About 10.6% of people are left-handed (Papadatou-Pastou and co-workers, 2020). Left-handers often face challenges in everyday life that right-handers do not, such as when using tools or machines that were designed with a right-handed user in mind. Moreover, in some cultures, people hold negative stereotypes against left-handers. Therefore, it has been argued that left-handers are a minority that faces discrimination. Similar to the terms “racism” or “sexism”, the term “handism” can be used to describe discrimination against left-handed people. One problem with the psychological research on handism is that it so far has been difficult to quantify how left-handers subjectively perceive whether they face discrimination.
A new study on how perceived handism discrimination can be measured
To enable better research on handism, a newly-published study focused on developing a psychological questionnaire to measure subjectively perceived handism in a scientific way (Campo Redondo and co-workers, 2025). The research team, led by Maria Campo Redondo of United Arab Emirates University, developed the so-called Perceived Handism Discrimination Scale (PHDS)—a questionnaire that allows researchers to measure how a left-handed person subjectively perceives being discriminated against because of their left-handedness. It consists of 10 items such as “Left-handedness is sometimes associated with superstitions in my culture” or “I often experience negative comments about being left-handed.”
Do left-handers feel discriminated against?
The research team collected data from two groups of 200 left-handed volunteers each using the PHDS; 400 left-handers were tested overall. The left-handed volunteers had to answer each of the questions on a scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Thus, a higher value reflects stronger subjectively perceived handism. In the first group, the lowest average answer was 2.5, and the highest was 5.46 out of 7. In the second group, the lowest average answer was 3, and the highest was 5.76 out of 7. Thus, the 400 left-handers tested in the study experienced a medium average level of perceived discrimination for being left-handed.
Two different forms of handism
Statistical analyses using factor analyses show that there are two main forms of handism:
- Cultural experiences. In some cultures, there are broader societal norms that discriminate against left-handers. This includes, for example, teachers in school retraining left-handed children to use the right hand for writing.
- Individual experiences. This includes direct discrimination on a personal level; for example, mean jokes about left-handedness by family members or co-workers.