Last Updated on March 10, 2021 by Filip Poutintsev
As the name suggests, people with the dominance of their left hand are known to be left-handers. I.e. people who primarily do most of their daily chores with their left hand such as writing, throwing, etc. are termed to be left-handed people.
The majority of left-handed people in the world are just about 10%, which is very less as compared to the right-handed people who make up to 90% of the world population.
Not so long ago, there existed a belief that being left-handed was a sign of bad fortune, and thus parents would force their left-handed child to unwillingly switch their dominance to the right hand. But, this belief is all rubbish as many studies nowadays have shown the immense benefits of being able to write with one’s left hand.
This uniqueness is believed to be determined from the mother’s womb, where testosterone level plays a vital role. While there also exists a finding that the handedness is partially determined through heredity, but it is not quite true in most of the cases. Yes, left-handed parents have a high chance of about 26% to give birth to a left-handed child, but as per a research, different genes come into play rather than heredity in determining one to be left-handed.
Whatever the cause for one to be left-handed, it is quite certain that left-handed people have a somewhat different structure of brain than right-handed people. It is observed that the two halves of left-handers’ brains are very much similar than the right-handers’.
Left-handers or also known as southpaws (usually in sports) have a very high level of adaptability than right-handers maybe because of the compulsion for adapting themselves to be able to make use of most of the machines, and instruments manufactured for the right-handers. Because of this rarity in the number of lefties, people find it very amusing in witnessing any southpaw in the action.
Thus, to celebrate this rarity as well as to make people aware of the benefits as well as demerits of being a lefty, in 1976, the founder of Lefthanders International, Inc., Dean R. Campbell declared 13th of August to be the International Left-Handers Day. Ever since, each year, this day is celebrated throughout the world to show compassion and acceptance to those rare group of people.
Several types of research have been done on pinpointing the wonderful and astounding merits one experiences due to his/her left-handedness in this dominant right-handed world. Some of those advantages or say quirks that differentiate the lefties from the rest of the world are briefly listed below.
Advantages of Being Left-Handed
Left-handedness is a blessing one can acquire due to certain genetic irregularity, and some of them believed the merits of being left-handers in the right-handers’ world are as follows:
1. Better Multitask Skill
Since lefties are forced to continuously use both the sides of their brains for effectively adjusting in the right-handed world, their brains are evolved to process faster. Thus, with faster processing of the brain, lefties find it easy to multi-task and process heavy information than right-handers. This increase chances of having successful investments.
2. Higher Prodigies’ Percentage
Several studies have shown that people who are southpaws, strangely make up a huge portion of the total highly intellect population in the world. The reason for such a phenomenon is still unknown but many believe it may be because lefties have to constantly utilize both the sides of their brain, which eventually makes them smarter.
3. Higher Vision Adjustability Underwater
Unknown of the reason, but being lefty unambiguously benefits one in adjusting inside the water much easier as compared to the majority of righties. This ability especially comes in handy when swimming and or diving for fully enjoying the beauty of the underwater world.
4. Possibility of Earning More in Men
Researches have proved that most of the left-hander males who have enrolled in college are observed to earn about 13% more than the righties. The reason may be unknown, but the fact stands true in all of the studied cases of those males.
5. Ahead in Sports
Dealing with a lefty player in sports like baseball, cricket, tennis, etc. can be extremely difficult as the majority of sportsmen are right-handed, thus get a limited chance of practising with southpaws. This gives the southpaws an added benefit as they are usually accustomed to playing with the right-handers, who don’t have such a privilege and thus are not accustomed to their plays.
6. Superiority in Video Games
The similar properties for making lefties better in multitasking and thinking are also somehow responsible for making lefties superior in playing various video games than most of the righties. Lefties are also believed to be fast at typing, which aids them in several PC based games.
7. Enhanced Memory
Recent studies show that not only some lefties but also some people who are somehow related in genetic level to the left-handers have enhanced memory of the sporadic kind. The study is true for all the personnel who may or may not be lefties but for all those who come from the family having lefty members.
8. Top in Driving Lessons
According to a study of a driving school, it has been noted that about 57% of lefties easily came through the driving test in their first try as compared to the righties, who had a pass percentage of 47% irrespective of the fact that almost every car design is done in respect of right-handers.
9. Faster Recovery From Stroke
Almost all of the lefties are capable of making use of their non-dominant hand much better than righties, and thus can toughen both the hemisphere of their brain. This aids them to make faster recovery from brain-damaging strokes than righties.
Conclusion
To summarize, I being a lefty find this genetic irregularity to be a blessing but also an impediment sometimes because of the difficulty in operating some of the equipment designed for this right-handed world.
But, as life goes on, we lefties adapt to become familiar with those types of equipment because of which many lefties also tend to become cross-handers, who can change the dominance of their hand as per the task to be performed.
With constant utilization of both hemisphere of the brain, left-handed people evolve to be creative and can easily multitask, which aids in acquiring success in their respective fields.
Because only 10% of people are left-handed, we receive much more attention in academic as well as a professional world than the right-handers. Finally, all the advantages of being a lefty may not be true to all the left-handed people of the world, but being a left-hander in the world with such majority of right-hand dominance makes me a rare entity in itself.
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