DO LEFT-HANDERS DIE SOONER THAN RIGHT-HANDERS - COMMENTARY

Cross-sectional life span studies of handedness typically show decreasing percentages of left-handers in older age groups. In an article in Psychological Bulletin, S. Coren and D. E Halpern (1991) argued that this age trend reflects the shorter life span of left-handers than right-handers. They presented 2 studies of their own providing what they regard to be direct evidence that left-handers, on average, die sooner than right-handers. They also proposed a variety of reasons for what they called left-handers' ''decreased survival fitness.'' I discuss Coren and Halpern's reasons for rejecting a more conventional explanation of the life span data; the 2 studies that they offered in support of their argument; their analysis of other evidence they invoked to account for left-handers' putative decreased survival fitness; and, finally, new studies in which the longevity explanation was tested by more direct means than have been used thus far. I conclude that the case for the ''decreased survival fitness'' hypothesis cannot be sustained.