Around 10 to 30% of the world’s population celebrates August 13th as the International Lef-Handers Day. Left-handed people gather on social media as a way to remember some of the struggles they might encounter in their daily lives.
On August 13th, 1992, the first Left-Handers Day was celebrated after an international club launched the initiative, that consisted on lefties celebrating their handedness. The day is also a way to create awareness of the struggles and advantages left-handed people face. According to the Left-Handers Day website, the date is celebrated worldwide. In countries like the U.K., people gather in simultaneous events that include sports competitions, tea parties and bar games, all using left-handed tools.
Usually, lefties use 30 percent of the right hemisphere, but in many cases, there’s no preference on which side to use which could be an issue for learning and could develop brain disorders.
In social history, being left-handed had a lot of superstition to it and in many countries, children were forced to use their right hands to be seen “healthy.” Nonetheless, modern lefties are showing just how proud they are of their handedness.
Everything from left to right
Studies and research have shown that being left handed is not something humans suddenly developed, in fact, findings regarding left-handed people go back to almost 500,000 years ago.
Handedness is produced when the baby is still in the mother’s wound, and it can even be predicted depending on the fetuses position. Studies have proven that handedness comes from the parent’s genes and like everything in biology, is all about the chances.
“Handedness seems to be determined during fetal development when a lot of other things about your future are being decided as well,” said Ronald Yeo, a psychology professor at Texa’s University to CNN news.
Researchers have also found that left-handed people are more susceptible to developing mental diseases such as schizophrenia. Scientists have been determined by identifying the differences between right and left handed people and how their brains work. That’s why there’s a lot of statistics regarding handedness in the world.
So here are a few fun facts about left-handedness:
- Left handed people have been found to gain more money than their right counterparts, studies have shown that male lefties that had a college education increased 13 percent more than right handed people.
- The risks of dying are higher for lefties, according to studies right-handed people live up to nine years more.
- Lefties have higher IQ’s than their counterparts and are more creative and are better at drawing music and arts.
- The vast majority of cats have been found to be left-handed or as the Mirror puts it ‘left-pawed.’
- Many famous people and leaders are left-handed including, President Obama, Queen Elizabeth and most of the royal family, Einstein, Newton and Darwin were also lefties.
- Many negative figures are also left handed such as Jack the Ripper and Bin Laden.
Source: Mirror