{"id":1116,"date":"2016-07-11T12:56:39","date_gmt":"2016-07-11T12:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/?p=1116"},"modified":"2021-11-29T19:04:46","modified_gmt":"2021-11-29T19:04:46","slug":"12-facts-about-left-handed-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/12-facts-about-left-handed-people\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Interesting Facts about Left Handed People"},"content":{"rendered":"

First despised, then ignored and finally studied, folks with a right-brain, left-hand dominance remain enduring objects of fascination.<\/p>\n

With enormous societal pressure to favor the right hand, it seems unlikely that all natural southpaws\u00a0would raise their left hands and be counted by inquisitors. The ambidextrous may have been too young to remember the adults forcing upon them\u00a0a right hand bias as they learned basic motor skills and believe they have no lateral preference. Those who do remember may suffer a little PTSD from early punishments when crayons and toothbrushes were caught up\u00a0in their left hands and put to use, thus encouraging a false report later in life when researchers\u00a0try to count lefties and\u00a0righties. Given these possibilities, the generally-accepted breakdown of 10 to 12% lefties and 88 to 90%\u00a0righties\u00a0may be significantly skewed.\u00a0Be that as it may, having a left-hand preference has its ups and downs, advantages and pitfalls whether lefties defensively seek the shadows\u00a0or not. Beyond the notorious dearth of usable scissors, here are 12 interesting facts<\/a> about southpaws that may be news to you.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Mensa\u00a0Thinks\u00a0Lefties are Smart.<\/h2>\n
\"Mensa

courtesy of: www.geekpause.com<\/p><\/div>\n

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While only about 10% of the population is left-handed, the\u00a0brainiac\u00a0club\u00a0Mensa\u00a0International claims 20% of their membership is left-handed, which means a lot of lefties are pretty darn smart\u00a0\u2014\u00a0or just snooty. However, when tested against right-handed people, more left-handers proved to have IQs over 140 points than right-handers. The tests were conducted by St. Lawrence University, and the reports were a bit surprising, to say the least. In the realms of higher education, everyone should glow brighter\u00a0than the average bulb.\u00a0While an IQ of 140 isn’t quite\u00a0Einstein level intelligence, it’s a little dazzling.\u00a0So, if you’re looking for help with your homework or want to sit near a whiz\u00a0during finals, look no further than your left-handed school mates.<\/p>\n

2. Lefties Are Also Crazy.<\/h2>\n
\"Lefties

courtesy of: jezismaria.weebly.com<\/p><\/div>\n

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In repeat studies of schizophrenics for the purpose of determining whether those with the disorder\u00a0had a prevalent lateral preference, it was discovered that upwards of 40% of the\u00a0schizoaffectives\u00a0were left handed or more mix-handed. That means 4 in ten irrational patients were not right-handed, far more than their usual mix in the general population. Moreover, similar research suggests that lefties constitute a greater number of people suffering from ADHD and\u00a0lesdyxia, um,\u00a0dyslexia. Is it\u00a0possible that while having easier access to more of your brain could be causing left-brain\/right-brain usage confusion, like two baseball players running to catch the same fly ball and colliding?<\/p>\n

3. It’s Gay to Be Left-Handed.<\/h2>\n
\"It's

courtesy of: www.breitbart.com<\/p><\/div>\n

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Just because you’re left-handed doesn’t mean you’re a\u00a0homosexual, of course. But a\u00a0researcher\u00a0at the University of Toronto completed a study in which he found that lesbians had a 91% greater chance of being left-handed and gay men had a 34% greater chance. Note that the study didn’t just report\u00a0a simple head count for hand preference amongst a group of homosexuals, rather the results seem to be more of a statistical variety, rather than actual results. And you know what they say about statistics.<\/p>\n

4. Lefties Develop Clever Survival Tactics<\/h2>\n
\"Lefties

courtesy of: www.stripes.com<\/p><\/div>\n

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Because the Army needs to train a lot of soldiers all at once and blows through mountains of ordnance\u00a0\u2014\u00a0plus they’re cheap\u00a0\u2014\u00a0they don’t bother developing weapons and explosives designed for their rather small contingent of left-handed destroyers. Therefore, the lefties must adapt or risk dying in training. As an example, lefties must pull the pin\u00a0and lob\u00a0grenades upside down (the grenades, not the lefties) due to the design of the bomb. Once they pull the pin, they must pitch quickly which leaves little time to fiddle with shifting the grenade to the strong throwing hand. Better to adapt the device to the hand than become a smoking crater.<\/p>\n

5. Satan: The Father of All Southpaws?<\/h2>\n
\"Satan:

courtesy of: rookerville.com<\/p><\/div>\n

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If art imitates life, then the Devil, Old Scratch himself, is left-handed. Paintings featuring the Father of All Lies using his left hand for whatever dirty deed he’s engaged in suggest the artists of old certainly believed it. While in Latin, the mother tongue of the Catholic Church, “left” is\u00a0sinister,\u00a0almost all traditional, non-Satanic religions consider left-handedness something bad or evil. During the infamous\u00a0witch hunts\u00a0earlier in American history, the Puritans considered left-handed women\u00a0de facto\u00a0witches and visited their punitive horrors upon them.<\/p>\n

6. Left-handed People Like to Party.<\/h2>\n
\"Left-handed

courtesy of: kippure.com<\/p><\/div>\n

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After surveying more than 25,000 people across 12 countries, researchers discovered that\u00a0lefties drink more often than right-handers. \u00a0With such a large sampling, you’d think the ranks of lefties would also encompass more alcoholics. After all,\u00a0craziness\u00a0and evil seem like\u00a0good fertilizer for lives of dissolution. Yet, the same study found that left-handers are no more prone to alcoholism than their counterparts; they just tipple more readily than right-handers.<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0Michelangelo\u00a0Has Good Company.<\/h2>\n
\"Michelangelo

courtesy of: www.integratedcatholiclife.org<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Scientists who study hand bias\u00a0suggest that left-handed\u00a0people are better at “divergent” thinking, meaning they think outside the proverbial box better than right-biased people. They think this is because information passes more readily from one hemisphere of the brain<\/a> to the other. This information flow seems to stem from the fact that the left hemisphere, the side that controls the right hand, is heavy into language and facts<\/a>, while the right hemisphere controlling the left hand is more abstract,\u00a0conceptual and theoretical.\u00a0If so, it’s no longer difficult to understand why many\u00a0artists and musicians, like Michelangelo, are left-handed. Art and music\u00a0tend\u00a0to go left hand in left hand.<\/p>\n

8. Lefties\u00a0Now Celebrate Their Diversity.<\/h2>\n
\"Lefties

courtesy of: www.sundanceofficesupplyblog.com<\/p><\/div>\n

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A social awareness group, the Left-Hander’s Club, formed in the UK in the\u00a01990s\u00a0and has\u00a0deemed August 13 to be Left Hander’s Day. Not to be outdone by all the organized minority groups, left-handed people have a structure by which to celebrate together and help promote greater understanding among\u00a0righties\u00a0of the challenges of left-hand dominance in a world designed for the opposite. Plus, what a great excuse to imbibe adult beverages again.<\/p>\n

9. Neanderthals Had Few Lefties. Or Maybe They Ate Them.<\/h2>\n
\"Neanderthals

courtesy of: www.albanydailystar.com<\/p><\/div>\n

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An\u00a0article\u00a0published in 2013 describes a study of 11 Neanderthal skeletons found in a cave in El\u00a0Sidr\u00f3n, Spain, wherein they deduced from the striations on the\u00a0teeth that 93% were right-handed. The authors claim the 49,000-year-old hominids held animal skins in their teeth as they scraped them clean, which left marks in the enamel of their teeth\u00a0showing the directional motion\u00a0of the tools. So even cave men had an overwhelming, but not total,\u00a0right bias.\u00a0As an interesting side note, these same skeletons also showed disturbing signs that some of them ate the others.<\/p>\n

10. Left-handers Are in Their Right Mind.<\/h2>\n
\"Left-handers

courtesy of: neurosciencestuff.tumblr.com<\/p><\/div>\n

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Says the popular bumper sticker, “Left handed people are the only ones in their right mind.” That’s because the right hemisphere of the brain<\/a> controls the doings of the left side of the body, and vice versa. Lefties with a strong bias have more going on in their right hemisphere than the left, usually, but because the world of useful implements is designed almost exclusively for right handed manipulation, even a heavy left hand preference must give way to right-handed activity, thus giving the\u00a0left\u00a0brain\u00a0a frequent work-out, too. Even so, right-brained bustle still predominates a\u00a0leftie’s\u00a0cerebral\u00a0life.<\/p>\n

Find out interesting facts about your Brain<\/a> here.<\/p>\n

11. Left-handers\u00a0Are Space Cadets.<\/h2>\n
\"Left-handers

courtesy of: ez-isa.com<\/p><\/div>\n

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It turns out that even elite\u00a0careers featuring empirical data and details, rather than creative abstraction, are not out of reach for southpaws. One in four Apollo astronauts were left-handed, more than double the universal distribution. They were also very intelligent\u00a0and\u00a0hard-partying pilots (read the book\u00a0Space\u00a0by James\u00a0Michener) first before they were chosen for their space-faring careers. Since you have to be more than a little nuts to leave a perfectly good Earth behind in a supersonic jet or\u00a0experimental space craft, it’s no surprise that\u00a0so many astronauts on the first moon missions were lefties.<\/p>\n

12. Lefties Might Be Unbalanced.<\/h2>\n
\"Lefties

courtesy of: www.lolwot.com<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

A\u00a0study\u00a0published in\u00a0the\u00a0Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease\u00a0found that a left-hand bias may predispose a person to experience the anti-social\u00a0emotions of anger and hostility more profoundly than right-handed people. Because emotions that are processed in the right side of the brain, which controls the left side of the body, tend\u00a0towards the negative, left-handers have a greater capacity for emotional volatility. Think John\u00a0McEnroe, the left-handed champion tennis celebrity<\/a> renowned for his angry fits on the court directed, usually, towards the judges.<\/p>\n

Regardless of how many actual\u00a0left-handed people dance and\u00a0skulk about the earth, they are unquestionably enigmatic. First despised, then ignored and finally studied, folks with a right-brain, left-hand dominance remain the enduring objects of fascination among the greater right-handed population.<\/p>\n

If you’ve enjoyed reading this content follow 12facts.com\u00a0on facebook<\/a> for more…<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First despised, then ignored and finally studied, folks with a right-brain, left-hand dominance remain enduring objects of fascination. With enormous societal pressure to favor the right hand, it seems unlikely that all natural southpaws\u00a0would raise their left hands and be counted by inquisitors. The ambidextrous may have been too young to remember the adults forcing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1131,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[183,184,187,202,188,185],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1116"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40348,"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116\/revisions\/40348"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/12facts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}