International Left-Handers Day is officially here. The day gives left-handed people the chance to celebrate their unique status as science reveals more each year about the secrets behind being left-handed.
Taking place each year on August 13, International Left-Handers Day, now in its 43rd year, was formed in response to a world where the vast majority of people are right-handed. This has often caused left-handed people to feel excluded, even though research has shown that left-handed people excel in certain professions and areas of expertise.
According to Left Handers Club (the group initially linked to a shop which first opened in London’s Soho in 1968) the day is a chance for:
“lefties” to let friends and family know how dextrous left handed people have to be and turn personal space into a “lefty zone”.2
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Only about 11 percent of the world’s population is left-handed. For over 5,000 years, the split between right-handed people and left-handed people has stayed right around 90 percent, in favor of right-handedness. That would mean approximately 700 million people are left-handed across the global population.
Have you ever wondered why so many more people are right-handed than left-handed? Scientists from Illinois’ Northwestern University believe it is a balance between competition and cooperation in human evolution. They further stated:
..that because humans are highly social, the general population has trended towards one side in order to improve the highly valued ability of co-operation. If societies were entirely co-operative, argue the researchers, then everyone would be same-handed.2
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So why are some people left-handed? There is no clear-cut answer to this question. However, the most accepted theory is called the Homo loquens hypothesis. It relates to the side of the brain controlling the right hand. The right side of the body is primarily controlled by the brain’s left hemisphere, which is the same side of the brain that deals with language. Based on evidence of right-handed dominance (initially identified through tools found in Kenya 1.5 million years ago2) the left hemisphere processes our linguistic skills. Right-handedness could have happened as a side effect of this preference among early humans.
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Are left-handed people more intelligent? There has been evidence suggesting that left handers are better at solving complex problems. This may be due in part to their need to adapt to situations designed for right-handers. By default, left-handers naturally increase the connectivity between the two brain hemispheres because they are often forced to use both hands. IFL Science carried out an experiment that determined left-handers have a more developed right-brain hemisphere. According to IFL Science:
The tests found that left-handers tend to be faster at processing information and out-perform right-handers when it comes to complex arithmetic.
Bangor University neuroscience expert Emma Karlsson thinks left-handers can teach us about some of the ‘mysteries of the brain’. She told The Conversation:
‘Being left-handed has been linked with all sorts of bad things. Poor health and early death are often associated, for example – but neither are exactly true. ‘About 12% of men are left-handed but only about eight percent of women. ‘There have been plenty of claims about what being left-handed means and whether it changes the type of person someone is. But the truth is something of an enigma.’2
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Who are some well-known left-handed people? Five out of the last eight US Presidents have written with their left hand. Barack Obama is the most recent, and Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, George HW Bush, and Bill Clinton are also left-handed. One of the earliest known left-handers is King George VI. Talented musicians Jimi Hendrix and David Bowie also wrote and played with their left hands. Baseball fans are especially likely to value left-handers, as studies have pointed out that around a quarter of professional baseball players are left-handed. Chef Gordon Ramsay and scientist Nikola Tesla and are among the multitude of other famous names to fancy using their left hand.
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If you’re right-handed and want to see how you compare to the other people in terms of left-handed abilities, the Left Handers Club has a test available. Participants are asked to score how well they can perform tasks such as brushing their hair and cutting with scissors. The way you fold your arms can also tell you how left handed you are.
It certainly sounds enticing to join the likes of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, but left-handedness is likely to have already been decided by a number of factors. In fact, researchers who study human hand preference agree that the side of the preferred hand (right versus left) is determined by biological and, most likely, genetic factors. Specifically, the D gene is more frequent in the population and is more likely to occur as part of the ancestral heritage of an individual.
Very interesting! Happy International Left-Handers day to all you lefty’s out there!
