Environmental factors in hand preference formation: evidence from attempts to switch the preferred hand.

We surveyed 650 young adults to assess both their current handedness behaviors and past attempts to shift their hand preference. We found that 73 (11.2%) individuals had experienced hand preference change attempts and 52 (8.0%) had undergone pressure to switch hand preference to the right. The likelihood that an individual had experienced pressure to change hand use was not related significantly to gender or to a number o f familial factors. However, the success o f the hand change varied with gender; females reported greater success in shifting their handedness.