Jul 7, 2025 12:20 AM
(This post was last modified: Jul 7, 2025 12:27 AM by Magical Realist.)
Last night I was pondering the fact that people have a preference for their legs just as they do their hands. And just as most people are right-handed, most people are also right-legged. I confirmed this for myself imagining stomping on a bug. Sure enough I could feel my right leg responding.
So how is it that this trait of right-leggedness gets favored in our species? Most biologists seem to think it is all genetically coded into us and then reinforced thru playing sports as kids. But my theory is that there is a well-nigh universal circumstance in which being right-legged has a distinct advantage---while driving a car. All the pedals in all vehicles are designed to be pushed by the right leg. Perhaps this selective utility for this trait caused right-leggedness to become more common over time. Over the years since cars were invented, we'd have a whole population in which the sensitivity and mobility and reaction time of the right leg would improve more and more as people drove with it. The neural pathways as well as the side of the brain controlling the right leg's movements might become more fine-tuned over the years. Indeed, maybe even left-leggers were turned into right-leggers by this necessary long-term use of it. Do left-leggers tend to have more car accidents? Who knows? Just something to think about.
So how is it that this trait of right-leggedness gets favored in our species? Most biologists seem to think it is all genetically coded into us and then reinforced thru playing sports as kids. But my theory is that there is a well-nigh universal circumstance in which being right-legged has a distinct advantage---while driving a car. All the pedals in all vehicles are designed to be pushed by the right leg. Perhaps this selective utility for this trait caused right-leggedness to become more common over time. Over the years since cars were invented, we'd have a whole population in which the sensitivity and mobility and reaction time of the right leg would improve more and more as people drove with it. The neural pathways as well as the side of the brain controlling the right leg's movements might become more fine-tuned over the years. Indeed, maybe even left-leggers were turned into right-leggers by this necessary long-term use of it. Do left-leggers tend to have more car accidents? Who knows? Just something to think about.