Ha! Here is a tid-bit from the History Channel on bathroom tech. I wouldn't go so far as to say that this is the totality of the reason by any stretch, but it could be an influence. Regardless, it is interesting. Evidently, before toilet paper and corn cobs, the left hand was the preferred alternative and is still employed in other areas of the world. Until Sears* published its non-glossy catalog, the left hand was often the main recourse in this country. Of course, that meant that a left hand was "unclean" and not the best hand for other tasks for many, many, many generations extending all around the globe. *[Sears switched to glossy, getting away from the soft pulp paper, just for that reason...it's pulpy catalog was very popular in the outhouse. The pages were even the right size. Ha!] Let's face it...would you want to shake someone's left hand a hundred years ago? After all, the custom of using the left hand instead of toilet paper would be pervasive in the society. If someone offered their left hand as "friendship", would you have second thoughts? If there was residue on your left hand, would you avoid using that hand for many tasks? Would generations and generations of cultures "teach" their children to use the appropriate right hand for primary tasks, with the wide cultural acceptance that the unclean left hand is used to wipe their butt with? During the transition to toilet paper less than a hundred years ago, of course many activities and rituals of a culture would carry over. We see this easily with the derivations of words in our language where most people currently don't know how the word originated or what its roots are. So too could customary right hand practices of activites pass on. (e.g.Tools or devices fitted primarily for right hand tasks, Moms showing children "how to do something with their right hand" because their Mother showed them that way, and the Mother before...and the Mother before...way on down the line.) Members of society would school people into using the right hand as the prefered hand, if the left hand was commonly accepted for potty use. This routine would be passed on. The original intent of the routine can easily be forgotten. For example: Most people don't know why the long necktie is now customary for gentlemen to wear when they dress for business. The origination of the routine has been lost...it is now just a custom of a culture. The "Habit" or "Routine" easily can carry in a culture, just like the very many cultural aberrations that go on in our society now but are considered socially acceptable or "okay" when they are actually very nutty. Witness the hypercriticalness aberration pervasive in this current culture where it is now common and accepted to see strained invalidation and fault finding throughout our society, when actually it is mentally very sick. A habit or routine can carry on within a culture even though the original purpose for which it was intended has long been forgotten. One can also see this with many laws which are no longer applicable today. Even some religious rituals can eventually change as they are found to be no longer appropriate. A culture would certainly originate routines which would help distinguish and prevent exposure to "potty hands" (the left hand). Ha! I guess I will get a rating that "the left-hand idea is a bunch of s**t", like some of the other ratings I have received. Again, this is just some data presented here and a possible hypothesis to the habit of right handedness. Anyway, it was something that caught my attention that had a humorous side, but is probably not the main reason. Again, I will restate this point: It is probably not the main reason for right handedness, but it possibly could have an influence and is presented because it is interesting and has a humorous side to it. Ha! However, you can easily discover the current contagion of a sick aberration in our current culture by the comments which strain at criticalness over this subject which has a light side to it and is presented only as a possible influence -- not the totality of a reason. Kind of funny to see how sardonic attitude routines are now rippling in our culture when they were relatively low-key and recognized as vulgar 50 years ago.

Maybe I have the answer... The human brain is divided in two halfs, the right one is responsible for everything we do with our LEFT side, and the left half for everything we do with our RIGHT side. And the two halfs have different tasks. The right one is the creative part of our brain (center of talents in music and art, for example), while the left one is the center of speech, learning, mathematic skills etc. So the center of speech is in the half which is also responsible for the right side of our body, and that's the reason why there are more right-handed people. P.S.: But as the right half is the creative one, the left handed people are said to be more creative, too...but don't be sad, right-handed people, we're better in maths...=)

i learnt this about a year ago but aparently in victorian times you had to wright with your right hand and if you wrote with your left hand you would get hit across the hand with a cane so for about a century it has been passed down generation from generation and nowa days people have a choice in the hand that they write with and i think that in the futre more people will become left handed :)

I school we learned about the "throwing madonna" theory, which states that most women naturally hold chilren close to their heart with their left arm to keep them quiet with and possibly hunted game with their right arm. See an interesting argument for it here: http://williamcalvin.com/bk2/bk2ch1.htm

For the explanation of handedness there are: - Sociological theories - Biological theories - Environmental theories - Genetic theories - parental and social pressure I found this interesting source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handedness Many different theories are presented in this article, some are no more supported, probably the reason is a combination of various factors.

I've read it's attributed to social conditioning.

The reason there are more right-handed people is because righties have a standardized brain while lefties brains are wired differently even from each other. For example, one left-handed person's language center is in the right side and others have it in the left side. Evolutionary speaking, having a standardized brain would be in humankind's best interest so that is why we've evolved to have more right-handed people. BTW I'm 100% left-handed and darn proud of it but I was top of my class in math and stink at art although I do have some pretty creative ideas sometimes.

Im amby... I do different things with both