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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>Anne M. Imhoff</span> Tue, 01/24/2017 - 15:35
I'm mostly left handed. Write, draw, eat, point, left handed. I shoot, sew, play tennis with right hand. Brush teeth, wash dishes and hammer with either. Get confused when told to turn right or left. Prefer to be told 'port' or 'starboard' which is easier to follow for some reason. No one else in the family is, or was, left handed. So, which side of my brain is bigger?
<span>Stephanie</span> Tue, 01/24/2017 - 10:29
I am left handed and so is my mother. All four of my children are right handed. I have been doing more things with my right hand and find it takes great concentration. Have to slow down and think about what it is I am trying to perform.
<span>Jean</span> Tue, 01/24/2017 - 08:07
my mom was left handed, but forced to switch to right handed 'back in the day'. She and my dad, a righty, have 6 kids, 4 of whom are left handed. This includes a set of fraternal twins that are both left handed, my youngest sibling, and me the oldest. I guess it can be a dominant gene!
<span>Julie Reid</span> Mon, 01/23/2017 - 21:35
From birth (1960) to the age of three going on four, I did everything 'right-handed'. My sister ... one of two sisters, the one right above me agewise ... was a true 'southpaw'. She started school the year before I did. When she'd come home from kindergarten and we'd 'play' in the afternoon, I noticed that she was colouring with her left hand and not with her right hand like I was. I assumed that everyone at school coloured/wrote with their left hand and, given that I would be starting kindergarten the following year, I copied her. To this day, I do everything with my right hand ... except, of course, 'colouring' (writing)!
<span>Pamela J Stark</span> Sun, 01/22/2017 - 21:33
I am from a family of twn kids. Myself, 2 sisters, and my father were left handed. Both my boys started out left handed.When my youngest son started writing, his father and teachers told him left handed people were stupid. He writes with both hands. And my 5 yr.old grandson is left handed. I was always told that us left handed people were smarter then right handed people, because we think with both sides of our brain. My teacher always tried getting me to right with my right hand, I never did. My great accomplishment Was when I took up Bowling, I stood where the right handed bowlers stood, and bowled left handed. They could never figure that one out. I always have to walk on the left side when I am walking with someone.
<span>Samantha</span> Sun, 01/22/2017 - 16:01
I learned to read and write at 3 and always used my left hand for everything. In Kindergarten (1951) my teacher tried to switch me with poor results. My mother told her to leave me alone. In first and second grade the damage was finished when they refused to listen to my mother. It's been a disaster ever since, and I have trouble with "left" and "right" directions to this day because MY "right " hand is my left. At about age 13 I stopped using left and right hand interchangeably for writing, and began to write with my right hand. I still sometimes use my left for blackboards when teaching my nursing students. I can sew or cook or garden with either hand. Both my kids are South paws, and I threatened their teachers quite aggressively after the elementary school tried to switch their handedness several times. They had the sense to leave them well enough alone after that. Neither of my grown children has a problem being left handed.
<span>Janet Beardsley</span> Sun, 01/22/2017 - 18:50
When I entered the first grade, I was in Germany and did not speak the language. Otherwise they would have made me switch to writing with my right hand. I'm so glad that that did not happen! I feel special being left-handed. I'm quite clumsy with my right hand and do everything with my left hand. My friends don't understand what I mean when I say that most tea cups and coffee mugs, BIC lighters, pens etc. are all right handed. I. then show them that when you write with pens, the writing is upside down if from the left-handed perspective. You don't get the pleasure of seeing the cute design on most coffee mugs and T cups when using them left-handed. Also opening most doors requires a left-handed person to cross midline, or the center of their body to open the door. The good news is that crossing midline as a young child is adevelopmental milestone and crossing midline helps the young brain develop. Lastly, I have found that some items such as potato peelers only have the right side sharpened so lefties Beware! If you're struggling try using your right hand to see if perhaps you have been short changed!
<span>Fay</span> Sun, 01/22/2017 - 13:24
I have noticed different people have different degrees of handedness. My MIL could not wash dishes or even wash her hair when she broke her right hand - the left was useless. Whereas I can write with both hands and even write letters with my toes. (Ever try holding a pencil with your toes?) I've read it speculated that the degree of ambidextrousness relates to how well the two halves of the brain are inter-linked. Most right-handers process language in the left side of the brain, while left-handers are most likely to process language in the right, or in both halves of the brain. Ambidextrous people process it in both halves and have a stronger neural motor connection between the two halves.
<span>Jan H.</span> Sun, 01/22/2017 - 10:23
When I was 55 I fractured my right wrist. My left hand took over for all tasks except handwriting. As soon as my cast was off and I was back to "normal", my left hand lost all its abilities. Funny thing, I had broken my wrist two days before first grade in 1958. I had to learn to write with my left hand. Never really got the hang of it and was mortified getting a C in penmanship. I had already learned to write with my right hand when attending kindergarten.
<span>Jeanne</span> Sun, 01/22/2017 - 08:42
No one tried to change my left handedness even tho' I was of that decade when it was considered something that should be done. In some ways, it made me a little special. My favorite uncle is left handed and he was considered a unique man, he's in his mid-80's now. I do do some right handed things; swing a bat or a golf club right handed, strum a guitar either way. I am a hairdresser and I use right handed scissors to to cut hair in my left hand. That actually takes a little cleverness to do that cause of the relationship of the thumb to the scissors. I Can Not cut paper with my left hand . I have no idea why, I have to do that right handed. Other than those things that I can think of off the top of my right brain-ness, that's about it. Of course... Us Lefties are special. (a wink and a nod)