Today
is International
Left-handers Day.
It
was founded by the Left-Handers Club in 1992, and
is, according to the club, "an annual event when left-handers
everywhere can celebrate their sinistrality (left-handedness) and
increase public awareness of the advantages and disadvantages of
being left-handed."
Here
are 10 things you might not know about left-handedness:
- Studies
suggest that approximately 10% of people are left-handed.
Men
are 23% more
likely
to be left-handed.
- Is
it inherited? Possibly, but it's not simple. If two left-handed
people have a child, there is a 26% chance of that child being
left-handed. It's also possible for a pair of identical Twins to
have one left-handed member and one right-handed one. Identical
twins are often mirror images of one another which could explain
that. There was once a theory that all left-handed people started
out as twins but their right-handed twin died in the womb.
- Different
sides of the human brain control different activities. In most
people, the left hemisphere controls speech and the right hemisphere
controls
perception and gross motor skills.
Finer motor skills such as writing are controlled by the left. As
the right hand is controlled by the left hemisphere (and the left
hand is controlled by the right hemisphere) most people are
right-handed.
Does this mean left-handed people have back to front Brains? No. In
most left-handed people the left side of the brain controls speech
just as in right handed people. Only
around 30% of them
are not left-hemisphere dominant for language.
- Why
are some people left-handed then? There are a number of theories.
Studies have suggested that in-utero
exposure to diethylstilbestrol (a synthetic oestrogen
based medication used between 1940 and 1971) were more likely to be
left-handed,
and also that mothers who have ultrasound scans are more likely to
have left handed children. Seeing as just about everybody has an
ultrasound scan nowadays, that should mean more left-handed people.
Chris
McManus of University College London argues that the proportion of
left-handers is indeed
increasing.
But, you may be saying, people were left-handed long before
synthetic oestrogen and ultrasound scans. Other scientists have
suggested the position of the foetus in late pregnancy and its birth
position has an effect, which has been suggested as an explanation
as to why more premature babies are left-handed. Though it could be
that premature babies have given cause for concern all along and may
therefore have been scanned more often. Stress during pregnancy is
another theory.
- Are
left-handed people more intelligent than righties? Not necessarily,
studies have shown that there's only one IQ point in it, so not
significant. However, more noteworthy was the finding that left-handed people tended tended to be better at music and mathematics
and many of them are high achievers. Left-handed people are at an
advantage in some sports, including baseball,
tennis, fencing, cricket
and
boxing,
possibly because their
opponents are more accustomed to the right-handed majority.
- There
are down sides to being left-handed, though. Being left-handed means
a person is more likely to suffer from autism,
depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, schizophrenia, alcoholism,
cerebral
palsy,
heart
disease
and broken bones. Left-handed women have a higher risk of
Parkinson's disease and breast cancer. Studies have also found that
in spite of left-handers being over-represented among high
achievers, on average, left-handed
people earn 10 to 12%
less over the course of their lives than right-handed people.
Left-handed
men were almost twice as likely to die in war as their right-handed
contemporaries,
possibly because they had to use weapons or equipment designed for
righties.
- Then
there's the prejudice. While we live in more tolerant times now,
there was a time when left-handed people were seen as evil. Modern
language still reflects this. "Right"
in
English also
means "correct" or "proper",
and the word "sinister" derives from the Latin for left.
It's not just English. The
French
word for left,
"gauche"
also
means "awkward" or "clumsy",
while the word for right, "droit"
also means
"straight". The
word "dexterity" meaning manual skill
also derives from the Latin word for right.
A
"left-handed compliment" is one with
two meanings, one of which is unflattering;
and black
magic is sometimes referred to as the "left-hand path".
As
recently as the 20th century, children would be beaten if they used
their left hands and, and were forced to use their right instead.
Perhaps part of the problem was that the machines invented in the
industrial revolution were made for right-handers to use and a left-handed person would be less
capable
of using them efficiently.
- Some
cultures view left-handedness completely differently. Peoples
of the Andes believe
left-handers possess special spiritual abilities, including magic
and healing.
The Incas also see left-handedness as a positive thing. In Buddhism,
too, the
left hand represents wisdom.
- Some
famous left-handed people include British
King George VI and
Prince
William.
The former was forced to use his right hand, the latter is quite
proud of being a leftie and hopes some of his children will
follow suit. Some
more
famous southpaws are Barack
Obama,
Oprah
Winfrey,
Paul
McCartney, Pele,
Justin
Bieber
and Angelina
Jolie.
- "Footedness"
is a thing, too. People will usually favour one foot for various
tasks like taking a first step or kicking a ball. It's possibly most
visible in sports like snowboarding, where riders
are "footed" in one of two stances, generally called
"regular"
(right foot leads)
and "goofy"
(left foot leads).
Sounds to me like there's a bit of that language prejudice creeping
in there, too!
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