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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

<a rel="nofollow" href="http://prvegas.com">Left Handed Ken</a> Sat, 08/13/2016 - 12:16
and I am left handed
<span>Laurie Flexhaug</span> Sat, 08/13/2016 - 12:15
The one thing I do right handed is use the mouse other than that everything is left handed. I even have a speech on the discrimination of left handed people.
<span>Audnumber1@Icl…</span> Sat, 08/13/2016 - 12:03
My dad and brother were supposed to be left handed. My gran tied their left hand behind them. She tried with me but my dad wouldn't let her. I loved playing basketball, I think we have an advantage. I also do many crafts and love to garden. I keep very busy and manage a gas bar. Could we be crafty?
<span>Gs</span> Sat, 08/13/2016 - 11:34
I'm delighted to know that there's a Left-Hander's Day. I have a some stories about being left-handed: 1) I'm lucky that my Mother was strong & advocated for me. She said that my Grandfather told her when I was little that a left-hander is 'the devil's child" and she needed to tie my left hand behind my back so I would be forced to use my right hand. Yikes! Mom said "I'm not tying my child's hand behind her back." She DID try to put items in my right hand to try to see what I'd do (and mainly because in the early '50s, left-handers weren't as accommodated as we are now). Since I would switch items to my left hand, she just 'let it be.' 2) My fave uncle was left-handed so I tried to emulate him when writing - by turning my hand around - sort of upside down. She grabbed my hand, saying 'don't do that. Right-handed people don't have to write that way - neither do you. Just turn your paper slightly to the right (righties have their slanted to the left) so don't have to write so awkwardly.' She was a 6th-grade school teacher & was annoyed that teachers in the lower grades had lefties conform to the righties writing method. Again, I was very blessed that she didn't make me conform to the 'norm' - at least in this regard. 3) I was at a dinner at a long table with 20 friends and this older man (in his 80s), sitting several people away from me said the dumbest thing I've ever hear - loudly - "I didn't know you were wrong-handed." My response was "I'm not wrong-handed - I'm left-handed." (with a 'grrr' under my breath! Thanks for letting me vent!
<span>Natalie</span> Sat, 08/13/2016 - 11:22
My parents and two sisters are right-handed... I and my other sister are left-handed. My husband is a righty, and our daughters are righties.
<span>Krista Morisen</span> Sat, 08/13/2016 - 11:11
I'm dominantly left handed, yet, I do many things right handed and can even write right handed, not well, but I can do it. So, what does that say about me?
<span>Hilda Gilbert</span> Sat, 08/13/2016 - 11:09
I cannot write with my right hand but I learned how to cut material with my right hand because there weren't left handed scissors growing up and I learned how to knit and crochet by my aunt who was right handed. It looks like my grand daughter is going to be a leftie too. My grand son is definitely right handed.
<span>Gail Ann Pippin</span> Sat, 08/13/2016 - 11:08
I am a lifelong leftie, born to a woman who PROBABLY should have been left-handed, but was forced to use her right hand, resulting in atrocious, nearly illegible writing. The only thing Mom made me do right-handed was to use "regular" scissors, explaining that she knew it wasn't fair, but that it's a right-handed world (left-handed scissors were VERY rare in the 50's). Both parents forced me to learn to eat right-handed "in case you break your left arm" when I was 7, until I pointed out that they weren't forcing my sister to eat left-handed. That being said, I CANNOT use left-handed scissors, although I've tried. And, if the dining table is extremely crowded, I CAN eat with my right hand, if necessary, although I was also taught that eating with one's elbows flailing about was not acceptable, soooo.
<span>Donovan</span> Sat, 08/13/2016 - 10:54
My wife and I are both left handed and are kids are all right handed.
<span>Lmr</span> Sat, 08/13/2016 - 11:43
Seems peculiar that two left-handed parents can give birth to right-handed children. My science class (1970s) taught us that left-handedness was recessive, thus two left-handed parents wouldn't give birth to right-chanded children.