Revised News Story

Right-Handers Live Longer than Left-Handers

Right-handed people live longer than left-handed people, according to a recent study reported in today’s edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Researchers studied death certificates of 987 people in two Southern California counties, and relatives were queried about each subject’s dominant hand. The results showed that, on average, left-handed women die around age 72 and right-handed women die around age 78; left-handed men die at about age 62 and right–handed men die at about age 73.

The authors are Diane Halpern of California State University at San Bernardino psychology and Stanley Coren of the University of British Columbia.

Halpern, a right-handed psychology professor, commented that “The results are striking in their magnitude.” But she also warned that the study should be interpreted cautiously: “It should not of course, be used to predict the life span of any one individual. It does not take into account the fitness of any individual.”

It was once thought that the relatively low numbers of left-handers among the elderly was from the old custom of forcing people born left-handed to change to their right hand. But it is now clear that left-handers tend to die earlier through accidents. “Almost all engineering is geared to the right hand and right foot,” Halpern said. “There are many more car and other accidents among left-handed because of their environment.”