<p><strong>Q: Why do right-handed people put things in their left pocket, and vice versa?</strong></p>

<p><strong>A:</strong> I suppose that the left pocket means the left shirt-pocket because, in the case of pant-pockets, it is the right pant-pocket that most right-handed people usually put things (a wallet, a mobile phone, etc.) in. The reasons that they use the right pant-pocket are probably that it is more convenient and faster and that it consumes less energy than using the left pant-pocket.</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/iOw3R.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/iOw3R.jpg" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>The reason that right-handed people usually put things in their left shirt-pocket and vice versa for the left-handed people is probably the same. For right-handed people, putting things in the right shirt-pocket requires more flexing of the finger, wrist, and elbow joints, which is less comfortable and consumes more energy (for muscle contractions). But, unlike your case, I observe that most people who put things in their left shirt-pocket with their right hand will remove the object from the pocket with their right hand, not with their left hand and then transfer it to the right hand, which will take more time and expend more energy.</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/3hcCe.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/3hcCe.jpg" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>Finding ways to spend least energy for any action seems to be a well-preserved selected trait in all animals. It certainly gives a basic advantage for survival to the animals. That’s why, mostly, a man or an animal will always try to walk/fly/swim the shortest path it can to the goal. This preference applies to all other actions. This finding ways to spend least energy is called the principle of least effort:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>“The principle of least effort is a broad theory that covers diverse fields from evolutionary biology to webpage design. It postulates that animals, people, even well-designed machines will naturally choose the path of least resistance or "effort".”[Ref 1]</p>
</blockquote>

<p>and</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>“Summary. The observations in this section can be summarized by proposing three fundamental principles underlying the study of movement economy. </p>
  
  <p>The first derives from Hull (1943), to the effect that, when the organism is repeatedly presented with a number of equally reinforced alternative responses, that response requiring the least metabolic energy expenditure will become the dominant response.</p>
  
  <p>The second principle is that, when either the choice of response has been made or no choice given and a goal response specified, over trials the organism minimizes the metabolic energy expended in achieving the task goal. This economy-learning, or efficiency-learning, relationship, as shown in Figure 7, was first suggested by Freeman (1948), but Brener and Mitchell (1989) have also recognized the same principle.</p>
  
  <p>The third principle serves to explain these phenomena - the principle of least metabolic energy expenditure. In being receptive to sensory information about metabolic energy expenditure, organisms select the least effortful coordination and control function, and, with practice, the selected control parameters are refined to attain the task goal with less metabolic energy expenditure. The following section examines the contribution of various sources of informational support for response selection and metabolic energy minimization.” [Ref 2]</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Thus, the reason that right-handed people put things in their left shirt-pocket is probably an evolutionary biological reason, not a psychological reason.</p>

<p>It should be noted that evolution works in general but not in every case. And variation is another constant facet of evolution. So, not every selected evolutionary trait will appear in all members of a species or will win out over other competing traits and manifest itself every time in a similar situation. Sometimes, another trait wins out. Therefore, some people or some people sometimes will not behave according to this principle of least effort.</p>

<p><strong>References.</strong></p>

<ol>
<li><p>Wikipedia. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_least_effort" rel="nofollow noreferrer">The principle of least effort</a></p></li>
<li><p>Sparrow WA, Newell KM.  <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.3758%2FBF03212943.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Metabolic energy expenditure and the regulation of movement economy.</a> Psychonomic Bulletin &amp; Review. 1998; 5: 173. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03212943" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03212943</a></p></li>
</ol>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-23T11:57:31.083Z
2019-09-23T11:57:31.083Z
user287279
<p>Throughout my life, I have noticed that many people, including myself, put things in a pocket opposite of their main hand of usage (excluding ambidextrous people.) I am right-handed, and I typically put my phone and other objects in my left pocket, and I take it out with my left hand and transfer it to my right hand. A relative of mine who is left-handed does the same thing, although with directions reversed.</p>
<p>Why is this so? What psychological reasons are there to do such an act?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-23T01:15:45.013Z
Anecdotally, I put my phone in my left pocket because I have keys in my right pocket.
Bryan Krause
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-23T01:28:57.943Z
@BryanKrause And your point is?
Rewan Demontay
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-23T01:34:42.650Z
I guess I'm not sure why you are looking for "psychological reasons" when there are simpler, practical ones.
Bryan Krause
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-24T05:03:54.053Z
I am left handed and used to put things in my left pocket, but I quickly discovered that often I hold something in my left hand and my right hand is free (to take out keys for example). I think naturally one would put everything in his dominant-side pocket, but over time learns to use the opposite pocket
Alatoo
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-12-13T16:06:59.843Z
This question seems too anecdotal and is lacking initial research.
Steven Jeuris
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-12-13T16:50:39.837Z
@StevenJeuris This is a two year old already answered question. There is no need to mess with it. I only edited it to fix the grammar and such.
Rewan Demontay
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-12-13T17:45:28.120Z
Not intending to close it unless it attracts unwanted answers. But, still down voting since it otherwise sets the wrong precedent for other new questions. P.s. given that you accepted the answer, _did_ you mean shirt pocket?
Steven Jeuris
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-12-13T18:19:16.087Z
@StevenJeuris Regardless of pocket type, the answer still satisfies my question.
Rewan Demontay
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-04-27T21:35:49.753Z
My guess is that we use the dominant hand for primary tasks. We often need to reach for a thing (a phone most often) when we are busy handling other matters with our right (in the majority of people). The cell phone is available more often by being in the pocket of the hand that is available more often.
Cory Alexander
<behavior><handedness>
Why do right-handed people put things in their left pocket, and vice versa?
Rewan Demontay
# Why do right-handed people put things in their left pocket, and vice versa?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-09-23)

Throughout my life, I have noticed that many people, including myself, put things in a pocket opposite of their main hand of usage (excluding ambidextrous people.) I am right-handed, and I typically put my phone and other objects in my left pocket, and I take it out with my left hand and transfer it to my right hand. A relative of mine who is left-handed does the same thing, although with directions reversed.

Why is this so? What psychological reasons are there to do such an act?

**Tags:** behavior, handedness

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Anecdotally, I put my phone in my left pocket because I have keys in my right pocket.  
> **username_0**: @BryanKrause And your point is?  
> **username_1**: I guess I'm not sure why you are looking for "psychological reasons" when there are simpler, practical ones.  
> **username_2**: I am left handed and used to put things in my left pocket, but I quickly discovered that often I hold something in my left hand and my right hand is free (to take out keys for example). I think naturally one would put everything in his dominant-side pocket, but over time learns to use the opposite pocket  
> **username_3**: This question seems too anecdotal and is lacking initial research.  
> **username_0**: @StevenJeuris This is a two year old already answered question. There is no need to mess with it. I only edited it to fix the grammar and such.  
> **username_3**: Not intending to close it unless it attracts unwanted answers. But, still down voting since it otherwise sets the wrong precedent for other new questions. P.s. given that you accepted the answer, _did_ you mean shirt pocket?  
> **username_0**: @StevenJeuris Regardless of pocket type, the answer still satisfies my question.  
> **username_4**: My guess is that we use the dominant hand for primary tasks. We often need to reach for a thing (a phone most often) when we are busy handling other matters with our right (in the majority of people). The cell phone is available more often by being in the pocket of the hand that is available more often.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_5 on 2019-09-23. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

**Q: Why do right-handed people put things in their left pocket, and vice versa?**

**A:** I suppose that the left pocket means the left shirt-pocket because, in the case of pant-pockets, it is the right pant-pocket that most right-handed people usually put things (a wallet, a mobile phone, etc.) in. The reasons that they use the right pant-pocket are probably that it is more convenient and faster and that it consumes less energy than using the left pant-pocket.

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/iOw3R.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/iOw3R.jpg)

The reason that right-handed people usually put things in their left shirt-pocket and vice versa for the left-handed people is probably the same. For right-handed people, putting things in the right shirt-pocket requires more flexing of the finger, wrist, and elbow joints, which is less comfortable and consumes more energy (for muscle contractions). But, unlike your case, I observe that most people who put things in their left shirt-pocket with their right hand will remove the object from the pocket with their right hand, not with their left hand and then transfer it to the right hand, which will take more time and expend more energy.

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/3hcCe.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/3hcCe.jpg)

Finding ways to spend least energy for any action seems to be a well-preserved selected trait in all animals. It certainly gives a basic advantage for survival to the animals. That’s why, mostly, a man or an animal will always try to walk/fly/swim the shortest path it can to the goal. This preference applies to all other actions. This finding ways to spend least energy is called the principle of least effort:

> “The principle of least effort is a broad theory that covers diverse fields from evolutionary biology to webpage design. It postulates that animals, people, even well-designed machines will naturally choose the path of least resistance or "effort".”[Ref 1]

and

> “Summary. The observations in this section can be summarized by proposing three fundamental principles underlying the study of movement economy.
>
> The first derives from Hull (1943), to the effect that, when the organism is repeatedly presented with a number of equally reinforced alternative responses, that response requiring the least metabolic energy expenditure will become the dominant response.
>
> The second principle is that, when either the choice of response has been made or no choice given and a goal response specified, over trials the organism minimizes the metabolic energy expended in achieving the task goal. This economy-learning, or efficiency-learning, relationship, as shown in Figure 7, was first suggested by Freeman (1948), but Brener and Mitchell (1989) have also recognized the same principle.
>
> The third principle serves to explain these phenomena - the principle of least metabolic energy expenditure. In being receptive to sensory information about metabolic energy expenditure, organisms select the least effortful coordination and control function, and, with practice, the selected control parameters are refined to attain the task goal with less metabolic energy expenditure. The following section examines the contribution of various sources of informational support for response selection and metabolic energy minimization.” [Ref 2]

Thus, the reason that right-handed people put things in their left shirt-pocket is probably an evolutionary biological reason, not a psychological reason.

It should be noted that evolution works in general but not in every case. And variation is another constant facet of evolution. So, not every selected evolutionary trait will appear in all members of a species or will win out over other competing traits and manifest itself every time in a similar situation. Sometimes, another trait wins out. Therefore, some people or some people sometimes will not behave according to this principle of least effort.

**References.**

1. Wikipedia. [The principle of least effort](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_least_effort)
2. Sparrow WA, Newell KM. [Metabolic energy expenditure and the regulation of movement economy.](https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.3758%2FBF03212943.pdf) Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 1998; 5: 173. <https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03212943>


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