They're better at sports and fighting - Lefties can swing mean left hooks and can adapt quickly to unexpected situations in sports. They're not necessarily right-brained - It's a common myth that lefties are right-brained and more creative and artistic than righties.
Lefties make up only about 10 percent of the population, but studies find that individuals who are left-handed score higher when it comes to creativity, imagination, daydreaming and intuition. They're also better at rhythm and visualization.
Being a leftie has a genetic component, is linked to better verbal skills and is associated with a lower risk of Parkinson's disease, according to a new study published in the journal Brain.
The left is traditionally associated with weakness, passivity and the lunar, female principle. It's important to note that these associations are from a Western viewpoint.
“When we're left-handed, our right brains are usually dominant, and that's where creativity and intuition are centered. So it's often easier for us to be creative than logical.
Left-handers or lefties are often considered unlucky in many cultures, including the Indian culture. We are told to accept prasad with our right hands only, and this hand is preferred for all our rituals, tilak, yagna, etc.
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.
Special or not, lefties are born, not made: Genetics are at least partially responsible for handedness. Up until last year, it was assumed that hand preference comes from asymmetrical genes in the brain—two hands, two brain hemispheres, one is dominant.
-Counting how many people are left-handed is more difficult than it looks, because of variations in preference and skill from task to task and because of left-handers having been forced to write with their right hand, but the best estimate we have is that roughly 10% of the world population is left-handed.
Elon Musk is right handed.
Queen Victoria is one of the most famous historical lefties. Although she wrote with her right hand, she painted with her left, which indicates she was made to switch as a child, as was sadly common in the Victorian era.
As handedness is a highly heritable trait associated with various medical conditions, and because many of these conditions could have presented a Darwinian fitness challenge in ancestral populations, this indicates left-handedness may have previously been rarer than it currently is, due to natural selection.
Clearly, being left-handed is not without its disadvantages.
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. This listing is commonly known as the “Blue Book”.
Lefties get angrier
A study in The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease suggested that those who are left-handed are more prone to negative emotions. It also found that when processing emotions, lefties have a greater imbalance in activity between the left and right brains.
THIS STUDY TESTED WHETHER LEFT-HANDED JUVENILES ARE OVERREPRESENTED AMONG VIOLENT JUVENILE OFFENDERS AND FOUND THAT LEFT-HANDED OFFENDERS SCORED LOWER THAN RIGHT-HANDERS ON THE VIOLENCE SCALE.
Sometimes people who are left-handed are called “Southpaws”.
They found no difference in IQ levels among left- and right-handed people, but left-handers appeared to be more likely to have an intellectual disability. However, this study indicated that people who were intellectually gifted or following typical development were also just as likely to be left-handed.
Because a large majority of words on the qwerty keyboard are typed solely with the left hand (around 3,000 words with the left hand, but only about 400 with the right), left handers are likely to be faster typers since they're using their dominant hand.
As it turns out, left-handers might have the advantage in certain areas like, say, piloting a jet fighter or talking and driving at the same time. A study published in the journal Neuropsychology in late 2006 suggests that left-handed people are faster at processing multiple stimuli than righties.
A 1967 study by Douglas found no evidence to correlate mathematical ability with left-handedness or ambidexterity. The study compared the people who came in the top 15% of a mathematics examination with those of moderate mathematical ability, and found that the two groups' handedness preferences were similar.
Princess Diana was right handed; however, like many Royals, she carried her handbag in her left hand. This was done to keep her right hand free for greeting others.
It's highly likely that Prince William inherited the left-handed gene from his great-grandfather, George VI. The Queen's father was said to be naturally left-handed; although he would write with his right hand, he was frequently seen playing tennis with his left hand, such as in this snapshot.