Let’s begin with the right hand. How would we determine the right hand? Well, many ways, as the hands are the most used part of the human body, so you will always find ways. The most basic and easiest way is to just watch the person and see which hand they use the most or whether or not they cross their right arms over their left, but this could also be the case for ambidextrous people. But, for the sake of simplicity I am going to assume you understand the very basic and obvious tells to determining the dominant hand via watching the person, the harder part is to determine the dominant hand-in this case the right-when the person is not around to be watched.

So, what do we do? Well, we look for at things that can be manipulated by the human hand and can be changed. But what does that mean? Well, for example, when I use a mug-I am right handed- I bring the cup up to my mouth with the handle pointing to the right side of the cup and then when I place it back down the cup is still left with the handle pointing to the right side. As seen in the picture, but now you can assume I am right handed now, right? Nope. Don’t, as Sherlocks puts it theorize before you have data. Invariably, you end up twisting theories to suit facts instead of facts to suit theories. So, while yes, it’s very likely that the person is right handed if you observe this this picture above, considering that the majority of people are right handed, still look for other clues. I always place my mug on the left side of me and drink it with my left hand when I am at my pc because if I put it on my right side I will knock it with my elbow or mouse, so now you may be able to see why you look for as much dater as possible, or as I like to put it “clusters”. Look for other clues: Pens (tend to be pointing to the left when used by a right handed person), plug sockets (tend to use the right side switch, unless an obstacle prevents them). Purses, believe it or not are a fantastic way to tell the hand of the person, the older the person the better. I observed this with my mothers purse. On my mothers purse (she is left handed) the left side of the strap or button closed cover tends to stick up more on the left side, why? Because she holds the bag with her left hand and then opes it with her right and she sub-consciously uses the left side to open the purse because of the nature of habits. It might be worth mentioning that people tend to use their dominant hand to do the main action. When you think about it, with string instruments it seems like the best idea is to string with your dominant hand, but this is never the case.

The left hand, now. This will be a very quick example as you just look for the same things as the right hand, but look for different context, so the pen in this example would be pointing right or the mug to the left. Now, the best thing that left handed observations have that right handed observations don’t is left handed instruments. You can buy a lot of things that are created for the left hand, such as gold clubs, instruments and controllers.

How do you determine whether someone is ambidextrous? Well, it’s rather difficult to do just looking round their belongings and it might be worth watching the person themselves. But, again, we will go with the hardest option. You’re going to have to look for the skillfulness of how well the person is using both hands. Such as, do you see two notebooks with writing and on one notebook is a pen pointing right and on the other a pen pointing left? Well, look at the writing, if the writing is equally readable and controlled then you can begging to assume the person is ambidextrous. Now, it’s going to get complex. You will have to start looking at dust lines. How often is the TV buttons pressed or the mantle piece touched and with which hands. Someone who is ambidextrous will tend to do any interchangeably. Now, how do you actually know which hand was used? Well, you have to look at the diameter of the dust imprint. People tend to not not press things with center pressure, instead, because of the natural structure of the hand, there tends to be a lean to one side. You may of noticed when pressing things with your right fingers or thumb or equally on the left hand that you press with one side of your finger or thumb depending on the hand. With the left hand there is a tenderness to press with the right side of the finger and thumb and equal and opposite goes for the right hand. If in the dust print you see a blob of missing dust from a finger print and the blob is more printed on the right side than the left then you can determine that a left hand was used. If the blob is more predominantly printed on the left side then you can assume a right hand was used. Of course if your have a full finger print instead of just the tips of the fingers then the observation will be obvious.