Do right-handed people live longer than left-handed people?

A recent study shows that left-handed people have higher accident

rates and lower life expectancies than right-handed people. The study
involved researching death certificates in two Southern California counties.
The research expedition was lead by Diane Halpern and Stanley Coren about
a year ago.
The purpose of the study was to determine why fewer left-handed
people are among the elderly population. Only about ten percent of the
population is left-handed to begin with. Diane Halpern is a psychology
professor at California State University at San Bernardino and Stanley Coren
is a researcher at the University of British Columbia. The pair wanted to
compare the death and accident rates of left- and right- handed people. The
guiding observation was that there were more right-handed elderly people
alive than left-handers. They gathered a team of researchers for their study.
The research took place in Southern California. The researchers
studied the death certificates of 987 people in two Southern California
counties. The conducted research found that right-handed females tend to
live six years longer than left0handed females. Right-handed males live
eleven years longer than left-handed males. Left-handed people are also four
times more likely to die from injuries while driving than right-handers and
six times more likely to die from accidents of all kinds.
Halpern said, The results are striking in their magnitude. Halpern is
right-handed and was astounded by what the team had found. The study
should be interpreted with caution and not necessarily be used to determine
ones life span. Halpern notes, [The study] does not take into account the
fitness of the individual. The findings of the study are more general based
on the sample of death certificates researched.
The study has generated different reactions from people. Many lefthanded people are slightly frightened by the findings. Victoria Pitney, 19, of
Shrewsbury, MA comments, I feel as if Im going to be more cautious as a
result of this study. Who would have thought that being left-handed would
mean that I would be more prone to accident? The study is not meant to
frighten people, but rather to present a new idea to them.

Halpern relates her study to past research on the topic. Researchers

thought that because in the early years of the century, most people born lefthanded were forced to change to their right hands. So we thought we were
looking at old people who used to be left-handed but we werent. The truth
was that there simply werent many left-handers left alive, compared to
right-handers.
Many people were unaware of this area of research. Maria Nardella, a
right-handed female, responded, I never knew there was a suspected
relationship between life span and if you are left- or right- handed. I always
assume it just affected which hand you wrote with. This is definitely
interesting to learn about.
It is possible that this study will spark others to do further research.
The study gives insight into why the number of left-handed elderly people is
less than right-handed elderly people. This topic has been researched before
and will most likely be tacked in the future. The study was done with a small
sample of individuals. Maybe the results would be different elsewhere in the
world?