{"title":"左撇子的流行及其在对抗性运动中的作用:超越单纯的计数,走向对排名数据进行更深入的分布分析。","authors":"Tim Simon, Florian Loffing, Elisa Frasnelli","doi":"10.1098/rsos.250303","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Approximately 10% of the general population is left-handed, yet a disproportionately higher percentage of left-handers is observed among athletes in various sports, including combat sports and interactive ball games. This overrepresentation is generally considered evidence of a performance advantage. However, previous studies have primarily focused on simple calculations of left-hander proportions within larger sport populations, without examining their distribution across different performance levels. Our study advances the research by conducting more in-depth distributional analyses of left-hander frequencies across various performance tiers in various sports, including fencing (épée, foil, sabre) and interactive ball games (table tennis, tennis, badminton). Our findings for fencing and table tennis reveal an average overrepresentation of left-handers across performance levels, with notably higher proportions at upper echelons. This strengthens the idea of a performance advantage for left-handedness in certain antagonistic sports beyond the evidence inferred from the traditional performance-independent analysis of overrepresentation. Left-handers' relative athletic success is typically attributed to their opponents' unfamiliarity with left-handed action patterns due to the relative rarity of left-handers in the general population (negative frequency-dependent advantage hypothesis). However, we also raise the question of whether left-handers' edge may partially stem from other, frequency-independent factors (innate superiority hypothesis).</p>","PeriodicalId":21525,"journal":{"name":"Royal Society Open Science","volume":"12 9","pages":"250303"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12457039/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Prevalence of left-handers and their role in antagonistic sports: beyond mere counts towards a more in-depth distributional analysis of ranking data.\",\"authors\":\"Tim Simon, Florian Loffing, Elisa Frasnelli\",\"doi\":\"10.1098/rsos.250303\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"<p><p>Approximately 10% of the general population is left-handed, yet a disproportionately higher percentage of left-handers is observed among athletes in various sports, including combat sports and interactive ball games. This overrepresentation is generally considered evidence of a performance advantage. However, previous studies have primarily focused on simple calculations of left-hander proportions within larger sport populations, without examining their distribution across different performance levels. Our study advances the research by conducting more in-depth distributional analyses of left-hander frequencies across various performance tiers in various sports, including fencing (épée, foil, sabre) and interactive ball games (table tennis, tennis, badminton). Our findings for fencing and table tennis reveal an average overrepresentation of left-handers across performance levels, with notably higher proportions at upper echelons. This strengthens the idea of a performance advantage for left-handedness in certain antagonistic sports beyond the evidence inferred from the traditional performance-independent analysis of overrepresentation. Left-handers' relative athletic success is typically attributed to their opponents' unfamiliarity with left-handed action patterns due to the relative rarity of left-handers in the general population (negative frequency-dependent advantage hypothesis). However, we also raise the question of whether left-handers' edge may partially stem from other, frequency-independent factors (innate superiority hypothesis).</p>\",\"PeriodicalId\":21525,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Royal Society Open Science\",\"volume\":\"12 9\",\"pages\":\"250303\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":2.9000,\"publicationDate\":\"2025-09-24\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12457039/pdf/\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Royal Society Open Science\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"103\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.250303\",\"RegionNum\":3,\"RegionCategory\":\"综合性期刊\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"2025/9/1 0:00:00\",\"PubModel\":\"eCollection\",\"JCR\":\"Q1\",\"JCRName\":\"MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Royal Society Open Science","FirstCategoryId":"103","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.250303","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/9/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
Prevalence of left-handers and their role in antagonistic sports: beyond mere counts towards a more in-depth distributional analysis of ranking data.
Approximately 10% of the general population is left-handed, yet a disproportionately higher percentage of left-handers is observed among athletes in various sports, including combat sports and interactive ball games. This overrepresentation is generally considered evidence of a performance advantage. However, previous studies have primarily focused on simple calculations of left-hander proportions within larger sport populations, without examining their distribution across different performance levels. Our study advances the research by conducting more in-depth distributional analyses of left-hander frequencies across various performance tiers in various sports, including fencing (épée, foil, sabre) and interactive ball games (table tennis, tennis, badminton). Our findings for fencing and table tennis reveal an average overrepresentation of left-handers across performance levels, with notably higher proportions at upper echelons. This strengthens the idea of a performance advantage for left-handedness in certain antagonistic sports beyond the evidence inferred from the traditional performance-independent analysis of overrepresentation. Left-handers' relative athletic success is typically attributed to their opponents' unfamiliarity with left-handed action patterns due to the relative rarity of left-handers in the general population (negative frequency-dependent advantage hypothesis). However, we also raise the question of whether left-handers' edge may partially stem from other, frequency-independent factors (innate superiority hypothesis).
期刊介绍:
Royal Society Open Science is a new open journal publishing high-quality original research across the entire range of science on the basis of objective peer-review.
The journal covers the entire range of science and mathematics and will allow the Society to publish all the high-quality work it receives without the usual restrictions on scope, length or impact.