David Muir is a multi-award winning journalist, best known as the anchor for ABC World New Tonight, and for co-hosting 20/20. The globe-trotting news anchor can be found in far-flung locales on the television daily, but keeps his personal life very private, leading people to wonder about some of his quirky traits, including whether or not he is left-handed.

David Muir is not left-handed. Though the indomitable new anchor often works off a laptop, instead of pen and paper while at the anchor desk, if one searches back to broadcasts from the start of his career decades ago, David can be found writing with his right hand.

Right-Handed and Level Headed

David Muir knew he wanted to be a journalist from the time he was a child, holding in high esteem newscasters such as the legendary Peter Jennings, and Ron Curtis, a local newscaster in Muir’s hometown of Syracuse. He was so inspired, he wrote a letter to Curtis when he was 12-years old, with the local anchor responding, “Competition in television news is keen. There’s always room for the right person. It could be you.”

By the time he hit his teenage years, David Muir was interning at his local new station and was keen to pursue a career in journalism. Muir attended Ithaca College, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1995. 

ABC meteorologist Lee Goldberg recently took to Twitter to share a throwback video of Goldberg and Muir hosting the college’s news program. Muir can be spotted holding a pen in his right hand throughout the broadcast.

Notable News

During the formative years of his career, Muir worked at WTVH-TV in Syracuse before moving to WCVB-TV in Boston. It was at WCVB-TV that Muir rose to prominence for his award-winning work tracing the movements of the September 11th hijackers.

In 2003, Muir joined ABC, one of the Big Three television networks, and since joining ABC, he has helmed multiple shows and become one of ABC’s most prominent anchors. Known for his reporting from the field across the globe, the anchor has won multiple Emmy Awards.

Since 2014, Muir has been the anchor on World New Tonight with David Muir, which has been a ratings winner for the network. Despite reporting for several decades, the news anchor shows no signs of slowing down, often working seven days a week to make sure the news coverage is accurate and impartial.

Given Muir’s propensity for research and accuracy, it only makes sense to delve into the science on handedness and what makes left-handed people so different from right-handed people. 

You can watch this compilation of fun facts about left-handed people in the YouTube video below.

Inconclusive Research, but Many Theories

Scientists have begun to examine the ways in which right handed and left handed people differ. Right or left hand dominance is thought  to begin in the womb, where fetuses show a preference for one hand or the other, though most children don’t firmly choose until they are closer to toddler age.

Since right handedness is so prevalent around the world (with up to 90% of the population being right-handed), some people often wonder why left handedness has not died out among the population, as have numerous other evolutionary disadvantages. Archaeologist Natalie Uomini has surmised, “The idea is that in hand-to-hand combat, or in combat with weapons, there is an evolutionary advantage to being a minority left-hander. If you’re left-handed, you have a surprise advantage because most people are used to fighting against right-handers.”

Whatever the reasons are that  southpaws have carried on, they have created an unusual niche for the world of retail and marketing, with all kinds of items being fitted for left handed people, which are easier to use than the average tools created for a right-handed society. Though the stigma of being left handed has lessened over the years, there are still many pervasive myths about left handed people.

Being left handed is associated with early death and the onset of poor mental health, but it is also associated with being more creative. Despite multiple studies into left and right handedness, science has not come up with a definitive answer as to whether or not left hand dominance is actually indicative of these things and vice versa.

Given that the current research is inconclusive, it’s impossible to say whether handedness actually plays a role in people’s personality or their health. Perhaps one day when science reaches a conclusion, David Muir will share the news to his viewers during one of his nightly broadcasts.

ncG1vNJzZmiblaGyo63NrK6eqqNjsLC5jqKqZpyRq7alecyuoKtlnJqztXnHmqWdnZRk