
Please add profiles to this project who are known to be truly Ambidextrous.
Ambidexterity
Handedness
Ambidexterity is the ability to skillfully use both the right and left hand equally well, without a preference. When referring to objects, the term indicates that the object is equally suitable for right-handed and left-handed people. When referring to humans, it indicates that a person has no marked preference for the use of the right or left hand.
It’s similar to mixed-handedness, which involves using different hands for different tasks.
When most people think about handedness, they have two different forms in mind: Left-handedness and right-handedness. Overall, studies that investigated how many people are left-handed and right-handed found that about 10.6 percent of people are left-handed and 89.4 percent are right-handed (Papadatou-Pastou and colleagues, 2020).
But there are more forms of handedness than just left-handedness and right-handedness.
Some studies include a third category called mixed-handedness. While left-handers perform most or all skilled motor activities like writing and drawing with their left hand, right-handers perform most or all skilled motor activities like writing and drawing with their right hand. Mixed-handed people do not have such a clear preference for one side. As the term suggests their preferences are mixed. They might use their right hand for writing and throwing a baseball, but their left hand for drawing and opening the lid of a glass of jam. While there are a few people who identify themselves as mixed-handed, mixed-handers are not as rare as you may think. If only studies that included three categories for handedness were assessed, the percentage of mixed-handedness was 9.33 percent (Papadatou-Pastou and colleagues, 2020).
The riddle of ambidexterity
A further form of handedness is ambidexterity. As the term suggests, ambidextrous people have equal dexterity to perform motor tasks like writing letters with the left and right hands.
Ambidexterity is not the same as mixed-handedness. If you have 10 skilled activities to be performed with one hand, a mixed-hander would have good skills with the right hand for some of them but would have trouble doing them with the left hand. For other behaviors, a mixed-hander would have good skills with the left hand, but trouble doing them with the right hand. A truly ambidextrous person would be equally good with both hands, no matter the task. Despite this difference, mixed-handedness and ambidexterity sometimes get mixed up when people talk about handedness.
Clear criteria for mixed-handedness and ambidexterity
A recent initiative of experts in handedness and other forms of laterality now included suggestions on how to determine ambidexterity (Vingerhoets and colleagues, 2023). In the publication, published in the science journal Laterality, the authors made some interesting suggestions.
Mixed-handedness is typically determined using a preferences questionnaire. In such a questionnaire, people are asked which hand they prefer to perform an activity such as writing. It is, however, not measured whether they are better with the preferred hand. Some people may prefer the right hand and write better with the right hand, but others prefer the right hand but write equally well with both hands. Ambidexterity, as the term implies, refers to dexterity, for example, actual skill not preferences. While mixed-handedness can be measured with a preference questionnaire, ambidexterity can only be determined by using actual skill tests. For example, one could use the alphabet test to determine ambidexterity for writing. In this test, people need to write the alphabet as one word as fast and accurately as possible. An ambidextrous person would be swift and accurate with both hands. Therefore the authors of the initiative paper suggested that ambidexterity can only be determined using performance tests. Moreover, they suggested that ambidexterity needs to be determined separately for different behaviors. For example, somebody can be ambidextrous for writing but not drawing.
Ambidextral vs. ambisinistral
People use the terms “ambidextral” and “ambisinistral” to describe different levels of ambidextrousness.
Ambidextral refers to ambidextrous people who use both hands like a right-handed person’s right hand. Likewise, ambisinistral refers to ambidextrous people who use both hands like a left-handed person’s left hand.
These terms aren’t widely used in science, though. More research is needed to determine if there actually are different types of ambidextrousness and how they differ from each other.
True* ambidexterity is rare
Approximately 1 percent of the population is ambidextrous. Ambidexterity is also more common in males than females, in a 2021 study. Researchers are still learning about ambidexterity. The exact cause is unknown, but it’s thought that many ambidextrous people are left-handed individuals who have learned how to use their right hand.
Certain genetic variants might also play a role. A 2021 stud found seven gene variants associated with ambidexterity. However, more research is needed to understand these variants.
Being ambidextrous may be associated with ADHD, schizophrenia, and PTSD.More studies are necessary to understand the causes and risks of ambidexterity.
am·bi·dex·trous
adjective
(of a person) able to use the right and left hands equally well.
"few of us are naturally ambidextrous"
(of an implement) designed to be used by left-handed and right-handed people with equal ease.
"an ambidextrous tile gauge"
External Links
• NIH, National Library of Medicine (NLM)
- A large-scale population study of early life factors influencing left-handedness
- Genome-wide association study identifies 48 common genetic variants associated with handedness
• Psychology Today - The Difference Between Mixed-Handedness and Ambidexterity 2023, Sebastian Ocklenburg, Ph.D.
• APA PsycArticles:Human handedness: A meta-analysis (Papadatou-Pastou and colleagues, 2020).
• Laterality indices consensus initiative (LICI): Asymmetries of Brain, Behaviour, and Cognition, Volume 28, 2023 - Issue 2-3 A Delphi expert survey report on recommendations to record, assess, and report asymmetry in human behavioural and brain research (Vingerhoets and colleagues, 2023).
• ZME Science - Left, right, or ambidextrous: What determines handedness?
• Why Are Some People Ambidextrous? - Heathline
• American Philosophic Society - Ambidexterity is left-handedness Tabea Cornel, 2018.
• Wikipedia - Handedness
• Wikipedia - Ambidexterity
• Wikitonary - ambidextrous
• Linkshänder-Beratung - Lefthander-consulting - Ambidextrous People’ are Brain-Damaged -Johanna Barbara Sattler
• Readers Digest - Fascinating Facts You Never Knew About Ambidextrous People
• YouTube; Medical Centric Why are some people Ambidextrous?
• Merriam-Webster - ambidextrous
• Dictionary.com -ambidextrous
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7116623/
- https://theconversation.com/theres-no-single-gene-for-left-handedne...
- https://www.sciencealert.com/these-41-gene-variants-influence-wheth...
- https://www.mdpi.com/2073-8994/13/10/1792
- https://www.amphilsoc.org/blog/ambidexterity-left-handedness-0