Why being left-handed can cut your travel waiting times

If you’re left-handed and going on holiday soon, there might just be something that could put you at an advantage over your fellow right-handed travellers.

According to research people who are right-handed are more likely to turn right than left, and given that the majority of the population are right-handed that means that fewer people are likely to be drawn to turn left.

But what does that mean for travellers? And how could that possibly put left-handed people at an advantage? Well, if you’re lining up at the airport security check-in point, or approaching the luggage carrousel, the majority of people are going to instinctively turn right, while left-handers are much more likely to go left. This can result in less waiting times, shorter queues and less stress as a result.

Read more: Why you should pack a tennis ball for your next flight

Researchers have found that people who are right-handed, naturally tend to favour their right side. 

“It turns out that right-handed folks prefer the right and lefties prefer the left,” Scientific American reports.

“The preference informs the choice of one of a pair of products [or even] two job applicants.”

“Researchers theorize that since people have better control of their dominant hand they unconsciously associate good things with what’s called their ‘fluent side of space.’”

With that in mind, it really does pay to go against the grain and go left when your natural instinct might be to go right. That way those airport queues, museum lines and luggage pick up point waiting times will be reduces and you can spend less time waiting and more time enjoying your trip.

What do you think? Do you think being left-handed could actually cut your travel waiting times? Let us know about your own experiences in the comments section below.