Handedness as a continuous variable with dextral shift: sex, generation, and family handedness in subgroups of left- and right-handers

Abstract

Percentages of left-handed relatives were compared between subgroups of left-handers and of right-handers to test the prediction that the subgroups are ordered for probability of carrying the rs +/gene (hypothesized by the right-shift theory of handedness). Data included families of undergraduates and Open University students who described their children as well as other relatives. Linear relationships were found between subgroup order and percentage of left-handed relatives. In agreement with previous evidence that some right-writers with weak sinistral preferences (class 2) are in fact more dextral than consistent right-handers (class 1), class 2 tended to have fewer left-handed relatives than class 1 in both samples. Left writers with weak dextral tendencies (class 7) tended to have more left-handed relatives that consistent left-handers (class 8). Comparisons of the distribution of subgroup handedness in undergraduates and their parents revealed strong effects for sex and for generation. In both cases, the main contrasts were not between left-handers and right-handers but between left-handers plus right-handers with weak dextrality and right-handers with strong dextrality. The findings are consistent with the theory that the relevant factor is not handedness as such but, rather, the absence or presence of the rs +/gene.