Ok So here is the thing. Only one out ten people is left handed right but comparing them to all the people addicted to smoking, drinking, gambling, drug addiction, coffee, tea, work, exercise, watching TV, playing games and so on, that’s pretty much a very large portion of the population. Just see the people queuing up every week day morning for their hit of caffeine to see what I mean. 

But evolution over the hundreds of thousands of years is meant to weed out the poor genes, the useless and the weak, then why are there more people who have addictive type personalities no matter how mild as compared to people who are left handed?

To me it initially appeared to be an evolutionary stuff up like ginger kids, the blind spots we have in our eyes or losing the will and ability to breed as we get older. But I thought about all of these and the conundrum above and realised something useful from an evolutionary term for all of them.

First, the blind spot in the eye, while it seems bad, is nothing compared to how advanced our eyes are as compared to other mammals around us. For starters we can see a very very large range of colours and have autofocus and a large amount of peripheral vision. That little blind spot can easily be avoided with the second eye anyway so it isn’t that big a weakness.

Secondly, we may lose the ability to procreate as we get older, especially women, however this has shown to possibly be the reason for a woman’s ability to live a longer time. Procreation and pregnancy are energy intensive activities and as a human gets older, the overall energy capacity is decreasing with age. So the body evolved to allow the energy to keep the vital organs going including the brain, allowing the female as she aged to become a wise-woman of the tribe.

Thirdly, red heads, giggles aside are actually a product of an environment where a lack of sun means that lighter skin pigmentation prevents rickets in colder latitudes by encouraging higher levels of Vitamin D production. Also, redheads tend to be more exotic looking hence in climates such as Europe’s where being ginger is not a negative then natural selection would allow for their population to grow. In North Africa however this does not happen as the genetic disadvantages outweigh the positives.

So all the original ideas I thought to be Evolutionary stuff ups don’t look so bad and actually end up making some sense.

So why would there be more people in the world with addictive personalities than left hands. Firstly, those with addictive personalities are actually people usually with some form of anxiousness and addiction. Hence this can be positively translated to being risk averse as well as focused. Engineers and scientists come to mind as well as great athletes. So suddenly you can see those people who are really good at what they do, can muster that kind of energy because they are actually addicted to it. Obviously addiction can also be bad, but once addiction is used in a productive way like for great human endeavours we tend to actually encourage it. Hmm....

So left-handedness is probably the most difficult to explain. I believe this is due to the assumption that all traits are genetic and hence must be passed on as they become advantageous. But even when both parents are left handed, the chance of their child becoming left handed is around 25%. Not very high is it? It almost draws me to the conclusion that left handedness is not genetic. One theory states that there is strong evidence that prenatal testosterone contributes to brain organisation. The high levels of prenatal testosterone results in a higher incidence of left-handedness. This could be why there are more left-handed males than females and also the increased incidence of left-handedness in male twins. So being a lefty is not actually genetic, making it harder to pass on. Though in sport and combat, it is actually an advantage because it is so rarer.