When I was in public school I had a classmate, who was among the 10 percent of people who happen to be left-handed. I recall the teacher at the time struggled with him for a whole school year to use his right hand instead. Despite the student trying to please his teacher, he just couldn’t. While at school itself, he was subjected to much teasing about his strange tendency. If he had been born a century earlier he might have been singled out as delving in witchcraft.
Is left-handedness acquired genetically or socially? Studies of twins indicate that genetic factors explain 25 percent of the variance in handedness, while environmental factors explain the remaining 75 percent. But until a larger population can be tested and into a full genetic map, what controls handedness and why our population isn’t evenly split between righties and lefties can’t be determined.
Bias against lefties are all the more unfair as left-handed people are born that way. Moreover, apart from inconvenience, left-handed people have been considered unlucky or even malicious for their difference by the right-handed majority. Other animals, such as polar bears and chimpanzees also have handedness but the split is around 50/50. Humans are the only species that show a truly distinct bias toward one hand or the other. Many tools and procedures are designed to facilitate use by right-handed people, often without even realizing difficulties placed on the left-handed. Desks and spiral notebooks pose a constant battle, scissors are all but impossible. John Santrock of Lifespan Development has written, “For centuries, left-handers have suffered unfair discrimination in a world designed for right-handers.”
I had neighbours in Wasaga who were burdened with grief because they did interfere with their son’s handedness. The father was left-handed and always claimed he wasn’t as skillful as he should have been because of it. His son, born left-handed too, was forced to forego using his left hand from an infant until he was fully converted. School was difficult for him. He dropped out before graduation and never found a satisfactory job. The parents blame themselves for interfering in what was a natural progression.
Left-handers’ brains are structured differently from right-handers’ in ways that can allow them to process language, spatial relations and emotions in more diverse and potentially creative ways. “Also, a slightly larger number of left-handers than right-handers are especially gifted in music and math” according to Chris McManus of University College London, “and that the proportion of the left-handers is increasing.” Left-handed people have historically produced an above-average quota of high achievers. He says that, “Left-handers’ brains are structured differently in a way that increases their range of abilities.” The genes that determine left-handedness also govern development of the language centers of the brain.
Interactive sports such as table tennis, badminton, cricket, and tennis have an overrepresentation of left-handedness, while non-interactive sports such as swimming show no difference. In baseball, historical batting averages show that left-handed batters have a slight advantage over right-handed batters when facing right-handed pitchers. Fourteen of the top twenty career batting averages have been posted by left-handed batters
According to a meta-analysis of 144 studies, totaling 1,787,629 participants, the best estimate for the male to female odds ratio was 1.23, therefore 23 percent more men are left-handed. However, 11 percent of men and 9 percent of women would be approximately 10 percent overall.
Left handed people are more likely to have IQ’s over 140 vs. right handed people. Not so positive, lefties are more likely to be schizophrenic, alcoholic, dyslexic, delinquent, have Crohn’s disease, and mental disabilities. So, lefties make up more of the extremely gifted and more of the severely compromised. Many famous left-handed people include American President Bill Clinton, Angelina Jolie, Ringo Starr, Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Lady Gaga, Carolyn Kennedy and Babe Ruth.
International Left-Handers Day is held annually every August 13. It was founded by the Left-Handers Club in 1992. It is. “An annual event when left-handers everywhere can celebrate their sinistrality (left-handedness) and increase public awareness of the advantages and disadvantages of being left-handed.” Regional events are held to show off left-hander’s creativity, adaptability and sporting prowess whereas right-handers were encouraged to try out every day left-handed objects to see just how awkward it feels.
You know, maybe it wouldn’t have been so awful to be left-handed. I might have made first line in Peewee hockey or possibly smart enough to write for a big newspaper!
