Lefty here. I’ve been playing guitar for almost 30 years. I play “right handed” and always have. It felt way more natural to me to fret with my dominant hand, and my family had a right handed guitar, so that’s what I went with. I never really experimented to figure out if I could be better with a left handed guitar (and now it’s much too late).

I also bat right handed and used a regular (what ever you call not-southpaw) stance when I did martial arts.

On the other hand, my dad is a lefty and started learning guitar about 10 years ago. He found holding a right handed guitar unnatural and got a left handed model.

My 2c - even if you don’t know how to play, go to a guitar shop and see which way feels better to hold. It’ll feel awkward either way, but I’ll bet one way will fell less awkward. And if it doesn’t, I’d lean toward right handed because I know it’s a pain to find left handed instruments (and it’s nice to be able to play/try friends’ guitars).

Edit: here’s another 2c: consider trying a ukulele. They are a lot of fun and much easier to learn and get a lot of the basics down. Then pick up the guitar once you have a little bit of experience with that. I recommend this because a vast majority of people never get over the hump when trying to learn guitar. It’s hard. It’s painful. It’s frustrating. You can make something that sounds like music so much more easily on a uke, which means you’re more likely to keep at it. And you’ll get a lot of the guitar basics from it so when you start learning that it’ll be an easier process to once again feel like you’re making music.

… if you do get a uke, make sure you aren’t buying a toy, though. There are a lot of unplayable toy Ike’s out there. People buy them from places like Walmart for their kids all the time thinking that it is a beginner instrument. It isn’t. It won’t stay in tune for more than a few seconds of playing and is nothing more than a noise maker. You can get a real-but-cheap beginner uke for well under $100.

I’m a lefty. Learned guitar right handed. Been playing for 30 years.

Reasons to learn right handed: guitars are (generally) cheaper and easier to come by.

Reasons to learn left handed: if someone hands you a guitar at a party and asks you to play ‘Wonderwall’ you can easily decline.

I play guitar and bass right handed. Especially for bass, it feels more natural to fret with my dominant hand and use the index and pluck with my right hand. That being said, I play fingerstyle most of the time and I’m not good with a pick, so playing leftie might be better for picking hand dexterity.