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Left-Handers Day: Surprising Facts About Being Left-Handed

Written By: Catherine Boeckmann Executive Digital Editor and Master Gardener

International Left-Handers Day is August 13, a day celebrating the 10 to 12 percent of people worldwide who favor their left hand. Discover surprising left-handed facts, history, and folklore—from old superstitions to the science behind handedness.

Years ago, some teachers insisted that all students, including left-handers, learn to write with their right hand. Teachers thought that students would have an easier time if they were not “different” from right-handed writers. Some thought that using the left hand was just a bad habit. Some even slapped or punished left-handed kids who had trouble!

left-hander facts

Now we know that everyone should use whichever hand is most comfortable. Today, 10 to 12 percent of the world’s population is left-handed. It’s not surprising that lefties sometimes feel “left out.” Plenty of superstitions and odd terms regarding left-handedness exist.

Left-Hander Superstitions and Terms

  • Sinistrophobia is the fear of left-handedness or things on the left side.
  • Many people believe that the devil is left-handed.
  • The Latin word for left, sinister, also means unlucky, evil, and suspicious.
  • The French word for left, gauche, also means clumsy.
  • A left-handed compliment is an insult.
  • It is believed that all polar bears are left-handed.
  • A left-handed baseball pitcher is called a southpaw. (And no, there’s no such thing as a northpaw!)

Why Are Some People Left-handed and Others Right-handed?

Scientists aren’t sure what causes left-handedness. Genetics plays a role, but it’s not the whole story. For example, identical twins have the same DNA, but it is common for one twin to be right-handed and the other to be left-handed.

Many left-handers have a symmetrical brain, meaning that the left and right portions of their brain are shaped alike. Right-handers often have an asymmetrical brain: The left cerebral hemisphere is often larger than the right cerebral hemisphere.

pinky promise left hand facts

No matter the shape of your brain or the hand you favor, here’s what we have—um—left:

Left-handed Facts and Trivia

The Left Test

There’s no sure way to measure “handedness.” One of the most widely used tests is called the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (developed in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the 1970s). This test asks participants which hand they most often use for a series of activities, including writing, eating, drawing, throwing, cutting with scissors, brushing teeth, and unscrewing a lid.

Left-handed Burgers? Baloney!

A full-page ad in USA Today in 1998 claimed that Burger King had developed the “left-handed Whopper.” The burger had the same fixings, but they were turned 180 degrees so that they wouldn’t drip out on left-handed customers. It was a joke! The ad ran on April 1 (April Fools’ Day).

Lefties Day

August 13 is International Left-Handers Day! The tradition was started by the Left-Handers Club, a group in the United Kingdom. Club members around the world give interviews and play left-handed games.

left handed facts folklore

Left-hander Heaven?

Lefties might want to travel to Left Hand, West Virginia, where there is a church, a school, and a post office. The village was so named because it sits on the left-hand fork of the Big Sandy River, not because of the way its citizens write.

Left-handed Reward

A few left-handers attending Juniata College in Pennsylvania have benefited from a scholarship just for left-handers established in 1979 by Mary and Frederick Beckley, two left-handers who met when they attended tennis class together in 1919.

If you’re right-handed, try writing with your left. If you’re left-handed, try brushing your teeth with your right. You’re likely to find these activities surprisingly difficult.

So, tell us below if you are a lefty or righty and what you’ve observed about this phenomenon called handedness!

Amusements

About The Author

Catherine Boeckmann

Catherine Boeckmann

Executive Digital Editor and Master Gardener

Catherine Boeckmann is the Executive Digital Editor of Almanac.com, the digital home of The Old Farmer’s Almanac. She leads digital editorial strategy and publishing across a wide range of Almanac sub...

Read more from Catherine Boeckmann

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Comments

<span>Jo Anne Perrault</span> Wed, 09/06/2017 - 18:57
I am definitely left-handed and did suffer greatly in elementary school. I was called a witch, a heriteck and had my hands tied, the strap the dunce cap, rulers and pointers broken over me and other punishments. I will say this - it made me hate school.
<span>E. Reilly</span> Mon, 08/14/2017 - 06:57
Yes I'm Left handed, i play golf right hand, I Bowl Left hand, Write left. and drive my car right hand. Weird. LOL
<span>Gayle</span> Sun, 08/13/2017 - 12:33
I too, was born left handed... but I cannot use a pair of left handed scissors to save my life ! I drive mostly with my right hand on the wheel. All my life I have sought the end of the table at family gatherings, only now my son joins me !
<span>Nello</span> Sat, 08/12/2017 - 10:30
I eat, write and brush my teeth with my left but do everything else with my right. It is a right handed world so I suppose I just learned to do "interactive" things the way most people do them. All sports are right handed but I shoot a gun with both hands easily. I'm odd I guess.
<span>Connie</span> Fri, 08/11/2017 - 20:24
I am left handed. I have 4 children all who are left handed. I even have a dog that is left handed. So fun at our house.
<span>Nancy Hamilton</span> Fri, 08/11/2017 - 13:15
I do most things left handed, write, eat, throw a ball etc. I use right my right hand to use a scissors (because no left hand scissors when I was in school), bat a ball. My first grade teacher was wise and showed me how to turn my writing tablet to accommodate being left handed (loved her for that). But didn't we hate how we smudged the ink when writing, having the rings on a binder be in the way. I gave up trying to make check marks like everyone else. Now I just make them "backwards", who cares? I always tried to sit at the end of a table, when eating, to avoid knocking elbows with the right handed person next to me. So many inconveniences. I also have trouble with left and right and must stop and deliberately think which is right and which is left. I always felt a little different from others but also a little special.
<span>Rani</span> Tue, 10/17/2017 - 18:15
My entire life I’ve had to think about left hand right hand too,I’m so glad I’m not as alone as I thought
<span>Waynette</span> Fri, 08/11/2017 - 11:59
I was very lucky to have a first grade teacher who was also left handed. So it was easier for me to follow her while learning to print. Over time, I do use my right hand, just to challenge myself. But I am most comfortable with my left. Do you know, the left side of your brain controls the right side of your body? And the right side of the brain controls the left? Therefore, us lefties are the ones in our right mind!
<span>Jennifer Godwin</span> Mon, 03/27/2017 - 04:24
Me and my boyfriend were both born left-handed. And what also funny is we are both the same skin tone so people always mistake us for brother and sister.
<span>Betty Smith</span> Sat, 01/28/2017 - 10:02
I had a half brother that was a leftie, my mom & dad made me change hands when I was small, or I would have been a leftie. I wouldn't have minded being a left handed person. Think it would have been fun to have been different, considering I never really popular anyway.