Left-Handers and Health Risks: 12 Little-Known Facts

From their innovative minds to their political aspirations, there are plenty of great reasons to love lefties!

By Katie Kerns Geer

Reviewed: August 13, 2015

Fact-Checked

Left-Handedness and Your Health

There’s no denying it. Left-handers are the odd ones out.

Sure, lefties make up about 10 percent of the population — but, frankly, it seems like society has forgotten about them. Just consider all of the right-handed gadgets, awkwardly designed desks, and cooking tools that fit comfortably only in your right hand.

What causes someone to become a southpaw? Scientists aren’t exactly sure, but research points to a complex collaboration between genes and environment. While no exact set of “leftie genes” have been discovered, people who dominantly use their left hands do have more left-handed family members. And researchers have found different brain wirings in righties vs. lefties.

But no matter what it is that drives someone to use their antipodal paw, science has also uncovered a particular set of personality traits that left-handed people tend to have. So for all of you lefties, leftie-loving righties, and ambidextrous folks out there — it’s time to brush up on your left-handed knowledge and help put an end to leftie discrimination once and for all.

Lefties Have a Higher Risk of Psychosis

Lefties make up about 10 percent of the general population. But researchers have found that in populations with certain mental disorders, that rate goes up. Previous studies have found that people with psychosis had a 20 percent likelihood of being left-handed, though a small study in the journal SAGE found the rate of psychotic lefties may be even higher. Researchers at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas assessed 107 patients at outpatient psychiatric clinics. For those with mood disorders such as depression or bipolar disorder, the rate of left-handedness was close to average, at 11 percent. But in people with psychosis, such as those with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, the rate of left-handedness was 40 percent, well above average. Researchers theorize brain laterality plays a role.

Your Handedness May Determine Your Health

Scientists have also found an increased risk for dyslexia, ADHD, and certain mood disorders in left-handed people, according to a 2010 study published in Pediatrics. Researchers are not exactly sure how to explain this phenomenon, but many believe it’s related to how the brain is wired. Your noggin is divided into two halves: the left side and the right side. Most people (righties and lefties alike) rely on the brain’s left hemisphere for tasks like language functioning. But about 30 percent of left-handed folks are either partial to the right hemisphere or have no dominant hemisphere at all. According to scientists, having one hemisphere dominate is much more efficient, which is why some left-handers are at increased risk for learning impairments and brain disorders.

But lefties may be in luck when it comes to other health conditions: Results of a large survey published in the journal Laterality found that left-handers had lower rates of arthritis and ulcers.

Lefties Hear Speeches Differently

People who use their left hands when listening may more easily hear slowly-changing sounds than those who use their right hands, according to a study from Georgetown University Medical Center. The researchers who conducted the study, presented at Neuroscience 2012, found that the left and right hemispheres of the brain specialize in different kinds of sounds. The left hemisphere, which controls the right hand, likes rapidly-changing sounds like consonants, while the right hemisphere, which controls the left hand, likes slowly-changing sounds like syllables or intonation.

According to the researchers, if you’re waving an American flag while listening to a presidential candidate, the speech will sound slightly different to you depending on whether you’re holding the flag in your left or right hand. The research could ultimately result in better treatment for stroke and language disorders.

Update: An earlier version of this post stated that people who use their left hands may more easily hear rapidly-changing sounds that those who use their right hands. In fact, left-handers hear slow-changing sounds better.

Left-Handed Neanderthals Were the Minority, Too

Right-handed bias isn’t just a modern-day phenomenon: It turns out we’ve been dominantly using our right hooks for more than 500,000 years.

University of Kansas researchers recently determined the handedness of ancient humans by studying — oddly enough — their teeth. The study, which was published in the journal Laterality, found that when our great-great-great-great-(you get the point)-grandfathers processed animal hides, they would hold one side of the carcass in one hand and the other in their mouth. By locating the wear and tear on those prehistoric chompers, scientists were able to determine whether our prehistoric ancestors were using their left hand or right hand more dominantly

“All you need to have is a single tooth, and you can tell if our assumptions are right — if the individual is right- or left-handed,” study researcher David Frayer, Ph. D., told LiveScience. The results? “The fossils are just like humans in that we are mostly right-handed, and so were they.”

Lefties Make Better Artists

Southpaws have been bragging about their creative clout for years. But is it true — does being left-handed mean you’re also more likely to be artistic or innovative?

According to research published in the American Journal of Psychology, there is some evidence that left-handed people have the upper hand in at least one creative facet: They’re better at divergent thinking, a method of idea generation that explores many possible solutions.

To determine whether lefties were more likely to pursue creative careers than righties, the folks behind the Left-Handers Club (a pro-leftie group dedicated to left-handed research and product development) surveyed more than 2,000 left-handed, right-handed, and ambidextrous participants and found that lefties tended to find advantages and be drawn to careers in the arts, music, sports, and information-technology fields.

But that may also add up to lower paychecks: According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, left-handers’ salaries are 10 percent lower on average than those of right-handers.

We Vote for Left-Handers!

AFP/Getty Images

It doesn’t matter which way they swing politically: A surprisingly high percentage of recent U.S. presidents were on the left (in terms of handedness, of course).

The lengthy list of left-handed leaders includes four of the last seven commanders in chief — President Obama, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Gerald Ford — as well as past presidents James Garfield and Harry Truman. In fact, there’s a rumor that Ronald Reagan was born a leftie, but stringent schoolteachers converted him to a righty when he was young.

Should right-handed presidential wannabes fake it? Our penchant for left-handed POTUSes is probably pure coincidence. But one recent Dutch study suggests that left-handed politicians actually have an advantage in televised debates. As a whole, people tend to associate right-handed gestures with “good” and left-handed gestures with “bad,” according to the researchers. Since television presents a mirror image, the lefties are the ones who appear to gesture with their right hands (the “good” hand).

Southpaws Will Beat You in Sports

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Golf legend Phil Mickelson, tennis ace Rafael Nadal, boxing champ Oscar de la Hoya — did you know that a number of your favorite sports superstars are lefties?

Actually, left-handers may have the advantage in sports that involve two opponents facing each other, such as in tennis, boxing, and baseball, according to an MSNBC review of the book The Puzzle of Left-Handedness, by Rik Smits. The author chalks it up to the fact that left-handed athletes get a lot more opportunity to practice against right-handed opponents than vice versa (since there are so many more righties out there).

Now that’s a home run for lefties.

Lefties Are Scaredy-Cats

Boo!

If you’re a left-hander, that probably made you cringe. That’s because people whose left hands are dominant tend to be more affected by fear than people who use their right hands, according to research presented at an annual conference of The British Psychological Society and reported in the Telegraph.

For the study, participants watched an eight-minute clip from the frightening film Silence of the Lambs. When asked to recall events from the segment, lefties were far more likely to show signs of post-traumatic stress disorder than righties, including giving fragmented descriptions and making more mistakes.

“It seems that after experiencing a fearful event, even on film, people who are left-handed had subtle behaviors that were like people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder,” head researcher Carolyn Choudhary, PhD, told the Telegraph. Blame the brain: “It is apparent that the two sides of the brain have different roles in PTSD, and the right hand-side of the brain seems to be involved in fear. But we need to do more experiments to understand what exactly is going on here,” she said.

Grrr! Left-Handers Get Angrier, Too

If you just can’t let go of that spat you had with your right-handed pal (but he seemed to move on just fine), you may be able to blame it on your left-handedness. According to a small study published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, lefties are more prone to having negative emotions. In addition, they seem to have a more difficult time processing their feelings.

Again, this seems to be related to the brain-hand connection. Compared to righties, left-handed participants in the study showed an imbalance in activity between the left and right hemispheres when trying to process their moodiness.

Easily Embarrassed? Could Be Because You’re a Leftie

Aw-shucks. Lefties may get bent out of shape, but research shows they’re just a bunch of bashful self-observers.

When scientists from Abertay University in Scotland gave 46 lefties and 66 righties behavioral tests to measure their impulsiveness and personal restraint, the left-handers in the group more commonly agreed with statements like “I worry about making mistakes” and “Criticism or scolding hurts me quite a bit. ” In fact, their answers left researchers believing that lefties tend to feel more inhibited, shy, and embarrassed than their right-handed counterparts.

“Left-handers are more likely to hesitate, whereas right-handers tend to jump in a bit more,” lead researcher Lynn Wright, PhD, told BBC News.

Lefties Like to Booze

Next time you have a run-in with a boozed-up barfly, check out which hand he’s holding his whisky with: chances are, it’ll be his left.

For years, myth has held that left-handers are more likely to become alcoholics. Research into the topic was murky, however, and relied on small samples. But a survey of more than 25,000 people from 12 countries has cleared things up a bit. While lefties are not more prone to alcoholism, they do drink more often.

Researcher Kevin Denny, who examined the data for a paper published in the British Journal of Health Psychology, says the main takeaway should be debunking that whole left-handedness-alcoholism link. “There is no evidence that handedness predicts risky drinking,” he stated in a press release. “Hence, the results do not support the idea that excess drinking may be a consequence either of atypical lateralisation of the brain, or due to the social stresses that arise from left-handers’ being a minority group.”

They Have Their Own Day!

Mark your calendar: August 13 is International Left-Handers Day.

Lefties across the globe celebrate the annual event, which was launched in 1992 by the UK-based Left-Handers Club to increase awareness about the left-handed lifestyle. According to the group’s Web site, it’s a day “when left-handers everywhere can celebrate their sinistrality and increase public awareness of the advantages and disadvantages of being left-handed.”

How should you observe the occasion? Create a “leftie zone”: a designated area of personal space where everything must be done in a left-handed fashion, from your workspace setup to the way you use cutlery.

And that rule also extends to any right-handers who happen to enter the leftie zone.

Lefties Aren’t Going Anywhere

Left-handers are the minority. So does that mean they’ll go extinct one day? In fact, some researchers believe that when it comes to survival of the fittest, lefties come out on top.

Here’s why: In one-on-one combat, using the left-hand is like throwing a curveball. “The fact that left-handers are less common means they have a surprise effect,” University of Montpellier researcher Charlotte Faurie told ABC News. To dig deeper, Faurie and her colleague Michel Raymond studied nine different primitive societies. In more violent societies, they found, lefties thrived (think southpaw slugger Rocky Balboa’s left hook).

Looks like the left hand has the upper hand after all.

How Many People Are Left Handed? (More Than You Think!)

Exactly how many people are left handed? Let’s find out!

In this article you’ll discover what percentage of people are left handed, which countries have the most (and least!) left handed people, if male or female lefties are more common, and the chances of having a lefty child. You’ll also find out why left handed people are becoming more common every year!

Table Of Contents

1. How Many People Are Left Handed?
2. Is Left Handedness Becoming More Common?
3. What Countries Have The Most Left Handed People?
4. What Countries Have The Least Left Handed People?
5. Is Left Handedness More Common In Males Or Females?
6. What Are The Chances of Having a Left Handed Child?

Ever signed for a delivery and had the driver ask if you’re a lefty? Apparently, we’re still that much of a rarity that people feel the need to point it out to us every time they notice.

I’m not having a go, as a lefty I do it myself. All the time…

What makes for the fascination? Just how many people are left handed exactly?

How Many People are Left Handed?

According to experts, roughly 12% of the world is left handed. However, this figure varies depending on geographic location, gender, and date of birth amongst other factors.

Check out the rest of this article to dive into these factors in more detail!

Less than 1% of the world is ambidextrous (can easily use both the left and right hand), and an even lower number is ambilevous (finds using both hands equally awkward).

This figure is averaged from studies undertaken in North America and Western Europe. In these developed countries being left handed is less likely to be discouraged due to social stigmas, which should result in a less skewed overall number.

Although it should be noted that left handed discrimination does still occur in these countries. Read about left handed discrimination here.

What Percentage Of People Are Left Handed?

Right Handed (~87%). I’m sure you didn’t come to this article unaware that right handed people make up the majority of the population. It is estimated that right handed people amount to roughly 87% of the world.

Left Handed (~12%). The second most common handedness type, studies show that on average us lefties make up around 12% of the population. Although this does vary depending on location, as in some countries being left handed may still have a social stigma attached to it. For example Taiwan (5%), Japan (4.7%), and Korea (2%) all have a much lower population of lefties. Scroll down a little further to see the lefty representation broken down by country.

Ambidextrous (<1%). An ambidextrous person is able to perform any task equally well with either hand, although they do still tend to favor their dominant side. Truly ambidextrous people are incredibly rare, and are estimated to make up less than 1% of the population.

Ambilevous (<1%). An ambilevous (or ambisinister) person is the exact opposite of an ambidextrous person, finding it generally awkward to use either hand to undertake tasks.

Is Left Handedness Becoming More Common?

Even until recently, being left handed was still discouraged in many developed countries.

We can see this when we look at the number of lefties in different age groups in North America. Only 6% of over-65s identified as being left handed, whereas a whopping 15% of under 30s said the same.

Check out the graph below which shows what percentage of poeple are left handed by year.

These results were taken from a large study by Gilbert and Wysocki (Hand Preference and Age in the United States, 1992) which included over 1 million people.

The increased number of people identifying as being left handed is almost certainly due to modern society becoming less conservative.

On top of this, it is estimated that amongst older generations some 6-8% of right handed people are actually natural left handers, but were forced into writing right handed due to social pressures.

Considering the results based on age, it would seem very likely that the overall percentage of people identifying as being a lefty will continue to increase over time.

What Countries Have The Most Left Handed People?

What percent of the world is left handed? In this next section we’ll see what countries have the highest representation of lefties, as well as which have the lowest.

1. The Netherlands (13.2% Left Handed)
2. United States (13.1% Left Handed)
3. Belgium (13.1% Left Handed)
4. Canada (12.8% Left Handed)
5. United Kingdom (12.24% Left Handed)
6. Ireland (11.65%)
7. Switzerland (11.61%)
8. France (11.15%)
9. Denmark (11%)
10. Italy (10.51%)

Data for European countries was taken from a large internet study by McManus and Peters (Handedness in Europe: analysis of data from the BBC internet study). Information on other countries was sourced from various other bodies of research.

What Countries Have The Least Left Handed People?

What percentage of people are left handed in the countries with the lowest representation of southpaws?

1. Korea (2. 0%)
2. Mexico (2.5%)
3. China (3.5%)
4. Japan (4.7%)
5. Taiwan (5.0%)

It’s clear that in countries with a more formal culture, the rate of left-handedness is much lower.

It has been suggested that the more complex writing style in many Asian countries is a major reason why the numbers are so much lower.

Is Left Handedness More Common In Males Or Females?

What is the percentage of left-handed females compared to males?

Lefties are not created equally! According to a 2008 study (Sex Differences in Left-Handedness: A Meta-Analysis of 144 Studies), a left handed person is 23% more likely to be male than female.

This means that for every 4 left handed women, there should be roughly 5 left handed men.

One possible explanation for this uneven split is that girls are more likely to conform to social norms. It has also been suggested that there may be genetic factors, which you can read about below.

What Are The Chances of Having a Left Handed Child?

According to a 2009 study by Llaurens, Raymond and Faurie (Why are some people left-handed? An evolutionary perspective), the chances of having a left handed child are as follows:

• Both parents Left Handed – 27% Male / 21. 4% Female
• Righty Father & Lefty Mother – 22.1% Male / 21.7% Female
• Lefty Father & Righty Mother – 18.2% Male / 15.3% Female
• Both Parents Right Handed – 10.4% Male / 8.5% Female

I’ve averaged these results out for simplicity and displayed them in the graphic below.

Another interesting factoid I stumbled across was that two left handed parents are twice as likely to produce twins!

Check out the infographic below (click to enlarge!) where you’ll find all of this information compiled into one handy graphic.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is There A Place Where 100% of People Are Lefties?

Yes! Well, kinda… In the small town of Left Hand, West Virginia, USA, technically… everyone is a left hander!

How Rare Is It To Be Left Handed?

This will depend on a number of factors including your gender, location, and even the year that you were born! However, on average, roughly 12 out of every 100 people are left handed. So, it is fairly rare to be left handed!

How Many People Are Right Handed?

What percent of the world is right handed? On average, it is estimated that roughly 87% of the world is right handed. The vast majority!

How Many People Are Ambidextrous?

Ambidextrous people have the ability to use either hand to perform tasks with the same degree of ease. They are incredibly rare, and it is estimated that only around 1% of the world can be considered ambidextrous.

Further Articles You Will Love

• How Left Handed Are You? Take our 60 second test and find out!
• 25 Amazing Facts About Lefties
• Gift Ideas That Left Handed People Will LOVE
• 100+ Famous Left Handed People

BRAIN RIGHT-HANDED AND LEFT-HANDED – WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?

Science and life // Pictures

Science and life // Pictures

Science and life // Pictures

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like the rest: they are lefties. Moreover, their difference is not just a mirror one. If for right-handed people the leading right hand is most often combined with the leading right eye and the leading right ear, then for left-handers these combinations are much more diverse. Even their brains are arranged somewhat differently than those of the right-handed majority, and this, as it turned out, applies not only to the dominance of the right (and not the left) hemisphere, but also to the principles of functional organization in general.

In the Laboratory of General and Clinical Electrophysiology of the Human Brain of the Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, under the guidance of Doctor of Biological Sciences L.A. Zhavoronkova, the character of interhemispheric asymmetry of the brain of right-handers and left-handers was studied. For this, encephalograms were taken from the subjects in different states, which recorded the bioelectrical activity of different areas of the cerebral cortex.

It turned out, for example, that in a state of calm wakefulness, the cerebral hemispheres of right-handers work more synchronously than those of left-handers, and when moving the dominant hand, the brain of right-handers is activated locally in the left (leading) hemisphere, while in left-handers it is activated in both. The encephalogram of right-handers and left-handers also changed in different ways during falling asleep.

During another experiment, the subjects first sat with their eyes closed, and when they opened them, a light signal lit up in front of them, on which they had to fix their eyes. In right-handers, the effect of this signal disrupted the synchronism in the work of the hemispheres, while in left-handers, the picture changed insignificantly.

It seems that left-handers do not have such a clear distribution of roles between the sections of the cortex of the cerebral hemispheres, and this is precisely what affects his work during the transition from one functional state to another (for example, from wakefulness to sleep). Scientists believe that the cortex and subcortical structures in right-handers mutually suppress each other to a large extent, while in left-handers, on the contrary, they are mutually activated. Both minuses and pluses of “left-handedness” follow from this. So, for example, the cortex of left-handers is less able to suppress epileptic activity, and this apparently explains the fact that among them there is a much larger percentage of epileptics than among the human population in general.

On the other hand, the functional organization of the brain of left-handed people can contribute to the development of creative abilities, and it is not surprising that there are many brilliant musicians, architects, and artists among them. As an example, we can recall Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Charlie Chaplin, as well as the famous Leskovsky Lefty.

And as a result of joint work with the staff of the Institute of Neurosurgery named after N. N. Burdenko of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences – professors T. A. Dobrokhotova and N. N. Bragina – another advantage of the left-handed brain was established. His activity after a craniocerebral injury is restored more easily than that of right-handed people. Less specialization contributes to the development of compensatory processes, and healthy areas of the brain take over the functions of the damaged ones.

According to L. A. Zhavoronkova, left-handers are no worse and no better than right-handers – they are just different. Meanwhile, our “right world” is not convenient for them: everything is the opposite, everything is on the other side. But until he turned his face to their problems, did not make their life more comfortable, they are forced to adapt to him.

How many left-handers are there on Earth?. The newest book of facts. Volume 1. Astronomy and astrophysics. Geography and other earth sciences. Biology and Medicine

How many left-handers are there on Earth?. The newest book of facts. Volume 1. Astronomy and astrophysics. Geography and other earth sciences. Biology and medicine

WikiReading

The newest book of facts. Volume 1. Astronomy and astrophysics. Geography and other earth sciences. Biology and Medicine
Anatoly Pavlovich Kondrashov

Contents

How many left-handers are there on Earth?

About 10 percent of the world’s population is not like the rest: they are left-handed. Moreover, their difference is not just a mirror one. If for right-handed people the leading right hand is most often combined with the leading right eye and the leading right ear, then for left-handers these combinations are much more diverse. Even their brains are arranged somewhat differently than those of the right-handed majority. This applies, as it turned out, not only to the dominance of the right (rather than the left) hemisphere, but also to the principles of functional organization in general. The functional organization of the brain of left-handed people can contribute to the development of creative abilities. And it is not surprising that among the left-handers there are many brilliant musicians, architects, and artists. As an example, we can recall Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Charlie Chaplin, as well as the famous Lefty – the hero of the story by N. S. Leskov.

HOW MANY WE ARE ON EARTH?

HOW MANY WE ARE ON EARTH?
“Come on, are the dangers we just read about really so terrible? one of you will think. “Millions of people before us lived and did not think about any dangers.” That’s right. They didn’t think. But there were only millions of them, and there are already billions of us.

How much air is on Earth?

How much air is on earth?
The mass of the earth’s atmosphere is 5.16 quadrillion (million billion) tons. If we were to collect all the gases of our atmosphere at normal atmospheric pressure (at sea level), we would get a ball with a diameter of 2 thousand

How much water is on Earth?

How much water is on earth?
The total mass of the earth’s hydrosphere is 1. 54 quintillion (billion billion) tons. If you collect all the water from the oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, ponds and swamps of the Earth into one mass, you would get a “drop” with a diameter of about 1400

How many illiterates are there on Earth?

How many illiterates are there on earth?
According to UNESCO data for 2000, among the 6 billion inhabitants of the Earth, 880 million are illiterate, 110 million children do not go to school, 2/3 of them –

How many higher plants are there on Earth?

How many higher plants are there on Earth?
In total, there are about 300 thousand species of higher (germ) plants on our planet, of which approximately 250 thousand have been studied. Regarding 50 thousand plant species, science does not yet know whether they are useful or not. Experts believe that if it is not

How many left-handers are there on Earth?

How many left-handers are there on earth?
About 10 percent of the world’s population is not like the rest: they are left-handed. Moreover, their difference is not just a mirror one. If for right-handers the leading right hand is most often combined with the leading right eye and the leading right ear, then for left-handers these combinations

Ground pull

Pull to the ground
I, like you, probably have such acquaintances. They lived in the city all their lives, worked in the central office, trust, ministry, dealt with papers and people, loved this work. On vacation they went to a sanatorium, in the evenings they went to the theater, read, received guests. Work

Sleep on the ground and trees

Sleep on the ground and trees
Animals sleep everywhere: on land, in water and in the air! Sleeping on the ground, technically, is the easiest thing: you’ve washed a hole like a hare or a deer, and sleep yourself. Some animals hide in burrows to get a good night’s sleep.