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Scientists Say 2 Ancient Human Traits May Explain Why 90% of Us Are Right-Handed

Summary by thecooldown.com
Why are so many people right-handed? A new study suggests the answer may trace back to two major shifts in human evolution: walking upright and growing bigger brains. According to Sci.News, researchers said those changes may help explain why roughly 90% of humans favor their right hand today. Scientists from the University of Oxford and the University of Reading examined handedness data from 2,025 primates across 41 monkey and ape species to tes…

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▶️ Right-handed people represent 85% to 90% of the world's population, a mystery linked to human evolution. An Oxford study reveals that bipedalism and brain expansion favored this lateralization. Culture would have amplified this trend, but research is still needed. - Why are 90% of humans right-handed? Maybe science has found a clue (Science).

90% is the approximate number of humans on Earth who are right-handed, because left-wingers are rarer and this is explained scientifically. According to a study published in the magazine Plos Biology, it is understood that this phenomenon explains in relation to the size of the brain and the proportions of the limbs. According to the researchers, these two factors are probably the main ones responsible for the predominance of right-wing laterali…

Our almost universal preference for the right hand would result from the evolution towards bipedia and the increase in brain size in our species, according to a recent study. While the majority of primates have almost no laterality, in Homo sapiens, the bipedia would have released their hands so as to favor a [...] This article Why are humans mostly right-handed? Bipedia could have changed everything first appeared on Trust My Science.

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GIGAZINE broke the news on Tuesday, May 26, 2026.
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