Basic News Story Assignment

Handedness may affect life span
Study shows that right-handed individuals live longer than lefties
By Mindy Rappoport

Left-handed individuals are four times more likely to die from driving injuries than right-handed people, according to a study featured in Tuesday’s edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

In the 2009 study, University of British Columbia researcher Stanley Coren and California State University at San Bernadino psychology professor Diane Halpern reviewed more than 900 Southern California death certificates. Coren and Halpern then asked relatives of the deceased about their ancestor’s dominant hand.

Halpern said that fact that only 10 percent of the U.S. population is left-handed didn’t surprise her.

“We knew for years that there weren’t as many old left-handers,” Halpern said. “Researchers thought that was because in the early years of the century, most people born left-handed were forced to change to their right hands.”

However, Halpern said that the study revealed that fewer left-handed individuals were alive than right-handed ones. On average, right-handed men live 11 years longer than left-handed men, and right-handed women live six years longer than left-handed women, according to the study.

Cars and other engineering, which is designed for right-handed individuals, may be to blame for the higher rate of accidents that result in left-handed individuals’ injuries, Halpern said.

"There are many more car and other accidents among left-handers because of their environment,” Halpern said.

Danae Belanger, a 20-year-old junior advertising major, agrees with Halpern.

“It’s because the world is designed for right-handed people,” Belanger said.

Despite her findings, Halpern said that parents of left-handed children should not try to teach their son or daughter to use their right hand instead.

“There are many, many old left-handed people,” she said.

Instead, the psychology professor urged those who review her findings to do so with caution.

“It should not, of course, be used to predict the life span of any one individual,” Halpern said.