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Usenet Posted 23 years ago
English in UK

Animal handedness

Dear all,

I was wondering whether, in English, you can refer to lateral biases in behavior in animals as "handedness". For instance, some crow species prefer to manipulate objects with their right... hand. I guess that if you can say "manipulate" (manus = hand, in Latin) you could also say that these animals are right-handed.

An what about, say, fish that prefer to scan for predators with the left or right eye?

What I am looking for is a concise and neat term to refer to all such cases. Right now I say "lateral biases in behavior" or "right-side biases" when I want to indicate the direction of the bias.

Thanks for your thoughts,

-- Stefano
  

Top answer

[nq:1]I was wondering whether, in English, you can refer to lateral biases in behavior in animals as "handedness". For instance, ... [/nq] Chirality.

  • [nq:1]I was wondering whether, in English, you can refer to lateral biases in behavior in animals as "handedness".
  • For instance, ...
  • [/nq] Chirality.
  • Rod.
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2 Answers
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[nq:1]I was wondering whether, in English, you can refer to lateral biases in behavior in animals as "handedness". For instance, ... that if you can say "manipulate" (manus = hand, in Latin) you could also say that these animals are right-handed.[/nq]
Chirality.

Rod.
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[nq:2]I was wondering whether, in English, you can refer to ... Latin) you could also say that these animals are right-handed.[/nq]
[nq:1]Chirality. From the Greek for hand, I believe. It was the word that came to my mind. It does, however, ... I see no reason not to use handedness. It even appears in football, "..he always kicks the ball righthandedly." m.[/nq]

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