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Humans are the only primates with a lopsided hand preference

Ellsworth Toohey
May 21, 2026
∙ Paid

image: Svetliy/Shuterstock

Of all the monkeys and apes scientists have studied, no species shows a population-level hand preference. Individual primates often have strong biases, and chimpanzees, gorillas, and a few other species lean slightly to the right or left as groups, but not nearly as much as humans. Among humans, 90% are right-handed, and that h…

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