5 Amazing Facts to Celebrate Left-Handers Day
On August 13, 1992, International Left-Handers Day was established to increase awareness by the public on the disadvantages and advantages of being a leftie. Left-handed or not, you may be surprised by the following 5 facts about southpaws…
About 11 Percent of People Around the World Are Left-Handed
In the old days, both parents and teachers tried to train a left-handed child to use their right hand instead.It all has to do with the way the brain is wired, and some people are just wired differently. Many left-handed people tend to have the right-hand side of the brain as dominant, and this controls areas such as creativity, art and music, while right-handers use their left hemisphere more. The left hemisphere controls areas such as science, math, writing and language.
Half of All Cats Are Left-Handed
Lefties may be under-represented in the human species, but our furry friends in the animal kingdom are more than making up for it. Around 50% of cats are left-handed, according to research. Other dominant left-handed animals include kangaroos, which tend to favor their left paw for things like grooming and eating. Also, studies have shown that 90% of parrots use their left foot to pick things up.
There Are Many Famous Left-Handers Leaders (few of which to be proud, Ed.)
At least four of the past seven presidents have been left-handed: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Gerald Ford. Ronald Reagan also often shows up on the list of lefties even though he wrote with his right hand. Lefties in the British royal family include the Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, and Prince William.
Careers For Lefties
In a 1996 study, Harvard Medical School researchers found that orthopedic surgeons, librarians and mathematicians were mostly right-handed while attorneys and architects were, as a group, “either the least right-handed or the most left-handed.” Other studies have shown that there are more left-handed people working as artists and musicians and in university settings. One surprising fact is that one out of four astronauts are left-handed, including Mike Collins and Buzz Aldrin from Apollo II.
Left-Handed People Tend to Scare More Easily
In a horror movie experiment, left-handers who watched an eight-minute clip from The Silence of the Lambs showed more fear than right-handers. Scientists believe that this may be because the right side of the brain is dominant in lefties and is more involved in fear responses.