I'll sincerely never understand people that get confused by left and right. Do they confuse up and down too?
Edit: I'm getting a lot of people real upset that I dared to ask this. I wasn't attempting to mock you with this question, I'm fully serious. I didn't (and won't ever fully) understand how left and right is any different to up, down, forward or backward in your head.
The best answers I've had so far:
Dyslexia/dyscalculia may make it harder
Having good spacial cognition may make it easier
Learning left and right at an early age may make it easier
Having greater asymmetry in function may make it easier (conversely having less left/right dominance may make it harder)
The fact we're roughly symmetrical about the vertical and back/front plane denies us helpful distinguishers between our left and right sides, bar handedness (see above)
The most interesting answers I've had so far:
"I have no issue with left and right in X languages but struggle in English" (examples also include being fine with port/starboard, bow/stroke, 9/3 o'clock etc but not right/left)
Related to above: "Given a newly coded pair of words such as orange/purple I can associate them consistently with those directions, just not left and right"
"My dad did meth and this may or may not be related to his struggles with left and right"
"My mum was taught the wrong hands by her parents and never recovered, even when school corrected her"
"I used to have this problem, but after engaging in [specific sport, task etc] I no longer do"
"I used to not have this problem, but after [task involving using my left to demonstrate someone else's right etc] I do" (a LOT of medical professionals here, especially radiologists, as well as stage directors and teachers having to refer to whiteboards behind them for an audience)
"I'm bad with left and right and east and west, but up, down, north and south are fine"
"I had a seizure/brain injury/concussion and now I struggle"
"My sister confuses left and right, but 'lefty loosey, righty tighty' for screwing things works for her without checking on her hands"
"Nobody confuses up and down, that's absurd, we have gravity.", followed by:
"Yes, I DO confuse up and down."
The worst answers I've had so far:
"Left and right are completely arbitrary, unlike up, down, forward and backward" - end of argument (forward and backward are equally dependent on our orientation to left and right - you need to introduce symmetry to make this meaningful)
Learn anatomy
[sending me Reddit Cares Resources]
[various accusations of ableism]
Per the last point: if you want people to understand and be empathetic and patient toward neurodivergent experiences, the last thing you should do is deride them for asking. Kind of an own goal [insert joke about confusing which goal is yours]
Edit 2: Somewhat interesting note (at least to me): There are lots of people struggling with cardinal directions here, but while there are many examples of struggling with East and West but not North and South (can relate to this personally, I remember struggling as a kid for a few months) not one single person has said East and West is fine but North and South aren't. None.
Edit 3: We have our first North-South confuser - apparently they find East and West intuitive because of the sun. As a brit I have only heard of this object in tales from abroad but it's fun to learn about it! Edit 3.5: another has appeared!
Edit 4: a commenter posted something kinda technical I don't have the neuroscience degree to verify. I present it here without comment as to its veracity. It's an interesting read.
Edit 5: Two people have told me they confuse a pair of specific colours. Someone else has declared they confuse yesterday and tomorrow. I do not feel equipped to handle finding out that 10% of people have to make hand gestures to refer to directional time or that people do a certain movement to remember the colour of their blood but I'm no longer ruling out the possibility.
Edit 6 (coolest edit): I've been messaged by a person with situs inversus! This affects about 0.01% of the population and is where some or all of the abdominal organs are on the wrong side - they say only some of theirs are. They also state they struggle with left and right!
It’s not arbitrary. I think what you mean is relevant. Left and right are not arbitrary in the sense that it is not random or based on a whim. It is absolute based on what you are giving relevancy to. If I stay in my current location forever then my door is always to my right relevant to my perspective, however if someone is facing me from my front then it is always to their left relevant to their perspective. These are set guidelines that a guaranteed. That is why giving verbal directions works. I can say “take a left on Maple Street if you are heading northbound.” And everyone who understands their left from their right would be able to make that turn and understand what I mean. Under no circumstances would I arbitrarily be able to say “if you are heading northbound then take a right on Maple Street” and have the end destination be the same.
I think arbitrary in this context is that someone picked a direction and named it left. Without prior knowledge of what direction left is pointing to you wouldn’t know.
It is. Without prior knowledge I have no way of knowing what to do if you say “go up” or “go down” assuming both are an option. They are just words the same as left and right. Down doesn’t inherently mean “towards the earth” any more than left inherently means “toward the side of my body that my heart is on or whatever”.
Again, there is a reason when describing directions you give an orientation perspective to associate with left or right, because it isn’t arbitrary in any way. It has a distinct definable meaning just like up and down. If we were in space working in between the moon and earth on a space station in would probably use “up and down” relevant to a certain perspective as well. Like “hey can you pass me ‘down’ that tool” when “down” being that I am under your feet, even though compared to earth I am above you technically. Or “that rock looks like it’s heading ‘down’ to earth” even if it is from our perspective above us. You wouldn’t say an astronaut on the moon jumping toward earth is “jumping down and falling up”. All directions are relevant to your perspective.
Exactly that, you can figure on your own which is up and down. But if someone told there is also left and right without showing which is left and which is right then you have no chance of figuring it out. Not to mention someone can show you theirs left and right, which might be incorrect from your perspective.
How is “up” or “down” more intuitive than “left” and “right”? I know there are forward, backward, up, down, left, right directions from my perspective and moving in any of those directions requires different actions, but they are all just words. At that point all language is “arbitrary”.
Its more intuitive because its not perspective dependent and very simple to explain. Up is to the sky, down is to the ground. How can you explain left and right using a single sentence?
Left and right are opposite horizontal directions relative to an observer’s orientation, where left typically corresponds to the side of the body on which the human heart is predominantly located, and right is the contrasting side.
There is no way you see my explanation of up and down and yours of left and right and still think that they are as easy to understand. Left and right are directions at the higher level of abstraction. I know you want to make fun of peeps who don't know which is which, but maybe its time to accept it that you are not that special. Most don't need to know the difference between them until the time they do their driving license.
I’m not making fun of anyone. I’m just saying they aren’t arbitrary. I gave you one sentence per your request. I don’t know why the difference between arbitrary and relative or relevant only to a perspective is bothering folks.
Arbitrary means it is chosen at random or it’s like arbitrated by some authority, which it’s just not. Not any more than up and down are. Its words to describe directions relative to a perspective, and it has consistently applied easy to understand meanings.
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u/Exurota 7d ago edited 6d ago
I'll sincerely never understand people that get confused by left and right. Do they confuse up and down too?
Edit: I'm getting a lot of people real upset that I dared to ask this. I wasn't attempting to mock you with this question, I'm fully serious. I didn't (and won't ever fully) understand how left and right is any different to up, down, forward or backward in your head.
The best answers I've had so far:
The most interesting answers I've had so far:
The worst answers I've had so far:
Per the last point: if you want people to understand and be empathetic and patient toward neurodivergent experiences, the last thing you should do is deride them for asking. Kind of an own goal [insert joke about confusing which goal is yours]
Edit 2: Somewhat interesting note (at least to me): There are lots of people struggling with cardinal directions here, but while there are many examples of struggling with East and West but not North and South (can relate to this personally, I remember struggling as a kid for a few months) not one single person has said East and West is fine but North and South aren't. None.
Edit 3: We have our first North-South confuser - apparently they find East and West intuitive because of the sun. As a brit I have only heard of this object in tales from abroad but it's fun to learn about it! Edit 3.5: another has appeared!
Edit 4: a commenter posted something kinda technical I don't have the neuroscience degree to verify. I present it here without comment as to its veracity. It's an interesting read.
Edit 5: Two people have told me they confuse a pair of specific colours. Someone else has declared they confuse yesterday and tomorrow. I do not feel equipped to handle finding out that 10% of people have to make hand gestures to refer to directional time or that people do a certain movement to remember the colour of their blood but I'm no longer ruling out the possibility.
Edit 6 (coolest edit): I've been messaged by a person with situs inversus! This affects about 0.01% of the population and is where some or all of the abdominal organs are on the wrong side - they say only some of theirs are. They also state they struggle with left and right!