Human handedness and scalp hair whorl direction: No evidence for a common cause

Abstract

A much wider variation in many physical and cognitive behaviours exists among left-handers than among right-handers, which is evidence for more than one aetiology of left-handedness. Despite these findings some researchers are still attempting to link left-handedness to a single cause, most recently genetic determination, by pairing left-handedness with a presumed genetically based characteristic. One of these characteristics is scalp hair whorl, which may be clockwise, counter-clockwise (purportedly associated with left-handedness), or a reversal whorl (rare). Results of recent research in this topic are reviewed, our own findings are presented, and we conclude that there is no logical reason for, nor evidence of, a common aetiology of both hair whorl direction and handedness.