Why are some people left handed

Most of the current research suggests that left-handedness has an epigenetic marker — a combination of genetics, biology and the environment. Because the vast majority of the population is right-handed, many devices are designed for use by right-handed people, making their use by left-handed people more difficult.

Being left-handed has often led to a raw deal. “In many cultures being left handed is seen as being unlucky or malicious and that is reflected in language,” said Prof Dominic Furniss, a hand surgeon and author on the report. In French, “gauche” can mean “left” or “clumsy”. In English, “right” also means “to be right”.

While some reasons for the differences in thinking and functioning may be genetic and anatomical, left-handedness is behavioral as well. Things left-handers do differently are often influenced by the societal implications of having a dominant hand that differs from the general public.

Although data suggested that right-handed people had slightly higher IQ scores compared to left-handers, the scientists noted that intelligence differences between right and left-handed people were negligible overall.

Left-handed people are said to be good at complex reasoning, resulting in a high number of lefty Noble Prize winners, writers, artists, musicians, architects and mathematicians. According to research published in the American Journal of Psychology, lefties appear to be better at divergent thinking.

However, left-handedness does not rise to the level of being a disability. The Social Security Administration has a list of all conditions which qualify as disabilities. … Left-handed people may have to adapt a little bit, but they are certainly not prevented from working because of their condition.

In a study carried out by the University of Liverpool, results reveal that left-handers are typically gifted in math whereas the right-handed perform terribly in mathematics.

Left-handed people have been considered unlucky and even evil – the word “sinister” comes from the Latin word for left. In Britain in the Middle Ages, lefties were associated with the devil and often accused of the crime of witchcraft, meaning they would get burned at the stake.

Lefties–or at least relatives of lefties–may be better than right-handed people at remembering events, according to a new study. Since the mid-1980s, scientists have known that the two brain hemispheres of left-handers are more strongly connected than those of right-handers.

The problem is, Einstein’s left-handedness is a myth. … While he was certainly right-handed, autopsies suggest his brain didn’t reflect the typical left-side dominance in language and speech areas. His brain’s hemispheres were more symmetrical—a trait typical of left-handers and the ambidextrous.

Left-Hander Superstitions and Terms

Many people believe that the devil is left-handed. The Latin word for left, sinister, also means unlucky, evil, and suspicious. … A left-handed compliment is an insult. A left-handed baseball pitcher is called a southpaw.

But one genius who was known to write with his left hand was Nikola Tesla. The inventor of the technology needed for alternating current electricity, Tesla was also known to write with his right hand, having been taught to do so as a child despite his innate left-handedness.

Fifth in the most wealthy people’s list, Zuckerberg is a left-handed person.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

This one is officially unconfirmed, but Beethoven’s sometime biographer Schindler thought he was left-handed after seeing him hold his quill in his left hand when composing. However, he’s most-often painted with the quill in his right.

Queen Victoria was left-handed. She was trained to write with her right hand, but she continued to paint with her left. … His wife, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, was also left-handed.

Steve Jobs

“I’m ambidexterous,” he said in an interview to Newsweek in 1984. At the time, much of the Apple staff was left-handed. Jobs, a rebel and aesthete, seemed proud of this fact. “Most of them are also left-handed, whatever that means,” he told Newsweek of his colleagues.

As if having a net worth of $104.5 billion and being named one of the richest people in the world wasn’t enough, Bill Gates, best known as the principal founder of Microsoft, is also left-handed.