Challenges of Living Left-Handed in a Right-Handed World

Left-handed people experience unexpected challenges because the world is designed for right-hand dominance. After all, righties outnumber Southpaws by 90%. Some obvious difficulties include learning to write, using a spiral notebook, and eating when sitting to the left of a right-handed person.

KidSense Therapy Group author Vanessa Fiorelli grew up in a right-hand-dominate family. She shared her challenges growing up left-handed: “I learned to use scissors and a computer mouse with my right hand in elementary school.”

Furthermore, she added, “In college, lecture hall desks are positioned on the right side. This required me to angle my body and paper.” Many parents have told Fiorelli that their left-handed children must work twice as hard to write. Often, their handwriting was illegible and smudged due to pulling their pencil across the words they had already written.

Left-Handed Stats

Southpaws are rare, only 10% of the population. Interestingly, two right-handed parents have a 10% chance of giving birth to a left-handed child. However, the odds of two lefties having a Southpaw is more than 20%.

Scientists do not fully understand that most people are right-handed, whereas left-handed people represent a small percentage. Hugo Spiers at University College London said perhaps it is genetics, among other possible factors. “It’s one of those major mysteries.”

New Scientist reported that fewer than 3% of people in China report being Southpaws, although the average is closer to 10% globally. “Researchers think the difference is probably due to a continuing cultural stigma against left-handedness, which is less of an issue elsewhere, rather than genetics.”

Spiers and his fellow researchers were overseeing a study to assess people’s ability to navigate a mobile phone game. Part of their data included self-reports of more than 400,000 people aged 19 to 69 in 41 countries. They were asked to disclose whether they were predominately right or left-handed.

They found that 10.6% of the participants were Southpaws. Furthermore, the researchers discovered that those in the Netherlands were the most likely to report being left-handed, at 13%. This group is followed by the United Arab Emirates, Isreal, and Puerto Rico. However, at 2.64%, China has the lowest reporting rate; next are Indonesia, Vietnam, and Hong Kong. Spiers said those at the low end of the spectrum were presumably influenced by social or cultural biases.

Nonetheless, Fast Company reports the percentage of left-handed individuals has remained at about 10% for the past 500,000 years. Additionally, Daniel M. Abrams theorizes this stability is evolutionary.

A Theory & Some Trivia

Fast Company author explains Abrams had presented his theory during a TED Talk. His theory explained why left-handed people have not increased in number.

“The reason boils down to two words, competition, and cooperation, and how the balance between those forces plays out in human societies.”

Cooperation became the typical behavior once competition was no longer necessary for a community’s safety.

Holiday Insights offered the following left-handed facts and trivia:

1. Sinistrophobia is the fear of left-handedness or things on the left side.
2. During the 1600s, people whose dominant hand was left were thought to be witches and warlocks.
3. While 10% of people are Southpaws, very few are 100% left-handed. For example, many lefties play sports right-handed. This is especially noticeable in lefties raised by right-hand dominant parents.
4. International Left-Hander’s Day was first celebrated on August 13, 1976, and has fallen on the 13th of August since.
5. All polar bears are left-handed.
6. Presidents James A. Garfield, Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama are lefties.
7. Southpaws process information more quickly than their right-handed counterparts.
8. Items that make being left-handed easier usually cost more than those made for righties.

According to Brandon Gaille’s website: 20% of MENSA members are Southpaws, and most of the original Mac computers were lefties. Finally, research reveals that left-handedness helps a person handle large amounts of stimuli.

Written by Cathy Milne-Ware

Sources:

Holiday Insights: International Left-Handers Day
Fast Company: Why is left-handedness so rare? It comes down to these 2 words; By Christopher Zara
New Scientist: People in China are the least likely to report being left-handed; By Jason Arunn Murugesu
KidSense Therapy Group: Parent tips to help left-handed children be more successful with handwriting. By Vanessa Fiorelli, COTA/L

Featured and Top Image by Peter van der Sluijs Courtesy of Wikipedia – Creative Commons License
First Inset Image by Ross Berteig Courtesy of Flickr – Creative Commons License
Second Inset Image by Yunus Tuğ Courtesy of Unsplash+