I was looking at the community photo mashup, and noticed that the images of folks holding their guitar left handed was very low, that is, I spotted only one
According to Psychology Today 9.2% of the world population is left-handed
In my family of five, three were born left-handed (my mother, born in the early 1920s, was forced to use her right hand, because the left hand was sinister). So, 60% of my immediate family was left-handed.
Why so few folks pictured playing left handed?
9.2% of 68folks â 6 folks left-handed expected to be pictured
Some ideas for this deviation from the expected value of 6 (most are with tongue firmly planted in cheek)
Fewer left handed guitars, so a higher barrier to entry
Lefties learn to play right handed
Lefties are naturally shy, and donât like to submit their pictures
Lefties are embarrassed and hold the guitar right handed so no-one notices
The pictures of lefties are inverted (by accident???âyou decide!) so they look like righties
The person curating the images purposely underrepresented them
Of the thousands of images, itâs statistically possible that they just didnât get selected proportionally
The study of 2.3 million folks was disproportionally not from countries where JG predominantly draw: (see the thread đşď¸ JG Community Map)
The images where âhanded-nessâ is not evident, are actually lefty
There are so many negative connotations with âleft handednessâ that lefties are not keen to receive additional grief â just look at how the English language uses left-handed in a pejorative sense:
First question @mundeli, are you doing research for a masterâs thesis?
My unscientific hunch is that this is a large factor. Iâm one of those. It would be interesting to try to learn a left handed guitar (a reverse Nitsuj?), but Iâll stick with my choice.
It has always maddened me that left handed can openers if you can find them, cost double that of right handed models. Fun fact, while about 1 in 10 people are left handed, almost 1 in 4 United States presidents have been so (with a couple likely forced to write right-handed).
I am left handed, but I chose to play right handed guitar. Whenever a thread about playing left handed pops up here, there are inevitably those like myself who talk about what went behind that decision. I wonât rehash that
While I canât speak specifically for the banner on the community (it was made before my time) I am guessing that there are probably others in the photo like myself that are left handed but play righty.
As a side note, I really like being left handed generally. It is fun when you meet a new person who is also left handed and you nod at each other in solidarity Plus, I think left handed-ness is associated with creativity which I will never complain about.
A guitar is neither left-handed or right-handed as both hands are used to play the instrument. For this reason there are plenty of lefties that play a standard guitar.
When I look at the mosaic I wonder why there are so few active members presented and why so few (if any) people of color?
I sincerely hope notâŚ
There are 72 images, not 68.
Of these, only 62 can be identified as being right-handed, either by guitar shape or the way it is being held
Two are holding their guitars in the âleftyâ position (or wrong way around )
The third is our beloved moderator @lieven (I think), who most of us know as a lefty, as he often advises whenever this topic is raised.
Scientifically, all we can say from this image is that there is evidence of right-handedness in just over 86% of the main characters depicted.
You canât tell right or left handed from photos these days. How many people have their phone set to mirror image?
90% of the videos in AVOYP that look to be left handed are just the phone set wrong.
Actually, for me this was an exercise in curiosity: (plus, I really was curious, coming from a family with lefties up and down the tree).
I like to look at othersâ opinions and then question myself why I didnât consider/think of those, or to reconsider my own assumptions/beliefs.
This seemed like a non-political way that might also tweak folks into questioning simple/pat answers to questions in general⌠Thereâs most always more to any subject than weâre aware of, and weâre also oh-so-tempted by confirmation biasâŚdonât you agree?
Left-handedness runs in my family, too. I seem to have gravitated to fields where other left-handers gather: art, music, computers. At art school I would say about half of us were left-handed, and many of both persuasions were musicians.
My take on this is that historically music training took a hard position on conformity - how many times have you seen someone playing a left-handed instrument in an orchestra? For me: never. Modern practices have carried that on. My local guitar shop has several hundred guitars on display, but less than ten are left-handed. Left-handers get used to adapting (donât we just!), and Iâve read that about 4 in 5 do so with guitar. My bet is that there are more of us in that photo than meets the eye.
Some names to conjure with: Bowie, Fripp, Clapton, Knopfler, Sting, Moore, King, Dale, AllmanâŚ
Whenever the topic of lefthandedness comes up on the forum then lots of people mention they are left handed but many like myself play a right handed guitar. As discussed there are pros and cons to being left handed and playing a right handed guitar and vastly more choice of instruments. I suspect that if there were photos of us writing then it would better represent the 9%.
Plus, I think left handed-ness is associated with creativity which I will never complain about.
)
(plus, I really was curious, coming from a family with lefties up and down the tree).
