TikTok users reveal they struggle to distinguish ‘left’ from ‘right’: ‘I had no idea adults struggled with this honestly’
One woman has taken to TikTok to share that she’s always struggled to differentiate between “left” and “right” — and people are conflicted about whether they have this issue, too.
On June 28, Sarah Kretschmer (@supersizedsarah) revealed news that came as a shock to many TikTok users: She has trouble figuring out her “left” from her “right.”
“I just saw a video of a woman explaining how ‘left’ and ‘right’ is just as clear to her as ‘up’ and ‘down,'” Kretschmer begins. “If I’m saying ‘on your left,’ that’s a guess. I’m guessing and I’m second-guessing myself after and then retroactively correcting because it’s a guess, and 50% of the time I’m wrong.”
In 2020, Ineke J.M. van der Ham and her colleagues published a study in which they conducted three experiments, each focusing on “the role of individual differences” that may contribute to one’s ability to properly distinguish left from right. Nearly 43% of participants rely on their hands to distinguish “left” from “right.”
“Those not using their hand rated their LRI ability substantially higher in comparison with those who do,” van der Ham wrote, in reference to left-right identification. “It could be possible that LRI may be more internalised and automatic for those individuals, and that resorting to hand cues mostly occurs in people who are intrinsically less certain about left and right.”
In 2021, D’Kodia Laine, a 25-year-old woman based in Australia, even got “L” and “R” tattooed on her hands in an effort to help her better distinguish between the two: “It started as a joke but it’s actually super useful and I don’t look dumb making an L with my fingers to figure it out,” she told the Daily Mail.
“There’s literally no way that there’s people out there that ‘left’ and ‘right’ is just as clear as ‘up’ and ‘down.’ Can someone please tell me if this is true?” Kretschmer asks. “I confuse my lefts and rights but, like, I thought everyone was kind of at least a little bit of being on the same page. Like definitely not like ‘up’ and ‘down.'”
Since posting, Kretschmer’s video has garnered more than 986,400 views and 127,400 likes. TikTokers who find themselves on differing sides of the debate are sounding off in her comments.
‘It is not true for me. Left and right requires serious thought’
“It is not true for me. Left and right requires serious thought,” @mollsgriff wrote.
“I had no idea adults struggled with this honestly,” @ryannnicoled replied.
“My go to is to say one of them and then think harder after the fact about which hand I write with and if I was correct,” @tess_stumvoll wrote, to which Kretschmer replied, “Exactly what I do.”
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