Need a Favor? Talk To My Right Ear

Hugh Pickens writes "The Telegraph reports that scientists have found that if you want to get someone to do something, ask them in their right ear. Known as the 'right ear advantage,' scientists believe it is because information received through the right ear is processed by the left hand side of the brain which is more logical and better at deciphering verbal information than the right side of the brain. 'Talk into the right ear you send your words into a slightly more amenable part of the brain,' say researchers. The team, led by Dr. Luca Tommasi and Daniele Marzoli from the University of Chieti in central Italy, observed the behavior of hundreds of people in three nightclubs across the city where they intentionally addressed 176 people in either their right or their left ear when asking for a cigarette. They obtained significantly more cigarettes when they made their request in a person's right ear compared with their left. 'These results seem to be consistent with the hypothesized specialization of right and left hemispheres,' say researchers. 'We can also see this tendency when people use the phone, most will naturally hold it to their right ear.'"

Comments

I hold my phone to my right ear

[KenMcM]

...and I thought it was because I was right-handed!

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you do hold your phone to your right ear because you're right handed. I hold mine to my left because I'm a lefty.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[NoobixCube]

I'm obviously a whack job then. I hold my phone to my left ear because I'm right handed. Doesn't take all that much coordination to hold a phone up, so it's the lesser of two tasks. Job interviews over the phone for example require me to take notes (I can't write legibly with my left hand... or my right if you ask anyone else, but it's all relative...), and it's really more trouble than it's worth to reach across my keyboard and use my mouse with my left hand.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[Scott Kevill]

I hold my phone to my left ear with my left hand, despite being right-handed, and probably always have. This is no surprise as it leaves my right hand free to navigate the mouse or type on the keyboard. Not rocket science.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[garphik]

Fine if you want to say your logical side is not left, but its mostly because your right side says so ... ;)

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't have a phone, you insensitive clod

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[stephanruby]

I'm obviously a whack job then. I hold my phone to my left ear because I'm right handed.

Clearly, everybody who disagreed with you thought you were a 'whack job'. That would have certainly explained the need for your right hand.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[houghi]

I am right handed and sometimes hold my phone to my left ear, so my right hand can be occupied in another way. Wait, that sounds gross. Uh, I was, uh, I was talking about writing things down. HONESTLY!

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[Demena]

I'm the same. My phone ear is my left ear but I am right handed.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[Anonymous Coward]

I just use whichever ear isn't being chewed off by the missus.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[Fluffeh]

I totally agree, I am right handed and always use my left hand for my phone as I prefer to have my right hand free to do all the other things like driving, smoking and drinking (Not all at the same time of course).

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[Anonymous Coward]

huh?

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[ArsenneLupin]

I totally agree, I am right handed and always use my left hand for my phone as I prefer to have my right hand free to do all the other things like driving, smoking and drinking

Yeah right: driving, smoking and drinking.

Other actions are left as an exercise to the reader... and that actually explains why most people keep the phone in their right hand: that's the hand they use for eating, so they'd rather keep it clean.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[ArsenneLupin]

This is no surprise as it leaves my right hand free to navigate the mouse or type on the keyboard.

... or the joystick...

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[BrokenHalo]

I hold the phone to my left ear simply because I actually hear better through it. The industrial deafness thing bit me harder on the right ear for some reason...

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[Anonymous Coward]

That is why we have this wonderful act known as "washing your hands". You too can do this right in your very own home with only some water and soap.

Magical.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[L4t3r4lu5]

... or the joy stick.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[hairyfeet]

Same here, but for some reason when playing baseball I always batted lefty even though I am right handed. Batting right handed never "felt right" to me.

Of course batting left handed I seemed to nail the pitcher in the nuts quite often and while he was in a fetal position holding his nuts it was trivial to get to first base, but I'm sure that was just a coincidence.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[meyekul]

My girlfriend is right handed but uses a mouse almost exclusively left landed. If she were a man I'd make a joke about 'one-handed-computing' but I don't think that quite explains it.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[PopeRatzo]

A good wife doesn't talk to your right ear when she wants a favor, but your middle leg.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[Golddess]

If she were a man I'd make a joke about 'one-handed-computing'

What, women don't do that sort of thing where you come from?

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[mdwh2]

Same here - whether there is any correlation between the results and handedness, is one of the most obvious questions to ask, but the media (and perhaps the study) seems to ignore this issue.

"Talk to my right ear" might be bad advice, if you know the person you are talking to is left handed.

And whilst it's possible there's a correlation between left handed and "left eared", it's still not clear that explains phone usage - if I pick up a phone with my right hand to my right ear, it feels wrong, but that's nothing to do with my ear, it's because I'm using my right hand.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[mdwh2]

and it's really more trouble than it's worth to reach across my keyboard and use my mouse with my left hand.

I get round that by being left handed (including for phone), but being right handed for using a mouse.

Even better, it means when I play keyboard-and-mouse FPS games, I am playing ambidextrously :)

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[The Redster!]

In either case, it helps if you blow!

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[DJRumpy]

Either I missed it or the article didn't specify, but it seems like hearing would be processed in a central part of the brain (either left or right), and not each ear individually handled by one side of the brain and vice versa. This doesn't make much sense to me.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[2names]

Well, I'm calling BS on this whole idea. I've been talking into my wife's right ear every night for 16 years (she sleeps to my left) and it almost NEVER WORKS. Tag this junkscience please.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[Anonymous Coward]

I am right handed and sometimes hold my phone to my left ear, so my right hand can be occupied in another way. Wait, that sounds gross. Uh, I was, uh, I was talking about writing things down. HONESTLY!

It's a good thing that keyboards don't have backspace keys, because otherwise fake-stream-of-consciousness humor would read as really forced and unfunny in a /. post.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[MetalPhalanx]

It might also have to do with your master eye. Just as you have a master hand, you actually focus more out of one eye, with the other providing mostly triangulation data (and of course extending your FOV, etc.). For MOST people, your master eye is the same as your master hand. There are some people who have opposites. There is a fairly simple test to determine which eye is your master, if you are curious google will explain how.

I'm personally right handed with a left master eye. When I'm doing anything that requires accuracy (such as baseball, archery/shooting, hockey, etc) I have to do it left handed or my accuracy suffers. In fact, before I even found this out certain things just felt "right" to do left handed.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[clone53421]

I think you're over-specializing it. I'd tend to agree that it's probably because most people are right-handed, but I doubt it's merely because handing a cig is easier when the recipient is on your right side. I'm guessing that it's a whole lot more basic to human personality than that.

I can't claim to have hard evidence, obviously, but I'd suspect that right-handers are more comfortable with a person to their right... it's their dominant, stronger side. Even if it's not a conscious thought, they'll unconsciously sense that they have more control over that situation, which puts them more at ease. I can also see how this effect could be especially noticeable when the person approaching you is a stranger.

It's no different from the aversion to being approached from behind, it's just a different manifestation of it – relating to physical strength rather than sight. We're simply uncomfortable when we're unconsciously aware of our own weakness or vulnerability.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[drinkypoo]

I hold the phone to my left ear, and I'm right-handed. I do consider myself to be creative, though; maybe I'm just trying to keep my phone conversations free-form.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[hmar]

No, women kill you for joking about it.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[bootz15]

"We can also see this tendency when people use the phone, most will naturally hold it to their right ear."
...me too!

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[afabbro]

I hold the phone to my left ear, and I'm right-handed.

Perhaps you just want to be prepared in case you have to write something down.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[Eric52902]

Wow, you need to turn the angry feminist dial down a few notches. Its called a sense of humor, get one.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[clone53421]

Me too – right handed, hold the phone to my left ear.

Possibly this is because, as you mentioned, it leaves my right hand free to do other things – although by holding the phone with my shoulder I'd be able to use that hand for other things anyway, within some reason.

I'm also able to do a lot of other things with my left hand, though... I right with my right hand, but I've always used knives and scissors with my left. If I practiced a lot with my left hand, I'm sure I'd be able to learn to right with it also... I can make it legible as it is, but it's very slow and my hand starts aching pretty quickly.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[clone53421]

gah, I'm going senile. write. right.

I'm never use too have this sort of problems... :-S

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[Anonymous Coward]

I know for a fact that she sleeps on her stomach.

-Gov. Mark Sanford.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[Chabo]

Yep -- I was a summer camp archery instructor, and I enjoy shooting, and I know several people who have their dominant eye on the opposite side as their dominant hand. I'm right-handed and right-eye-dominant, but back when I played paintball I taught myself to shoot left-handed, because in doing so you expose yourself to opponents less when shooting from the left side of a bunker.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[cayenne8]

But it does seem to be good advice, to always keep your woman/wife/girlfriend/girl you want to lay...always to your left side, so that she only hears you on the right side, you only get her talk into your left. At least..if you're walking side by side, that is.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[thesandtiger]

Most people aren't 100% one-hand-dominant.

For example, in my case, I best write legibly and easily only with my left hand, can draw well with either hand, most accurately throw a ball with my right, throw a stronger punch with my left, switch-hit, etc. I'm essentially ambidextrous (as are many other people who think they're only left or right handed). Oh, and I hold my phone to my left ear - I tend to space out on what people are saying if I have it held to my right ear.

In one of our studies, we have participants answer 10 questions about which hand they use to do certain tasks - left, right or either. Approximately 5% of our participants answer 8+ questions as being ONLY left or right handed, 5% answer 8+ questions with left AND right handedness, and everyone else is split pretty evenly. If we only talk about writing, then 80% say only right hand, 15% or so lefties, and 5% ambidextrous.

So, just because a majority of people are (when it comes to writing) right-handed, that doesn't necessarily extend to other domains.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[PopeRatzo]

Speaking for all women around the world - piss off. Someone mod this sexist asshole down into oblivion, please.

Honey, is that you? You know I was kidding, right?

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[NoobixCube]

I know what you mean. I'm a proud grammar nazi, but I've recently started messing up their/there (but not they're, must be the apostrophe). My keyboard sometimes sticks on o, so it looks like I mess up to/too too :P.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[Anonymous Coward]

It might also have to do with your master eye.

Oh, you mean like this?

FTA:

Eye dominance has been shown to have no effect on sporting performance, and articles to the contrary are based on 'urban myth'.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[Anonymous Coward]

In one of our studies, we have participants answer 10 questions about which hand they use to do certain tasks - left, right or either. Approximately 5% of our participants answer 8+ questions as being ONLY left or right handed, 5% answer 8+ questions with left AND right handedness, and everyone else is split pretty evenly.

Yes but did you ask hundreds (at least 176) of people in nightclubs across the city (at least 3)?!? If not, your sample size isn't even close to being large enough.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[jonadab]

I think it partly depends on how you use it.

Growing up, I was strongly right-handed, to the extent that my left arm barely got used for anything at all, because it had no coordination, dexterity, or strength. I'd use my left hand to hold something in place while working on it with my right (e.g., to hold the paper still on the desk while writing with the right hand), and that was about it.

I'm more balanced now, perhaps partly because I'm just a lot more physically coordinated in general (which really started to come together when I was in my twenties; yeah, I know that's several years later than average) but, I am convinced, also partly because of a series of increasingly challenging ways in which I exercised it.

When I first started doing puppetry, for instance, I only used my right hand, but then when I started needing to use arm rods, I switched the puppet to my left hand so that I could use it for the diction (the easier task at that point; this was pretty simple diction, open once per syllable type of stuff, and nothing fast) and work the rods with the right; later, when I was fairly experienced with the rods, I had to do a solo with a lot of unusually challenging diction (biting off words, near-closes, stretched consonants, that sort of thing), so I switched back to my right for the diction and learned to work the arm rods with the left hand. Eventually, I reached the point where I could do either thing with either hand.

Typing is another activity that exercised my left-hand coordination considerably.

My right hand is still better, but not by nearly as wide a margin.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[dov_0]

I hold the phone to the left ear because I'm deaf in the right ear, but it is usually only after I realise that I can't figure out what people are saying that I switch from right to left.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[hairyfeet]

You may be right, as I remember the eye doc telling me a few years back that I had better than 20/20 out of the left (IIRC he said either 20/30 or 20/40) and normal 20/20 out of the right.

I know if i am doing some target shooting with either an iron sight or a scope I have to use the left or I won't be hitting anywhere close to the target. I have watched my dad and 2 uncles shoot targets in the past and noticed that both my dad and one of two uncles did the same, so maybe it is a family thing. So I bat left, play golf right(seem to track better that way), play bass right, and shoot left. So maybe you are right, or maybe I am just weird ;-)

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[MetalPhalanx]

I can't believe I'm bothering to respond to a coward, but this is what happens because of boredom and is a good way to kill 15 minutes...

Did you just seriously link to some random article on about.com? How about we examine the credentials of your author?

After university, Helen worked as a printmaking technician, and print and drawing tutor. She then joined the army as a cartographic assistant and illustrator, learning desktop publishing in 'the deep end' of a busy graphics office. Helen designed and taught a community college Life Drawing course, and recently taught drawing and painting to a community group. She is the author of The Everything Guide to Drawing (Adams Media).

Sounds really professional, and like she knows EXACTLY what she's talking about. After all, she finished university! Gee, I should random articles found throughout the internet as blind truth more often! Of course, I personally can't be bothered to do in depth research on such a trivial thing anyways. At least not in response to some random on the internet.

I'll see your poorly researched link and raise you some personal anecdotal evidence: in my many many many hours of shooting pellet guns when I was younger, I tried shooting from any stance you can imagine and from either hand. I consistently hit the target slightly (the amount varies depending on the distance) to the side of where I was actually trying to aim with my non-dominant eye. My grouping was generally tight enough to make me think it's more than chance. When more than 75% of my shots stopped hitting the bulls eye area and instead focused roughly an inch to the side, I considered it as having an effect. Of course, I could adjust my aim and still hit the bulls eye, but the point still stands that I wasn't hitting what I was aiming at, I was just correcting for the skew.

Couldn't tell you with other sports though. I never really tried it with archery, as the bow I made was distinctly left handed. Also, I mostly threw knives right handed but I don't think the level of accuracy required was high enough for me to really make a judgement. My stint trying to bat right-handed in baseball didn't work out so well, as I had been batting left long enough that it felt too strange to switch. That about covers the sports and activities I participated in enough where any sort of aiming might be important/fine-grained enough to notice.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[realperseus]

I work for a health insurance company. We have about 1000 employees. Most folks have their phone on the Left side of their cube.

During transfers and moves, I do ask these users where they would like their phone in their new work area. Over 80% want their phone on the left side of their cube.

These are observations seen over 6 years at the job.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[Mozk]

I think it partly depends on how you use it.

No, it's just the size, no matter what you pretend to believe.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[JimFive]

You may be right, as I remember the eye doc telling me a few years back that I had better than 20/20 out of the left (IIRC he said either 20/30 or 20/40) and normal 20/20 out of the right.

20/30 or 20/40 are worse than 20/20, not better. /pedant
--
JimFive

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[vVF4N]

I am left-handed and I hold my phone to my right ear so my left hand is free to take notes. Someone should start a poll

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[Doggabone]

In either case, it helps if you blow!

Blowing sucks. Sucking is better.

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[Phoghat]

I'm a pharmacist and right handed. I put the phone to my left ear because I have to write with my right hand, doctor's orders, patients calling for refills, etc. I'm pretty sure I'm a left brained person (if such a thing exists).

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[Phoghat]

I have a left master eye also. I always wonder about this being right handed and never really being physically coordinated. When I went to grade school I think the good nuns forced me to use my right hand even though I may have been born left handed (remember the left hand being sinister=evil)

Re:I hold my phone to my right ear

[hairyfeet]

Well I got my numbers backwards, it ain't like I'm an eye doc. I was just told that I probably favor the left because it had better than 20/20 while the right was normal and that I would either have to just deal or try to strengthen the right. I told him "If it ain't broke don't fix it. Just leave me be." I've done figured out which times I need to favor the left and don't want to have to go through relearning everything just because some doc wants me to be balanced.

Correlation != Causality

[Meshach]

Seems like the classic example. More people are right handed then left handed, left handed people are more assertive.. who knows.

Re:Correlation != Causality

[RuBLed]

left handed people are more assertive..

Left handed people like me are not assertive!! Take that back or else...

Re:Correlation != Causality

[Jurily]

Seems like the classic example.

Classic in what way? I don't hear requests for cigarettes or change with either ear.

Re:Correlation != Causality

[RicardoFjr]

This was taught to me by my SGT Major in the Army, He said if you take to a soldier in the right ear as your going down the squad line the following person sees this and remembers the comment because it becomes repiticious and familiar.

Re:Correlation != Causality

[Jurily]

if you take to a soldier in the right ear as your going down the squad line

The following person not only remembers it, he's scarred for life.

Re:Correlation != Causality

[Anonymous Coward]

Fortunately, the title ("Need a Favor? Talk To My Right Ear") only requires correlation to work.

Re:Correlation != Causality

[Beryllium Sphere(tm)]

http://xkcd.com/552/

Re:Correlation != Causality

[Anonymous Coward]

Despite being right-handed, I use my left ear. Whether it is holding my candybar-shaped phone to my left ear, or using a headset on my left ear, I use my left ear.

Re:Correlation != Causality

[TapeCutter]

Same here, unless they offer to buy a smoke off me. This leads me to think that pissing in someones pocket will elicit more cooperation than talking to either ear.

Re:Correlation != Causality

[Anonymous Coward]

mod parent up. Most lefties I know (myself included) are not very assertive. The intelligence thing is suspect too.

Then again, I'll take all the free presumed-to-be-enhanced attributes I can get.

Re:Correlation != Causality

[adamjcoon]

My question is, how many of the people that offered the cigarette were drunk? And how many were relatively unattractive people being questioned by a beatiful woman or hunky man? Taking it one step further, I wouldn't be afraid to bet that if I hired some female models to ask men for a favor from their left ear, and some gangly she-males to ask the same men from their right ear, I would find some results that conflict with this study. Nice try though! Oh yea, and I am a fellow right-hander, and I naturally hold the phone to my left ear...

hoax?

[Anonymous Coward]

this sounds like b.s.

also, most people are right handed, that is why they hold a phone to their right ear.

I see a problem in the analysis

[Anonymous Coward]

What if you are a lefty? I use my left ear on for the phone.

I'm surprised

[soundhack]

this isn't common knowledge by now, I noticed this years ago when I started using cell phones (especially the old analog ones). With a lot of noise, I could hear the person on the other end better if I held the cell phone next to my right ear.

I wonder if handedness has any influence at all?

Re:I'm surprised

[calzones]

Your handedness influences which hand you use for the phone. In this way, you have trained your right ear to pay better attention to crappy noise:signal conversations. Hence your right ear is now better at hearing the spoken word through noise.

Re:I'm surprised

[Banzai042]

I think it is supposed to come from which side of the brain the ear is primarily connected to, with the right ear being connected to the "logical" side of the brain, while the left ear is connected to the "Creative" side of the brain, so the right ear is better for conversational audio, and the left ear is better for musical type audio.

Re:I'm surprised

[johnlcallaway]

My understanding is that most people have a dominant eye, so why not a dominant ear. I discovered many years ago that when I tuned a guitar, I tended to turn my head to the right and 'listen' with my left ear. I determined it was because I could hear the tones better with my left ear for whatever reason.

My wife just asked why I was typing so fast and furious, so I explained the above comment to her. She said that she too hears better from her right ear than her left hear.

So maybe people just naturally hear better with one ear than the other and are more willing to be helpful to strangers when they understand them better. Granted, this is anecdotal evidence, but that is how theories usually start. I'll leave it to someone with large sums of grant money to prove or disprove it.

Re:I'm surprised

[Demena]

Umm... Brocca's area is ONLY on one side of the brain.

Re:I'm surprised

[fbjon]

I find it interesting, then, that orchestras are arranged with the violin sections on the left and lower parts on the right looking from the audience.

Re:I'm surprised

[UncleTogie]

Works for me.

No, really. I'm mostly deaf, and find I have a much easier time "translating" what I hear if I have the phone to my right ear, rather than the left. According to the audiologists, the loss is roughly equal in both ears, so it's not a matter of it being easier to hear.

Re:I'm surprised

[Reziac]

I'm a little volume-deaf, which screws up hearing speech (I hear the words but they don't mean anything). I definitely hear better on the phone with my LEFT ear, which seems to have a different *range* of deafness than my right. My right is more sensitive to other sounds but hears *speech* less-clearly, at least on the phone.

[scratching head] Maybe I'm just put together backwards?? damned Chinese directions...

Re:I'm surprised

[Asclepius99]

Ear buds have taught me that my ears aren't shaped exactly the same. And I many (most?) people have arms that are different lengths. So it might be possible that differences in ear shape lead to different qualities of earing.

Re:I'm surprised

[BrokenHalo]

I find it interesting, then, that orchestras are arranged with the violin sections on the left...

That's simply because the violin is played on the left shoulder, thus projectting most of the sound towards the instrumentalist's front and right.

Re:I'm surprised

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember that, years ago, we used to all say that American males were more deaf in their left ears from driving around with the windows open. Italians would be in the same situation. If this were true, then a test in the UK should find more bias in the opposite direction due to driving right-hand-drive cars.

Re:I'm surprised

[maxwell demon]

And I many (most?) people have arms that are different lengths.

Indeed. For example, a rifle tends to be longer than a pistol. :-)
SCNR

Re:I'm surprised

[fbjon]

Damn, I completely forgot about that, and I play the violin...

Cerebral Cortex.

[Korey Kaczor]

While this does sound interesting, wouldn't the cerebral cortex allow both sides of the brain to share the incoming data of a request, and then make a logical decision?

Re:Cerebral Cortex.

[Korey Kaczor]

Wait, wait, nonono.I meant the corpus callosum. Not cerebral cortex. Argh, no edit feature for slashdot!

Re:Cerebral Cortex.

[Anonymous Coward]

I did that once.

Unconvinced

[dexmachina]

Correct the data for laterality (right hand preference in majority of the population), then maybe the results will be interesting. Even then, the explanation is bull. Unlike sight, the auditory system doesn't work cross-hemispherically. Sound from the right side is carried by the auditory nerve into the right portion of the temporal lobe.

Re:Unconvinced

[Panzor]

>Unlike sight, the auditory system doesn't work cross-hemispherically.

This article just got owned. No more comments needed.

Re:Unconvinced

[cybin]

precisely my first thought when i read this post -- the auditory system works in "fields" much like the visual system - it's contralateral and ipsilateral.

who knows why the right ear thing gave them those results... seems rather shallow. would the same be true if we asked participants to close their left eye and look at a beer? how many of those beers would get consumed? :)

incidentally, the cigarette thing throws a whole other problem into the equation -- addiction and alcohol. if you ask someone at 7pm for a smoke, are they more or less likely to give one to you than at 1am when they've had 4+ drinks?

guess i'll have to read the study! :)

-m

Re:Unconvinced

[dexmachina]

I don't know about the scientists in question, but I am a science major with classes in psych and neuroscience. Yes, I was simplifying. One of the other repliers to my original post explains it in a bit more detail. I make no claim to be smarter or more learned than anyone. In fact, without seeing the actual paper it's hard to tell if the contralateral explanation is even given by the actual authors- it's in the article intro after the vague "Scientists say..." leader, so it could just be BS on the part of the journalist.

Ironic that in a post railing against jumping to conclusions, you know nothing about me and yet in two seconds flat come to the conclusion that I couldn't possibly know what I'm talking about.

Re:Unconvinced

[Cassius Corodes]

I think if editors actually linked to the journal paper in question rather than a second hand source a lot of this nonsense could be avoided.

Re:Unconvinced

[Virtual_Raider]

Correct the data for laterality (right hand preference in majority of the population), then maybe the results will be interesting. Even then, the explanation is bull. Unlike sight, the auditory system doesn't work cross-hemispherically. Sound from the right side is carried by the auditory nerve into the right portion of the temporal lobe.

What if it doesn't have to do with which ear is connected to what side of the brain but it is instead a visual cue (which is brain-sided) being picked up upon? If I stando to your right to talk to you, I might be having a psychological impact rather than a mechanical one.

What irritates me about so many of these types of research is that they seem to assume as a given that only because they concentrate in one part of a system this narrow focus automagically translates into isolation of the subject. How can you account for any other influences? Even if the subject is blind-folded, if the examiner is close enough the subject could still perceive the body heat. What if they wear ear phones with the balance tilted to the right or left, how do you account for the psychological factor of hearing on your preferred side over a purely mechanical explanation?

I think the phenomenon is interesting and worth studying, but the conclusion seems pretty suspect IMHO.

Re:Unconvinced

[Anonymous Coward]

That is incorrect. The ascending fibers from the cochlear nuclei have decussating and non-decussating fiber bundles. The 'auditory nerve [sic]' is a far more complicated circuit than your post suggests.

Re:Unconvinced

[Anonymous Coward]

Except for the fact that the auditory system most certainly works bilaterally. The parent is wrong -- auditory fibers decussate while still in the brainstem before projecting to the medial geniculate.

Re:Unconvinced

[Repossessed]

Does it matter?

The real point here is that if I stand on someone's right side they're more likely to do what I tell them.

This gets me one step closer to that volcano lair filled with minions.

Re:Unconvinced

[Jedi Alec]

Does it matter?

The real point here is that if I stand on someone's right side they're more likely to do what I tell them.

This gets me one step closer to that volcano lair filled with minions.

Who cares about your volcano? Think on what this will mean for callcenters... :-)

Hey there sonny, why you got your headset on your left ear? Not feeling very cooperative today are we?

And any company where the receptionists have their headsets in their left ear automatically gets on the "never want to work there" list. Note to self: check reception on way out.

Re:Unconvinced

[xouumalperxe]

Yes, I'm sure the scientists who conducted never bothered to look up how audio is introduced to the brain. I'm sure you're much smarter and better learned on the subject matter compared with them, just like every other /. genius who manages in two seconds flat to come up with exactly why a study is flawed despite it being outside of their area of expertise.

And this, children, is how you make an ad hominem attack.

Re:Unconvinced

[fisuk]

Except for the fact that the auditory system most certainly works bilaterally. The parent is wrong -- auditory fibers decussate while still in the brainstem before projecting to the medial geniculate.

Indeed. The cochlear nucleus is the only part that receives input from the ipsilateral ear. After that, auditory input comes from both ears (via superior olive -> inferior colliculus -> medial geniculate -> auditory cortex).

Re:Unconvinced

[L4t3r4lu5]

How are olives superiour to colliflower? And don't you go mentioning my genicutals... Pervert.

In short, WTF?

Re:Unconvinced

[TheLink]

Yeah I think my own bullshit is better:

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1280919&cid=28464547

Basically right handed people are more comfortable with strangers approaching them from their stronger (and tougher) side, and thus more likely to give them stuff.

I suggest that the decision to give a cigarette to a stranger has little to do with logic and more to do with emotions and gut feel. Once you understand what they want, whether you give it to them is based on your emotions and gut feel. If it's a decision that requires serious logic you'd be asking the stranger a lot more questions and that's not worth a single cig.

That said, I'd be fine if a pretty girl approaches me from my left (I have to say that the ladies tend to punch me more than the guys though - playfully I hope :) ).

Anyway, I guess the researchers just needed to publish something to meet some quota ;).

Re:Unconvinced

[Mikkeles]

You have it wrong; it means that if you get loaded on really good martinis, you'll end up with bad coitus, requiring medical interventions with respect to your genitals, thus causing you to curse invaders of South America.

Re:Unconvinced

[whrde]

Yep, I haven't read the research, but my first reaction is that the summary is an oversimplification and seems outright wrong. I start with the assumption that this is what's happening, and then wait to read the actual research before making up my mind.

Re:Unconvinced

[Anonymous Coward]

Watch it. Something involving that many big words could easily destabilize time itself.

Re:Unconvinced

[ceoyoyo]

Most evidence indicates the auditory system works in a similar way to the visual system - sound from both ears is integrated, then processed spatially, with the right field mostly mapped onto the left hemisphere. The audio information from the right ear isn't necessarily processed preferentially by the left hemisphere, but sounds that originate on the right side probably are. So it's not unreasonable that talking into someone's right ear or holding a phone to your right ear would have the effect described. The article may have simplified this to "right ear, left hemisphere."

Unfortunately, your simplification is not only as bad as that in the article, it's implication is also incorrect while that of the article is not.

There's also a reasonable body of other evidence that there are laterality effects on audio processing. For example, primates (which, like us, tend to have have vocalization processing overrepresented in the left hemisphere) preferentially turn to their right (to expose their right ear) when vocalizations are played behind them.

This study does seem to be quite preliminary but it's findings also don't seem to be much of a surprise in the context of what's already known.

Re:Unconvinced

[ceoyoyo]

Forgot: here's a link to an article on hemispheric effects of audio processing:

http://www.apa.org/science/psa/sb-poremba.html

Re:Unconvinced

[Anonymous Coward]

...at 1am when they've had 4+ drinks?

Wow, the crazy party animals.

Re:Unconvinced

[bkaul]

I agree in principle, but most journals are copyrighted, and thus the link would just be to an abstract; the reader would (generally, if he doesn't have access to a university library or some such resource) have to pay for access to the full journal article. At least this story gave enough information about the publication that you'd be able to find it if you went looking for it (authors, journal, publisher, topic). Many don't even do that.

Re:Unconvinced

[Anonymous Coward]

Correct the data for laterality (right hand preference in majority of the population), then maybe the results will be interesting. Even then, the explanation is bull. Unlike sight, the auditory system doesn't work cross-hemispherically. Sound from the right side is carried by the auditory nerve into the right portion of the temporal lobe.

This is somewhat incorrect. Unlike most of the sensory input to the body, which is transmitted to the contralateral (opposite) side of the brain, auditory input is bilateral once you get past the cochlear ganglion. Which also makes this entire line of inquiry pretty bullshit.

Re:Unconvinced

[clone53421]

Even if it is directly linked to the preference toward right-handedness it's still an interesting result. Of course it would also be interesting to do a sample using only people known to be left-handed and see if the tendency amongst them was to favour the left ear. Either way, your take-away value from this study is the knowledge that most people (possibly because most people are right handed – but still, most people) will be slightly more amenable to being approached on their right side.

Anonymous Coward

[Anonymous Coward]

So that's where the term "Right hand" and "Right hand man comes from? :D

Re:Anonymous Coward

[BluBrick]

So that's where the term "Right hand" and "Right hand man comes from? :D

Uh, no. If someone is your right hand man, he's on your right hand side and would generally have his left closer to you, not his right.

Re:Anonymous Coward

[Itninja]

Not if he was looking over your right shoulder! ZING!

Re:Anonymous Coward

[Fluffeh]

No, "right hand man" comes from someone who needs to wash their right tube socks much more often than others.

Yes. Ewwwww.

Re:Anonymous Coward

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes but he is giving YOU advice into your right ear so you like the right guy better. If he doesnt do what is said into his left ear you fire him and promote lefty.

Re:Anonymous Coward

[YourExperiment]

And he would therefore be talking into your right ear, making you more susceptible to his suggestions (according to this article), hence him being your "right hand man".

Re:Anonymous Coward

[clone53421]

Right tube sock? There's no such thing. The two are identical, there's no "right" and "left" sock to a pair.

Re:Anonymous Coward

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're wearing them, I'd argue that it is a right and left sock. Admittedly, it may be the other way around the next time you wear them though.

Re:Anonymous Coward

[clone53421]

That possibly may be the case, but what if it's on your third leg?

Corpus Callosum

[Korey Kaczor]

While this does sound interesting, wouldn't the corpus callosum allow both sides of the brain to share the incoming data of a request, and then make a logical decision?

Re:Corpus Callosum

[cybin]

indeed, the corpus callosum does connect the two hemispheres -- but remember, not everything in the brain is "active" -- much of it is passive, and it's not just "excitatory" -- it's also inhibitory. a lot of the signals on one side do not get routed to the other, to use a computer term.

at the same time, remember that the left-brain/right-brain stuff is pop psychology. one simple scientific finding, that language is primarily left-lateralized, got turned into this gigantic thing that just isn't true or in any way demonstrable.

Re:Corpus Callosum

[Korey Kaczor]

I agree it's mostly pop psychology, thus why I think this article's finding is suspect.

Re:Corpus Callosum

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, most cortical activity is inhibitory. :)

Further, only the pop "left-brain/right-brain" stuff is pop psychology. There are well-established left and right brain functions.

Double Blind?

[twoshortplanks]

This article suggests that the experiments were conducted by the very people who were proposing the hypothesis. That's not very scientific - this should have been double blind. Any number of factors can effect the success rate of getting the cigarettes - including if the researchers believed they were likely to be more successful.

Re:Double Blind?

[nausea_malvarma]

True. If you believed your hypothesis was correct, you might subconsciously alter the way you spoke that would alter the results. Sounds like a self fulfilling prophecy to me.

Re:Double Blind?

[Miseph]

That also strikes me as a terribly unscientific test... even in Italy, not everyone smokes, and even the ones who do may be out of cigarettes or in a location not conducive to smoking. did they also record the number of people who gave logical, but negative (ie. "I don't have any"), responses? What if they didn't ask for cigarettes until the end of the night, so they were in short supply?

What if people just got sick of them mooching and said no out of spite? As a former smoker, I can reasonably state that most are pretty generous to a point, but once you cross it they run out of sympathy very quickly... bumming cigarettes off of everyone you see can get you to that point very quickly.

Did they make sure to get an even mix of responses for males asking males, males asking females, females asking females and females asking males? Did they make sure not to have the person asking in left ears be the one with no social skills and bad breath? When I was a smoker, a cute girl had a MUCH better shot at getting a cigarette from me than, say, some whiny dude... given that this was done at nightclubs, and what many people actually go to nightclubs to (attemp to) do, this is actually a pretty major consideration that I somehow doubt they took into consideration.

And what the hell is with that sample size? 176 people? You went to 3 Italian nightclubs and could only find 176 smokers to ask for cigarettes between them? At least pretend you're trying to gather a statistically significant number of responses.

I'm not necessarily sure that they shouldn't have run any experiments simply because it is their hypothesis... but if they're going to claim some sort of success for it then they certainly need a better experiment than asking people for cigarettes at a nightclub. Honestly though, if nobody ever did scientists to test their own hypotheses, we'd probably still be in the Aristotelian phase of scientific concept.

Re:Double Blind?

[ArsenneLupin]

What if they didn't ask for cigarettes until the end of the night, so they were in short supply?

Wouldn't this affect both ears equally? (Unless the scientists did something terribly stupid, such as asking into the right ear in the beginning of the night, and into the left ear at the end of the night)

bumming cigarettes off of everyone you see can get you to that point very quickly.

Again, easy to control for, by making sure you randomize which ear to use over time.

Did they make sure to get an even mix of responses for males asking males, males asking females, females asking females and females asking males? Did they make sure not to have the person asking in left ears be the one with no social skills and bad breath?

Unless they "assigned" a specific ear to each person asking, this should not matter.

Re:Double Blind?

[BlackPignouf]

Exactly!

To the left ear : "Yo, gimme some cigarette, fat bitch! Vaffanculo!"
To the right ear : "Sorry to interrupt, would you please consider giving me one cigarette? Grazie mille!"

Re:Double Blind?

[Anonymous Coward]

And how exactly should we test this blindly? The researcher must know what they are testing in advance for this type of study. Double blind makes the most sense when you could have a placebo or active pharmacological ingredient. Please enlighten me, IAAS (I am a scientist).

Re:Double Blind?

[Anonymous Coward]

I am not the original poster. It seems you could only single-blind this type of study. Blindfold the speaker and have the subjects sit in one of two directions perpendicular to the speaker. Assign the direction randomly, and test a large number of subjects. That seems about as good as you can do to me, agree?

Re:Double Blind?

[twoshortplanks]

Move the test to a lab environment, and use a pair of stereo headphones and a computer to control (and log) which ear is being talked to unbeknownst to the person doing the talking.

Re:Double Blind?

[Miseph]

"Wouldn't this affect both ears equally? (Unless the scientists did something terribly stupid, such as asking into the right ear in the beginning of the night, and into the left ear at the end of the night)"

Given the silly test, that's precisely what I'm asking if they did. It would be an easy mistake, asking X people for cigarettes in their right ears, then going back to do the same for the left, but in this context it would be a killer.

"Unless they "assigned" a specific ear to each person asking, this should not matter."

There are a lot of social factors involved, even if ears were randomized. If some of the testers "randomly" selected people to ask who are socially unlikely to give them a cigarette in the left ear, and "randomly" selected more likely social choices to ask in right ears, it would be virtually impossible to address or even discover in their data, but it would have an enormous effect.

Re:Double Blind?

[Hatta]

And what the hell is with that sample size? 176 people? You went to 3 Italian nightclubs and could only find 176 smokers to ask for cigarettes between them? At least pretend you're trying to gather a statistically significant number of responses.

Sample size has very little to do with statistical significance. The p-value is what determines whether your result is statistically significant. What sample size affects is how precise your result is; it determines your confidence interval.

A small sample size with the typical p-value of .05 will give you a 95% confidence that the real value is within a wide confidence interval. A larger sample will narrow that confidence interval, but it doesn't change the confidence you have in your result.

Statistics can be counter-intuitive, and it's hard enough to interpret them without people repeating myths like "small sample sizes are not statistically significant". Small sample sizes are good, they make research affordable, and there are rigorous methods to determine whether the sample size is sufficient to support your results. If you haven't done the analysis, don't assume the authors haven't.

Re:Double Blind?

[Anonymous Coward]

You're right about the double-blind part, wrong about everything else. It doesn't matter if the people asked smoke or don't, if their males, females, shemales, or seashells - as long as the selection between right/left ear is random. As for the sample size, statistical significance corrects for that, and anyway 176 seems pretty reasonable to me.

I do agree that this experiment could be better planned, though. There's no reason why this shouldn't be repeated as a properly controlled experiment in a laboratory setting.

Re:Double Blind?

[Anonymous Coward]

First of all, why use an acronym if you're going to write out what it is anyway? Just say "Please enlighten me, I am a scientist." It's quicker. Secondly, that's not what IAAS stands for anyway...

Not enough data

[tiger32kw]

176 people... How is that enough to put the data up to more than just coincidence? Repeat the experiment 10 more times, then it might be a little more credible.

Re:Not enough data

[Anonymous Coward]

Generally 176 is a sufficiently large sample for statistical purposes. There are methods to calculate how likely it is that the observed differences weren't just random luck. In other words, you can calculate the chance of getting the observed results when there is no real difference. When this chance (called a p-value) is low (one common significance level is 5%), you can conclude that it wasn't just luck and another factor was at work.

More stuff: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothesis_test

Re:Not enough data

[troubbble]

But more importantly, sample size is irrelevant when working with poorly collected data.

Re:Not enough data

[SashaMan]

Ugg, how is it that the parent is modded down but the GP is modded insightful? The GP is basically just saying "well, that doesn't feel like enough to me", while the parent points out accurately that it very easy to determine what the probability is that the results are due to chance. Since the article states that the researchers obtained "significantly" more cigarettes, I'm assuming that this is at least based on the common level of 5%. You can have a small sample size that is highly statistically significant if the skew is large enough. Unfortunately, even on slashdot, most people don't understand statistics.

That said, hypothesis testing just determines the probability that the results are NOT due to chance. Thus, it's totally possible that the results are due to something different that what the researchers propose - maybe they were just friendlier when asking from the right side.

Re:Not enough data

[Fluffeh]

The parent is modded down because it's a Anon Cow post, and most mods seem to mod/read with their normal reading hiddens turned on. Chances are that it's simply not being looked at enough yet to get modded up. Having said that, as the parent of this is a +5 already, those mods should be modding the parent up as well.

Well! Get on the case boobs!

Re:Not enough data

[Ma8thew]

The extent of most Slashdot users statistics knowledge is to scream 'Correlation is not causation' at any science story. This might have something to do with the fact that anyone who uses the phrase is instantly modded +5 Insightful, but then again, correlation is not causation.

Re:Not enough data

[Anonymous Coward]

But use a "!=" so we know you're a programmer.

Re:Not enough data

[Anonymous Coward]

"There are methods to calculate how likely it is that the observed differences weren't just random luck."

No, there are not. You can calculate the probability that if the differences were caused by random luck (with a certain distribution), you would get the results you did. However, there is no method to go the other way, to calculate from the results you got to what the probability is they were caused by random luck.

Example: If we flip a fair coin, the probability we get heads is 50%. Suppose somebody hands us a coin, we flip it ten times, and it comes up heads six times. What is the probability it is fair? We cannot know, because we do not know the probability the person handed us a biased coin, or how biased it might be.

Re:Not enough data

[Anonymous Coward]

Sometimes it is worth remembering that old cliché.

In this case, they gave no evidence that it was an auditory rather than visual/spatial phenomenon.

People could just respond more generously to others who they see standing on their right side. There is no evidence that an auditory effect is being tested here.

Re:Not enough data

[Servants]

Yeah, nothing stands out as being obviously bad science here. The result is basically that on average, the right ear is slightly better at hearing things in a naturalistic setting. Only the first page of the article is available online, but the authors explain that this right-ear advantage has been fairly well-studied in the laboratory and they were attempting to confirm it in a less artificial environment.

Note that this advantage is apparently small, and may be only an average thing; could be that 60% of people hear better with their right ear, 40% of people with their left, I can't tell from the available information. The crap about "amenable parts of the brain" was most likely invented by journalists.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/123t3782704t876v/

Re:Not enough data

[Anonymous Coward]

The extent of most Slashdot users statistics knowledge is to scream 'Correlation is not causation' at any science story. This might have something to do with the fact that anyone who uses the phrase is instantly modded +5 Insightful, but then again, correlation is not causation.

And at the time of this writing, you were modded +5 insightful.

Re:Not enough data

[kayoteelsewhere]

Only if the rest of the assumptions of samples are met. 176 is large enough for significance, providing the sample is properly drawn. If the folks asking for the cigarettes weren't asking exactly the same way each time (expectations influencing decisions) then the sample size is irrelevant. If all the people in the nightclub were within a couple years of each other, it's not valid to expand to everyone in the population. If it is not a valid sample the simple statistical methods cannot be used. If the sample is bad enough, statistics are just not valid.

The classic example of problems with samples is a telephone survey for a presidential race--back when only the wealthy had telephones. The survey results were very strong via the p-value check--and completely wrong because the sample population and the actual population were completely different. It was an accurate measure of what people with telephones thought. It was not an accurate measure of what the voters as a whole thought, as it wasn't a sample drawn from all voters.

Re:Not enough data

[Anonymous Coward]

Dude, I second that. I'm tired of seeing everybody trying to be the first to use the latest slashdot catchphrase in a cheap attempt to get a karma boost.

That is precisely why I just post nigger trolls.

NIGGER, NIGGER, NIGGER.

Actually makes some sense but the headline is bad

[Banzai042]

This does line up with a topic in a similar vein I heard about a few years ago, essentially saying that the right ear is better for processing vocal type audio and the left ear is better for processing music type audio, because each ear is primarily connected to either the logical or creative side of the brain respectively. Really the headline should say "Want someone to understand what you're saying? Talk in their right ear"

I don't know how accurate this theory really is, but it doesn't sound as implausible to me as some others seem to think

Re:It comes from

[nausea_malvarma]

The high frequency of right-handedness and the resulting cultural bias that associates right hands with what is proper and good. If it were named after this phenomenon, the term would be "right ear man".

not quite the same

[Tablizer]

"Talk to the hand" seems a bit more catchy, though.

great

[Anonymous Coward]

good

phew... it wasn't my sexual prowess after all

[Anonymous Coward]

I just sleep on the wrong side of the bed!

I don't think that's true

[Anonymous Coward]

My desk is set up so that my teammates are always on my right, but it's just as hard to remember what they say, as it was when they were on my left.

Now, if they use that fancy 'Trac' thingy we have and create some 'tickets'... That would make it easy.

Alternate explanation

[Anonymous Coward]

Who is to say this has anything to do with appealing to the "more logical" side of the brain? A more plausible explanation to me is that most people are right handed. When you ask them in their left ear, you are infringing on the space of their weaker, more vulnerable side, making them uncomfortable and less receptive. When you ask them into their right ear, they feel more in control, and willing to give you a smoke.

Re:Alternate explanation

[tenco]

That was my first thought, too. The environment in which this experiment was conducted is just awkward and everything but controlled. I call Cargo Cult Science on this one.

Personal Insight

[longhairedgnome]

Several years ago I went shooting with a Mosin Nagant carbine and was foolish enough not to bring hearing protection... 120 rounds
later my ears still ring to this day, I'd have to guesstimate my hearing loss in my right ear about 25% I haven't been able to afford to have
it tested. Bring hearing protection when you shoot!

Re:Personal Insight

[longhairedgnome]

Sorry, didn't really finish that thought, whoopsies!

from the bene-gesserit-tricks dept.

[gmuslera]

At least this one is nicer than the brain melting suffered from the ones that read the Dune prequels.

Re:from the bene-gesserit-tricks dept.

[Anonymous Coward]

There were no Dune prequels. There's some fan fiction, but it's not the same thing.

That's funny

[steve.howard]

I'm deaf in my right ear, I must be tight-fisted. ;)

The only good thing about this study...

[yourassOA]

is the picture of the hot chick talking in the dudes ear. Other than that this is completely bogus. I'm ambidextrous wrap your puny mind around that.

Advisers to the right, losers to the left

[BlackSabbath]

This is why successful leaders tend to prefer advice from their "right hand man". Who listens to their "left hand man"? No one - that's who!

Re:Advisers to the right, losers to the left

[IBBoard]

Does that mean that Christianity has nothing to worry about, because no-one is ever going to listen to that devil who sits on their left shoulder? ;)

Re:Advisers to the right, losers to the left

[Mad-cat]

This is why successful leaders tend to prefer advice from their "right hand man". Who listens to their "left hand man"? No one - that's who!

I guess their left hand man is busy listening to them.

Re:Advisers to the right, losers to the left

[Kadagan AU]

This is an interesting thought. In a (US) military formation, the higher ranking people are to the far right of the formation (if you're standing in it), so the person to their left is lower ranking. You speak into his right ear. He's already compelled by rank and respect for your position to follow your directions, but this might add just a little more to it. Probably not.. but who knows.

I don't listen to anyone...

[NotQuiteReal]

"Talk to the hand"

Re:I don't listen to anyone...

[rohan972]

"Talk to the hand"

Right or left hand?

Re:I don't listen to anyone...

[Helen Keller]

I don't know.

AAAAaaaaarghhhhh...

Re:I don't listen to anyone...

[Beyond_GoodandEvil]

Actually, if you're a female, it doesn't matter which ear you talk into as long as you press your breasts into my arm when you make the request.

Re:I don't listen to anyone...

[Anonymous Coward]

+1, Funny for that comment with that username. Good form!

Re:I don't listen to anyone...

[kalirion]

Hmm, I don't think my concentration would be on what such a female is saying. I might agree to anything without actually hearing what I'm agreeing to. Or remembering that I agreed to later on.

hmmmm....

[Anonymous Coward]

Next time you ask her to go down...

what if?

[jessejay356]

I never use my right ear to listen to people, or talk on the phone. Does that make me the boss? No, just like steve.howard I'm mostly deaf in my right ear!

Right ear ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Right ear ? Which ear is that ? I use my left had to hold my phone and put it to my left ear. That is what I see most ppl doing.

The Voice of

[JustOK]

Hallucinations typically come from behind and to the right.

Which ear I use on my phone depends on which is closer to the person on the other end.

dextrocardia

[robinesque]

My girlfriend is left handed, BUT she has dextrocardia, a condition in which her heart is on the left side of her chest. Her liver is also mirrored. Persons with this condition often show mirroring in all of their organs, including the brain. She talks with the phone against her left ear...which I suppose would make sense according to this study.

Re:dextrocardia

[Anonymous Coward]

That's the most elaborate excuse to tell us you have a girlfriend I've ever seen.

Re:dextrocardia

[Culture20]

dextrocardia == heart on right side. Total body mirroring is a result of being flipped 4-dimensionally (like a 2D person flipped in 3D before being put back in their 2D world). Was her last boyfriend prone to disappearing from closed rooms?

Re:dextrocardia

[Anonymous Coward]

The heart is on the right side of the chest in dextrocardia(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dextrocardia). The heart is usually on the left side of the chest. But interesting point.

Re:dextrocardia

[Trifthen]

I think you mean your girlfriend has Situs Inversus Totalis.

Just because dextrocardia often presents with other flipped organs doesn't mean it describes the condition. I know because I also have dextrocardia, but without other organ mirroring. There are two major things which may affect your future together:

1. Situs Inversus can be caused by malfunctioning cellular cilia, which has been known to render sufferers infertile. This is easy enough to check, and can be countered by in-vitro fertilization, I believe.
2. Situs Inversus is actually far less dangerous than full-on dextrocardia. When the other organs aren't mirrored as well, the heart is often damaged during fetal development and almost always requires open-heart surgery to correct. Even then, quality of life will never be that of a normal person. My own surgery was in 1984, and that only corrected three of the seven major defects.

So, be glad she doesn't just have dextocardia, but for longer-term, if you want kids, she might need to be checked.

Re:dextrocardia

[davidshewitt]

I think you have that backwards. Dextrocardia means the heart is on the right side of the body. See wikipedia for more information.

Re:dextrocardia

[Anonymous Coward]

mos tpeoples hearts are on the left side :)

Re:dextrocardia

[Anonymous Coward]

Dextrocardia means "heart on the right", not left. Most of us have our heart on the left, which would be called something like "sinestrocardia". Either you made a typo, or she's definitely not your girlfriend, or - this being Slashdot - both.

Re:dextrocardia

[Anonymous Coward]

> My girlfriend...

Sorry, I lost you there. Can you rephrase?

Seriously?

[glwtta]

'We can also see this tendency when people use the phone, most will naturally hold it to their right ear.'

Right, that couldn't possibly have anything to do with the fact that most people are right handed, could it?

this is science?

[onionlee]

'We can also see this tendency when people use the phone, most will naturally hold it to their right ear.' thats because most of the world is right handed.

Re:this is science?

[belg4mit]

No, because a ration right-handed person would use their *left-hand*
so that they could multi-task without an awkward crook in their neck.

want a favor from a linux bitch?

[Anonymous Coward]

fuck them up the ass. they love being fucked in the ass. bunch of faggot linux users.

Riiiight...

[Fizzl]

The method wasn't very scientificy, sample size was small and they skewed the results by "knowing" what kind of results they want.
I would have invented way more elaborate scheme to get an excuse to blow my grant money to nightclubbin

Re:Riiiight...

[Fizzl]

Oh and the image on the article is 120% superfluous. Fucking /. 2.0.14.b1.

Re:Riiiight...

[Ma8thew]

You are drawing this conclusion, not from the article itself, but second hand, from a journalist, who may have talked to someone who has read the article. I might be able to discuss some of your concerns better, but the article costs $34. However, as someone with a passing knowledge of statistics, I can say your outright rejection of sample size is unscientific. A small sample size may be counteracted by very strong results, and without seeing the hypothesis tests the authors of the article doubtless performed, you cannot simply look at a sample and say 'that is too small' (unless it is absurdly small, eg, less than 20).

The free abstract also indicates that the investigation was performed in three phases, with the portion in the night club being used to confirm the results produced in a lab setting, although whether these results were double blind, I cannot say without having read the article.

Yes, It's Science

[droidsURlooking4]

Check this out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyyjU8fzEYU

Don't got one

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm deaf in one ear, you insensitive clod!

Old old news.

[Hurricane78]

That news is so old, I read about it in a magazine in 2002. And back then, it was said that it had been know for a long time.

I use a headset.

[CFD339]

Clearly this is a flawed study. It doesn't take my personal use case into account and therefore has no validity whatsoever. I will, of course, begin to excoriate the authors of the study and make fun of anyone who agrees with it.

Re:I use a headset.

[Mr_eX9]

Dr. Luca Tommasi and Daniele Marzoli from the University of Chieti in central Italy, observed the behavior of hundreds of people in three nightclubs across the city where they intentionally addressed 176 people in either their right or their left ear when asking for a cigarette.

Yes, it is a flawed study. Anybody who believes this *should* be made fun of.

Re:I use a headset.

[Jake Griffin]

... observed the behavior of hundreds of people in three nightclubs across the city where they intentionally addressed 176 people ...

A contradiction in a single sentence... didn't even have to read the whole article to know this is bunk.

It makes sense

[dropzonetoe]

My wife has always slept with that ear away from me.... Now I know why. Any tips on getting a spouse to swap sides of the bed :)

Hand Solo

[Anonymous Coward]

You know you want this...
http://www.handsolomobile.com/

-Merv

Now I know!

[Cyphax]

So basically the surgeons, after taking out most of my inner ear due to a nasty inner ear infection, turned me into a jerk seeing as how I have hardly any hearing left in my right ear. Thanks for this article, now I can sue them, seeing as how it's their fault I have no friends.

whether or not this is true

[circletimessquare]

it puts this story in hilarious contrast:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article3817270.ece

If you're thinking of asking your beloved to marry you, make sure that you utter your declaration of love into his or her left ear; it may increase your chances of hearing a heart-lifting "yes". New research suggests that declarations of love, jokes, or words of anger are best remembered when they are heard through the left ear, while instructions, directions and non-emotional messages have more impact on the right side.

It is all to do with how our brains process information. Although the left and right hemispheres, or sides, of the brain are similar structures, they have specialised functions. The left side, it is suggested, is more logic-based and dominant, while the right is the more imaginative side, more visual, intuitive, emotional and spatially aware. Because the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, the left ear has been shown in some research to be the route to the emotional side of the brain, and the right ear to the non-emotional, logical side.

i don't know how true all of this is, but there's all sorts of anecdotes like this

for example: women usually have their left breast a little larger than their right breast. regardless of which is larger, and regardless of handedness, women, and all simians in fact, and even breastless fathers, tend to hold their babies with their right arms to their left breast. this places the babies head on the left side of the body, putting the baby closer to the left side sensory inputs, which are governed by the right side of the brain, the more emotional side, thus establishing more of an emotional bond

so i don't know about all this ear stuff, but there seems to be something, at best subtle, that is real about side preference and emotions and logic

Re:whether or not this is true

[greyhueofdoubt]

>>the left ear has been shown in some research to be the route to the emotional side of the brain, and the right ear to the non-emotional, logical side.

This would have some interesting implications for conversations in vehicles, since the same person usually drives. Every conversation would thus be interpreted slightly differently by each person. Over time this might help create an interesting dynamic within the relationship.

I've noticed that I talk quite a bit more when I'm a passenger, but that could be simply because I'm not concentrating on driving (or because I'm compensating for the white-knuckled terror of being at the mercy of someone else's driving).

-b

Re:whether or not this is true

[Anonymous Coward]

and even breastless fathers, tend to hold their babies with their right arms to their left breast. this places the babies head on the left side of the body, putting the baby closer to the left side sensory inputs, which are governed by the right side of the brain, the more emotional side, thus establishing more of an emotional bond

so i don't know about all this ear stuff, but there seems to be something, at best subtle, that is real about side preference and emotions and logic

I think the part about logic is missing from your brain. I hold my friends baby with my right arm because it's stronger than my left arm, and that sucker is heavy and likes to squirm. If I hold him with my left, there's a higher change I'll drop him.

Re:whether or not this is true

[Anonymous Coward]

Also, on the left breast it is easier for the baby to hear the parent's heart beat which has a potentially calming and enveloping effect.

Re:It comes from

[walshy007]

Indeed, I am quite proud to be sinister (left)

then i must be a fucking genius

[Anonymous Coward]

because i can use a cellphone with both hands.

who knew?

Logic and giving away cigarettes?

[IBBoard]

I guess they were in a night club, which somewhat affects logic, but they say:

the left hand side of the brain which is more logical and better at deciphering verbal information

and then say:

They obtained significantly more cigarettes when they made their request in a person's right ear compared with their left.

What part of giving away one of your cigarettes to some cheap-ass bum who can't afford their own is logical? Unless, I guess, they had a hot woman asking guys, at which point they'll be hoping that a simple cigarette now leads to the need for more later...

oops...

[Anonymous Coward]

my brain only serves logic functions
coz
i hold my phone left-handed with left ear
AND
i m a computer guy
EVIL XD

Cigarettes???

[r1d3r]

Thats weired. Since when you go to night club and ask for cigaretts?

Old Knowledge

[tgzuke]

Right-ear advantage has been well-studied before (see Wikipedia's page on dichotic listening tests for details). I remember it being presented as fact in my intro linguistics course 10 years ago. I recall that class also noting, however, that people who learn tonal languages such as Mandarin as a first language have a left-ear advantage instead [citation needed].

Nightclubs and free cigs

[codeButcher]

... and they probably slept through most of the day.

Anyway, great research, as this would explain why I'm such an A.H. on the phone - I hold it to my left ear.

Left-handed

[Arancaytar]

I hold my phone to the ear that doesn't require me to reach around my fucking face.

But meh. Maybe that's why I'm so short with stupid people on the telephone.

Re:Left-handed

[Anonymous Coward]

So.... you admit to using a phone while you've got your 'fucking face' on?

The right ear

[Anonymous Coward]

So to get something done by somebody, we need to speak to their right ear.
Great! Now all we need is a way to tell which ear is right and which ear is wrong.

Logistics

[dbcad7]

How do you ask someone in a noisy nightclub "specifically in one ear" insuring that the other ear is not hearing ? .. and how do they know that the results are specific to sound and not visual ?.. perhaps someone approaching you from your right side makes you less defensive than from your left side.

Talk to the hand

[Anonymous Coward]

So, "talk to the left hand" indicates even more that I'm not going to pay attention?

You know

[Anonymous Coward]

someone talking into your ear will be in your peripheral vision. Who's to say you aren't simply more relaxed/amenable with the unknown person approaching you on your dominant side, where you are more capable of defending yourself?

I am stone-deaf in my right ear...

[Anonymous Coward]

... so ask away!

Yeah yeah....

[Anonymous Coward]

Confounded with the expectation of the asking person, if they didn't use unknowing people for asking.

Why would i want to talk to the left side?

[Anonymous Coward]

I like talking to the right side, it makes it easier to influence people and have interesting conversations with people.

The left side is boring.
I don't care that they discovered Yet Another unstable element, just show me the damn porn of Ununbium having electron sex with Californium, exploding in a glorious finish, then Californium complaining that Ununbium was too quick.

Deaf

[ZankerH]

So is my being deaf on the right ear an advantage or disadvantage in this case?

I switch ears, I think everyone does

[Godefricus]

I've noticed a long time ago that I change my phone to my other ear depending on whether I talk business or emotions.

Yeah I can make up bullshit too

[TheLink]

Yeah I can make up bullshit explanations too.

For instance most people are right handed, so usually their stronger and tougher side is their right side. Thus they are more comfortable if a stranger approaches them from the right than from the left (the weaker side).

When people feel more comfortable with you, they are more likely to give you stuff.

See I can make up explanations too.

In fact, I think my explanation makes more sense. Since willingness to give stuff to people is very often not tied to logic or understanding at all. I bet when giving out something like a single cig the decision is more emotional (gut feel) than logical. You seldom bother using logic for such stuff.

Re:Yeah I can make up bullshit too

[clone53421]

I agree completely with your explanation. I didn't see your post before I replied to the grandparent, but I said basically the same thing...

Re:Yeah I can make up bullshit too

[honkycat]

The authors thought of that (I read the actual paper discussed by the article which goes into detail in their methods). I'm going to make a more comprehensive post about the methods and conclusions in a moment, but because your hypothesis is an important one, I'm posting this. In all of the interactions they included in their analysis, the initial approach was face-on. This should rule out varying comfort based on direction of approach.

Re:Yeah I can make up bullshit too

[TheLink]

But which side of your face/neck area would you be more comfortable with a stranger getting close to?

On a related note - when people hug each other which is more common - their head over your right shoulder, or your left shoulder? These would normally be people you feel safe with in the first place.

Anyway I still think it's less to do with understanding and logic :).

See also:

http://www.livescience.com/health/090624-right-ear.html

"In the second study, the researchers approached 160 clubbers and mumbled an inaudible, meaningless utterance (such as "babababa") and waited for the subjects to turn their head and offer either their left of their right ear. They then asked subjects for a cigarette (in Italian the request specifically was "Hai una sigaretta?" which can be translated in English as "Do you have a cigarette?"). Overall, 58 percent offered their right ear for listening and 42 percent their left. No link was found between the number of cigarettes obtained and the ear receiving the request. "

Note that no link was found in that scenario. If their conclusion was correct, there should still be a link right?

Re:Yeah I can make up bullshit too

[honkycat]

That's true, no link was found in that scenario ("study 2" in their paper). That is interesting, but their explanation is that there is a difference between the subject actively choosing which ear to offer and passively having that choice made for them. It is of course possible that there are alternative explanations for the effect, but I don't think it's fair to describe their explanation as "made-up bullshit."

In fact, I don't recall exactly, but I believe there was a larger bias toward offering the right ear in their first study than in the second. In the first study, they observed interactions between pairs who were not involved in the study; typically these people are more likely to know each other than in the second when it was an approach by a stranger. If the effect were a comfort zone effect, I'd expect the bias to be stronger in the case of a stranger approaching, but IIRC it wasn't.

Finally, it's important to note that the claim made in the paper is a lot weaker than that the headlines in the popular press. The paper more or less notes that this is consistent with the hypothesis and certainly doesn't exaggerate the strength of their findings.

Re:Yeah I can make up bullshit too

[TheLink]

Yeah the popular press tends to paint stuff in black/white.

Anyway it is an interesting research result (esp to salespeople/conmen ;) ), maybe someone else should try to replicate it or try it with some modifications - get someone of different gender, handedness, ask for different stuff, show the request using a (not too flashy) phone with a large screen.

I am stone deaf in my right ear...

[McKeegan]

... ask away!

Here's for hearing you, kid...

[yogibaer]

If "una bella figura" like in the picture stepped up to me in an nightclub and asked for a cigarette I would start smoking right then and there. (Somebody already said it: Take your grant money nightclubbing)

Re:Here's for hearing you, kid...

[malkien]

did you mean "una bella figa"?

figura = figure/shape/illustration
[fare] bella figura = to look good/make a good impression
bella figa = nice pussy

Talk to my left ear

[Anonymous Coward]

I direct colleagues, strangers, friends, family etc. to talk into my left ear.

But that's because I'm deaf in that ear and I want an easy life.

I hold my phone to my left ear

[Atmchicago]

I also hold the phone to my left ear despite being right-handed, but for a different reason: my right ear is deaf! I've often wondered if I perceive language and sound differently than others (besides the obvious lack of stereo). Perhaps doing a study with half-deaf people could give some interesting results.

Re:I hold my phone to my left ear

[Anonymous Coward]

Tried it today! When asking people for a cigarette while speaking into their deaf ear I found that I received no cigarettes at all! I'll analyze the data further and post my conclusions....

Re:I hold my phone to my left ear

[MattMooreSucks]

I'm currently reading Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks. He talks a bit about this very situation. Check it out!

Re:I hold my phone to my left ear

[somatando]

Me too, except I'm not deaf but have observed I process the conversation better when on the left ear. Go figure, does this mean even though I have a better understanding of the conversation when on the left ear, I'd be more likely to carry out any requests, or does it only have to do with good will?

Re:I hold my phone to my left ear

[davewalthall]

I've done this experiment! When you whisper into the deaf ear asking for cigarettes, you don't get nearly as many as when you whisper into the hearing ear. The paper will be coming out in JAMA next month.

Re:I hold my phone to my left ear

[Aranwe Haldaloke]

I'm right-handed and not deaf, but I also hold up the phone to my left ear, but because I hear better with it and thus am able to listen better with it. Also, when I'm wearing headphones and hearing music and I actually want to listen to what someone has to say, I take off the left headphone so I can pay attention better.

I also prefer my left eye; I wear contacts and have a harder time seeing when I'm wearing only the right-eye contact.

So it's also more like the usual right- or left-handedness in that you're better suited to do certain tasks with a particular side.

Re:I hold my phone to my left ear

[rabiddeity]

I'm also deaf in one ear as a result of head trauma. I've found that with only one ear it's much more difficult to pick out individual voices in crowds, much how one loses depth perception with only one eye. With two ears the brain is apparently able to attenuate sounds based upon direction. In effect, having two ears gives your brain enough data to decode spatial multiplexing, similar to MIMO receiving antennas.

With just one ear the best you can do is frequency attenuation. This is why those with a certain vocal timbre are much easier to hear than others-- for example, the guy with the booming voice in the midst of a roomful of nasal mumblers. People who talk facing away are almost universally difficult to hear, as are those that continue to stand behind me on the weak side after I've told them not to. Some might think my habit of physically grabbing people by the shoulders and turning them around or moving them to the correct side after they do this two or three times is rather rude, but not nearly as rude as those speakers.

Re:I hold my phone to my left ear

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, that must suck to only have hearing in one ear.

Think about all of the things you can no longer enjoy. Music, movies, concerts, plays, dance clubs, stereo systems, dolby surround sound, video games, headphones, sports, driving cars, conversations with people and anything that requires spatial perception. Even the most simple everyday things would prove to be more difficult or even dangerous. The only thing that would suck more would be if you were deaf, blind, mute, and a quadriplegic with a very itchy rash.

I think I would rather be dead than deaf in one ear.

It explains cars too!

[argStyopa]

...and this EVEN explains why most men do the driving - our wives, knowing the secret right ear thing, prefer to sit on the right, making us drive and simultaneously compelling us to do their bidding! ...or it could just be some bullshit theory where the data was cherry picked to make some sort of pop science conclusion.

Re:It explains cars too!

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm British, you insensitive clod!

Re:It explains cars too!

[Anonymous Coward]

I always wondered why after I got married I had to do all the driving.

Re:It explains cars too!

[Anonymous Coward]

...and this EVEN explains why most men do the driving - our wives, knowing the secret right ear thing, prefer to sit on the right, making us drive and simultaneously compelling us to do their bidding! ....

Also it explains why English men drive on the wrong side of the road.

Re:It explains cars too!

[Anonymous Coward]

Except in jolly old England where steering wheels are on the wrong side ;-)

Deafness..

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't hear out of my left ear, so this finding does not surprise me at all!

And if you want a no...

[Snaller]

Studies also found that if you want a no, talking to the hand is the best option!

That explains a few things

[neflyte]

I guess that's why I keep annoying people at work. I don't hear much with my right ear as I had a hearing loss on that side years ago.
Maybe that's also why my ex left me. She could never get any favours!

Audio Stroop effect

[Richard Kirk]

The Stroop effect is when you read words that are the names of colours, but the letters are coloured differently. You can read out the words with the right eye, but change over to the left eye and you will start saying the colours of the letters and not the words. Both sides of the brain get the same signal, but the nearer side gets it first and tends to jump in with its interpretation, which may not be the one you are wanting.

If you have a voice saying 'high' or 'low' in a high or low voice, then you can get the same thing but with sound. The right ear will hear the words, but the left one can react to the pitch.

I am not sure how this relates to the work of the Institute of Cadging Smokes of Central Italy. If the sound system was turned up, then the user may be lipreading as well as listening, in which case the different delay in the sound and sight by approaching from the 'wrong side' may be more of a factor than what side the speech center is on, or whether they are more suggestible.

We could test this. Apparently some early developing musicians have their speech processing on the other side of the brain. This may impair their ability to describe a logical process, but gives then an enhanced ability to understand complex sounds and emotions. What good it is can be debated, but the flipped speech centers show up on a brain scan. Find one of these people, and see how many cigs you get.

Re:Audio Stroop effect

[clone53421]

The Stroop effect is when you read words that are the names of colours, but the letters are coloured differently. You can read out the words with the right eye, but change over to the left eye and you will start saying the colours of the letters and not the words.

I've always found that very odd. I can read the words easily with both eyes or either one separately, but saying the colour instead of the word is equally difficult whether I'm using my right, left, or both eyes. I can do it, but it's more difficult and requires a lot more thought than reading them.

Re:Audio Stroop effect

[david_thornley]

However, it's far easier to report the color when I take my glasses off. Reporting the word doesn't work too well, though.

Re:Audio Stroop effect

[clone53421]

Interesting... I found a version with brighter colours and it was much easier to say the colour instead of reading the word.

As to reading the words without my glasses on: It would probably be much easier if they didn't look like this.

Dependent on what we interpret as important?

[g34rs]

Makes you wonder if that also has anything to do with the content of the conversation. Seems like when I call someone I know, or receive a call from someone I know I use my left ear. Every time I make calls at my job (Hitachi Engineering) I always use my right ear... maybe because I know I'm relaying/receiving important information? Now that would be an interesting side study...

In other news...

[the person standing]

... talking to right ears increases the risc of lung cancer

I just ran out of mod points

[Kupfernigk]

Otherwise I would mod this up. I agree. As soon as I read the article, I found a surprising number of things fell into place. Anecdotally, I have to say this. I am normally handed, and I am fairly deaf in my left ear, since a few years old. I am also regarded by my family as being the unemotional and logical one who often misses when people are arguing from emotion not logic. When I phone my family, I use the left ear. I have occasionally wondered why I do this since there was no apparently rational explanation. But of course, when phoning family the emotional content is what is important.

My Wife

[morcego]

Ok, my wife is almost deaf on her right ear, while having perfect hearing on the left one ...
humm, that explains a lot.

Italians

[Hognoxious]

Italians ... in nightclubs ... cadging cigarettes.

Gotta be a hoax.

dnuske

[Anonymous Coward]

maybe it is talk to the right ear, so we can say: you asked me in the wrong ear, try the other. ;)

lol

[circletimessquare]

in the usa, for the driver, everything is a logical conversation

in the usa, for the passenger, everything is an emotional conversation

in commonwealth countries, for the driver, everything is an emotional conversation

in commonwealth countries, for the passenger, everything is a logical conversation

i don't think you did it consciously, but you just created a perfect template for a rich vein of research in this claim of left ear/ right ear, emotion vs. logic concept. including perhaps even fatality rates, making it a serious study, and including the ability to draw upon a wide range of solid crash data from insurance companies in the usa and commonwealth countries

seriously, your comment is the nucleus of someone's PhD dissertation, and maybe even a valid argument for or against american style/ british style road sidedness preference

is there the nucleus here for the observation that commonwealth drivers can get angrier easier and therefore have more accidents, with a passenger in their car, due to this left ear/ right ear subtle logic/ emotion bias?

Re:lol

[greyhueofdoubt]

Well, here's an easy exercise to start with:

Group A will listen to their vehicle radio with the balance set louder on the right side.

Group B will listen to their vehicle radio with the balance set louder on the left side.

Group C will be a control and their volume will be balanced equally.

After 6 months compare the statistics on safety, accidents, etc. Of course you would need to control for different music tastes, changing CD's while driving vs sticking to one radio station, etc. but if your sample size is large enough those factors should balance out.

-b

Deaf

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm deaf in my right ear, you insensitive clod!

is that Seven of Nine?

[Anonymous Coward]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_of_Nine

Not likely.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok, this is BS. Hearing, unlike vision or motor function, is not neatly lateralized. It is a subcortical mess, and input from both ears go to both hemispheres with no discernible preference for what side of the head the sound came from.
As for their experimental design, the researchers knew what results they were expecting when they performed the experiment, which could easily bias their results. A study like this one would need to be a double-blind.
And of course, correlation is not--no, I won't say it. But I'm thinking it.

- Stephen L.

It sounds to me...

[BenSchuarmer]

Like this research was just an excuse to hang out in nightclubs.

Time to switch my headset around

[Gilmoure]

Let's see how nice I am to my customers now.

I Call B.S.

[Nom du Keyboard]

I call B.S. on this. Consider the following very common scenario:

Man driving car sitting in front left seat.
Wife on his right giving directions into his right ear.
Does he still get lost?
PROFIT!

Right ear majority my ear

[cyberchondriac]

I'm right handed but have always heard better and more clearly from my left ear. Consequently, I use my left ear to talk on the phone, and so do the majority of people I know.
But then, my hemispheres are also supposedly uncommonly well balanced, according to the popular Internet test, "brain.exe". FWIW.

It was dumb to use loud place

[maxwells_deamon]

Maybe people hear better out of their right ear. It would explain this just as well.

Right hand man

[Anonymous Coward]

So I guess my right hand man should sit on my left!

even better:

[circletimessquare]

don't use music

use your average garden variety puerile right wing talk radio (limbaugh, beck, savage, etc.)

if that doesn't get the emotional/ logical reaction split nice and clean, nothing will

further analytical value: regardless of ear, examine results in regard to the left-leaning or right-leaning bias of the driver: does blood boiling rage from left-leaning drivers listening to rush limbaugh result in more accidents? or does an arrogant sense of invulnerability from right-leaning drivers listening to rush limbaugh lead to more accidents?

Old news.

[2obvious4u]

We've known about this since biblical times...

Acts 7:55,56: "But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; 56 and he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."

All kinds of historical texts have put the person with the most influence on their right hand side, it was kind of intuitive knowledge that they've just pinned down...

Nice to know...

[Tetsujin]

This makes me real glad that mine is the right side of the bed...

did it ever occur to you

[circletimessquare]

that your cause and effect might be reversed?

why is your right side stronger?

"because i'm right handed idiot"

well why are you right handed? why is anyone right handed? why is the majority right handed?

you accuse me of lacking in logic. i accuse you of lacking in thought

why do women tend to have their left breast larger than their right breast? same question, if you think about it

think, fucker, think. then throw accusations

Interesting..

[SlashDev]

... now all we have to do to prevent teens from being affected by harmful song lyrics, is to mute the right audio channel.

smoker's ear

[russell.sawyer]

Couldn't this also mean people who smoke have bad hearing in their left ears. Maybe that's the first area of the brain to die off...

Mutant Space Bananas

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't the logical side of your brain be more likely to tell you, no you don't want to give someone else your cigarettes?

Great comment but...

[Anonymous Coward]

the fact that everyone places the baby on the left side of their chest has more to do with th fact that thats where your heart than any thing related to the babys brain. Your heart beat calms the baby.

yes, i've heard that

[circletimessquare]

why do you think that thesis is any more valid than the one i put forth?

perhaps you are correct. perhaps i am correct. but most likely, perhaps we both are, in some unknown proportion

Phone "most naturally" on the right? What?

[Anonymous Coward]

In Italy maybe.

In my experience most people are right-handed and use their left hand to hold the phone to their left ear.

Facts from the actual research article

[honkycat]

It may be too late in the discussion for this to get any notice, but I have access to the journal where this research was published and I thought I'd share a few details. In summary, it is much better science than the /. crowd seems to think, the researchers have done their homework, and I haven't seen any posts here that raise serious methodological issues that are not somehow addressed in the work. This wasn't just some guys hanging out in a night club asking for cigarettes.

Basically, they had three studies. The first was purely observational -- they "unobtrusively" observed interactions between people in the nightclub that started face-to-face and noted whether these progressed to talking in the right ear or the left ear. They adjusted for gender of speaker/listener, and other bias.

The second study (which they refer to as "quasi-experimental") involved a female aware of the study but unaware of the hypothesis who would approach subjects (equal # male and female) face-to-face and say something unintelligible. If the subject turned one ear, she would then ask for a cigarette in the ear they offered. She always asked the same question, and only asked people whom she had not seen smoking (to prevent social effects that might bias people toward sharing).

In the third study (also "quasi-experimental"), which is the one referred to most here, the female (still unaware of the hypothesis) now approached subjects from the front, but instead of allowing the subject to choose the ear, she selected left or right ear. Again, equal numbers of males/females were approached, and used the same question each time and still only approached subjects she had not seen smoking.

The second and third studies were performed at different times, so there's no effect of people getting sick of this chick bumming cigs, and there were a number of other controls. In the first study, there was a conclusion that there is significant bias toward offering a particular ear. In the second, there was no significant trend for complying with the request for a cigarette in right vs left ear. In the third, several trends were found -- the main result announced in the thread that the right ear resulted in more positive outcomes, and also (not surprisingly) that men were more likely to offer a cigarette to the female when asked.

Anyway, this is not junk science. There's a lot more to the study than the paragraph in the Telegraph told you about.

For all Manhattan, NYC Grubbers...

[Anonymous Coward]

A tip for all guests, visitors, homeless & drunks in New York City...Positioning yourself near a building wall on the west side of any avenue will result in greater cigarette acquisition than standing against a building on the east side of an avenue.

Should you prefer standing near the curb, simply reverse this logic.

I've noticed that for a while now

[Lennort]

Nobody else has actually experienced this? I've noticed this for a few years now, and I talked with a few others who agreed. I can't talk on the phone very well with my left ear, even though that ear is more sensitive. I suspected other reasons, but this makes perfect sense to me. I was expecting tons of people to have similar replies to mine, but I guess I'm in the minority here.

Which Ear?

[Anonymous Coward]

OK, the important question is; if I'm whispering sweet nothings into my girlfriend's (spouse, boyfriend, special other, you pick the term); if I want some action tonight, left or right ear?