 1.5 million years ago, to the present age, it was an adaptation which took over our species.

Does that mean being left handed is bad? Not at all. In combat situations being left handed is unexpected, and thus it can be a major advantage. Perhaps that is why even in sports you will find that the left handed players tend to have an advantage over the right handed players and tend to do better. Think of all the famous left handed tennis players like Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, and Rafael Nadal. A science project on left handed sportsmen would be interesting.