[Reading Science] Phone Calls: Is the Right Ear Better at Hearing?

The protagonist in the movie holds the receiver with their left hand while talking. Which ear would be better to listen with?
Photo by YouTube screen capture

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jonghwa] A phone call comes in during a busy time. People usually hold the phone with their left hand and place the receiver against their left ear. This is because the right hand is used to operate the mouse and continue working or to take notes during the call.

However, it is said that listening to phone calls with the right ear allows for better hearing and longer retention. Why is that?

A 2017 study published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America by a research team from Auburn University revealed through experiments testing which ear is more efficient at hearing that the right ear hears at least 8% better than the left ear. Some individuals were found to hear up to 40% better with their right ear.

The research team conducted an experiment with 42 participants aged 19 to 28, playing different messages to each ear and then checking what they heard. Different numbers or words were delivered to each ear, and as the experiment progressed, the number of items was increased to analyze which ear was more efficient at hearing.

Earlier, in 2004, a UCLA research team conducted experiments on thousands of newborns and identified differences between the right and left ears. The team played rapidly interrupted clicking sounds and continuous sounds to newborns with normal hearing.

As a result, the newborns’ right ears responded faster to the clicking, interrupted sounds, while the left ears responded better to continuous sounds. The clicking, interrupted sounds are similar to the sounds and rhythms of speech.

The research team also confirmed through experiments that students with abnormalities in their right ear had lower learning abilities than those with abnormalities in their left ear. Ultimately, proper hearing in the right ear is necessary for better learning efficiency.

The reason the right ear has superior auditory ability and learning capacity compared to the left ear is due to the structure of the human brain. The brain is divided into the left and right hemispheres; the left hemisphere controls logical areas such as language, while the right hemisphere governs emotional areas.

Listening to someone on the phone is a logical activity, which falls under the left hemisphere’s domain. The ear connected to the left hemisphere is not the left ear but the right ear. Therefore, holding the receiver with the right hand and listening with the right ear is more efficient overall in terms of information processing.

Which hand do you use to hold the phone when you make a call? This is a scene of a drama protagonist talking on the phone with the right ear.
[Photo by YouTube screenshot]

Additionally, because the brain’s central auditory processing center is biased toward the right side, sounds are perceived more clearly through the right ear than the left. However, holding the phone with the right hand during calls feels awkward simply due to habit.

Here is another point to consider: the structure of the human body. Parts of the body that come in pairs include the brain (left and right hemispheres), eyes, ears, nostrils, arms, and legs. Among the brain hemispheres, the left hemisphere is dominant because it is involved in conscious function control, sensory integration, and information processing. The right ear is connected to this left hemisphere.

The left hemisphere controls the right side of the body, and the right hemisphere controls the left side. In the symmetrical human body, the use of arms and legs differs. There are right-handed and left-handed people, with over 90% of the world’s population being right-handed, indicating a strong influence of the left hemisphere.

For important calls, listening with the right ear is better for information processing and memory. However, if you need to take notes but cannot write with your left hand, why not use the 'call recording' feature?