Almost 10% of the world’s population is left-handed, including several famous people such as Barrack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Prince William. In her job, Vanna White uses both hands to turn letters so it’s hard to see which is her dominant hand. Is Vanna White left-handed?
Just like almost 90% of the population, Vanna White is right-handed, though her task of turning, now just touching, letters doesn’t take much dexterity. In addition, by using both hands, she can complete the task quicker, so that she can step aside and allow the contestants an unobstructed view of the board.
Previously Vanna White had to rotate the numbers, which sometimes would utilize both of her hands. Since then the puzzle boards have become computerized, which not only makes the appearance of letters easier, but also, the taping days go by much faster.
Studies Show
While being left-handed is rare, being a female who is left-handed is even rarer. Out of left-handed people, men are 23% more likely to fit the category than women are.
There have been many studies conducted over the years regarding handedness. Many believe that studies for handedness are filled with ambiguities, one reason being that as many as 8% of older generations of right-handed people may actually be left-handed, but were forced in their younger days to use their right hand.
These studies have also looked at the difference between preference and performance when one uses a hand. In most cases, the preferred hand is also the better performer, but this does not happen in all cases, so some people may be categorized incorrectly.
In addition to looking at dominant hands, or preferred usage with hands, studies are being conducted on other lateral experiments as well, such as eye dominance, food dominance, and the direction the hair in your crown swirls.
A Leg Up in Sports
Left-handed athletes tend to have an advantage over their right-handed competitors. At least that has been the long-held belief. Turns out that there are more left-handers who make it to professional levels of sports, but the advantage is not in all sports, it is more prevalent in sports that have time constraints on an action.
Is Handedness a Thing of the Past?
As slight as it may be, the number of right-handed people in the world is dropping, while left-handers, and even ambidextrous, those who utilize both hands equally as well, are on the rise.
With the use of video games and tablet screens, more and more people are getting used to using both hands. Could this be a reason for the tiny amount of change? And, will we see an even larger shift in the next few generations? It’s very well possible that in the future that dominant hands are a moot point, as people form with various, and newer, technology that have them utilizing both.
Guinness World Record Holder
Not only does Vanna White use both her hands to change letters, but she uses both of them for clapping. And she does a lot of clapping during an episode of Wheel of Fortune. It is estimated that White claps approximately 606 times during each show. Calculate that over 38 years and you have a lot of clapping.
The Guinness Book of World Records first recognized Vanna White has the most frequent clapping back in 1992, and she was once again recognized in 2013. So not only is she part of the longest-running game show, but she’s also the longest-running clapper.
She is currently under contract until 2022 for the show, but she has previously stated that she has no intentions of retiring, and we’re pretty sure that the network and show has no plans to get rid of her, so she’ll be clapping a lot more times moving forward, and maybe will receive another Guinness World Record.