The fighting hypothesis as an evolutionary explanation for the handedness polymorphism in humans: where are we?

ABSTRACT

The ubiquitous and persistent handedness polymorphism in humans requires an evolutionary explanation. It has been suggested that left-handers have a frequency-dependent advantage during a fight, such that this advantage decreases when their frequency increases. Many independent studies are providing data from interactive sports (a specific class of fights), and are very supportive of the fighting hypothesis. The only intercultural study on traditional societies is also consistent with the fighting hypothesis, although it has not yet been replicated. The frequencies of left-handers in the few remaining violent societies are likely to be rapidly decreasing, due to Western colonization (long-range weapons, religion, and money market) dramatically affecting the frequency-dependent selection associated with handedness. Clearly, more data are urgently needed outside the Western influence.