Everyone knows whether they are left-handed, right-handed, or ambidextrous, but what about footedness? Are you left-footed, right-footed, or do you use both? If you are left-handed, does that also make you left-footed? Today, we are going to answer these questions.
Side Preference
Did you know that handedness isn’t the only side preference we show? For example, each of us has a preferred side for kissing or hugging. Try kissing or hugging. Which side do you prefer, which feels natural?
Which foot do you use to kick a ball? What side feels natural to you when you kick?
The majority of people are right-footed.
A recent study found that 10.6 percent of the world’s population is left-handed, while 89.4 percent is right-handed. So how many people are right-footed and left-footed?
Another study with more than twelve thousand participants found that the same was true for footedness as it is for handedness. Again, most favor the right foot.
The study found that 61.6 percent were right-footers, 8.2 percent were left-footers, and 30.2 percent were mixed-footers. The number of left-handers and left-footers are comparable.
It was found that there is a much higher number of mixed-footed people than mixed-handed or ambidextrous people. This result may be caused by the fact that we have to choose a hand for writing, but it is not as essential to have a preferred foot.
How to find out if someone is left-footed or right-footed.
Psychologists use a questionnaire called the Waterloo Footedness Questionnaire to determine whether someone is left-footed or right-footed
This questionnaire contains several questions.
For example:
If you were asked to kick a ball at a target, which foot would you use to kick the ball?
Which foot would you use to stomp on an insect?
If you used your toes to pick up marbles, which foot would you use to pick them up?
Try these at home. Think about other activities that you can carry out with your feet. Which foot do you use to do these tasks? If you use your left foot, you are most likely left-footed.
Left-footedness is related to left-handedness.
Footedness and handedness are related. However, not every left-hander is also a left-footer. For example, a study by Tran and Voracek in 2016 found that out of 1026 left-handers investigated, 59 percent were left-footed, 25 percent were mixed-footed and, 17 percent were right-footed. On the right side of things, they found that out of 11397 right-handers, 67 percent were right-footed, 30 percent were mixed-footed, and 3 percent were left-footed.
Conclusion
As the article states being left-handed does not mean you’ll be left-footed. You can be left-handed and right-footed or you can be right-handed and left-footed, which appears to be more common. What about you? Are you left-handed and left-footed? What about other things? Do you prefer your left side or right? I’m all left-sided, except for a few things that I’ve taught myself to do right-handed. Let us know in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you.