5 Facts About Lefties That Might Surprise Even Themselves
Miscellaneous / / June 23, 2023
We learn about the attitude towards them in different parts of the world. And at the same time we will check which side dominates your dog.
1. Animals are left-handed too
once scientists consideredthat left-handedness and right-handedness are something that is peculiar only to people, but is not observed in animals. After all, only a person performs tasks that require developed fine motor skills, such as writing, drawing, buttoning or crochet. In them, of course, it is more convenient to use the dominant limb.
However, recent studies have shown that there are also left-handers among animals. For example, in kangaroos, they are more than 90% of individuals. They use left front paw for searching for food, grooming and communication with other relatives. Scientists believe that this is due to the peculiarities of their brain, which has a more developed right hemisphere.
When a creature prefers to use one half of its body more than the other, this is called laterality.
Most gorillas and chimpanzee, For example, right-handedlike people. And bats are predominantly left-handed - when they climb, they cling more actively with their left paw than with their right. Most parrots too prefer capture food with this particular limb. And many left-handed toads - it is more convenient for them to attack the prey located to their left than the one to the right.
Among dogs and cats There are also lefties and righties. You can to knowwho is your pet if you put food for him in a jar or box in which he cannot put his head, and force him to get food with his paw. This will show you which limb your pet is using. as show research, 46% of cats are right-handed, 44% are left-handed and 10% are ambidexters.
And even among insects there are left-handers. For example, when the mediterranean fruit fly boxing with representatives of its own species, then the left paws are used more often than the right ones.
2. Lefties are dangerous fighters
French anthropologists establishedthat lefties made up only about 3% of the population in peaceful primitive societies. But in warlike tribes, their share already reached 27%. Why? The fact is that left-handed people have an advantage over right-handed people both in hand-to-hand combat and in fencing.
Obviously, they are more likely to succeed among some harsh Vikings than among peaceful and boring farmers.
In the modern world, this trend has continued: left-handers have advantage over right-handers in sports such as tennis, boxing and baseball. In the end, a strong left hook, which the vast majority of boxers do not expect, is a very effective technique. Yes, and balls served from an unusual side for the enemy are much more difficult to beat.
At the same time, as shown study According to experts from Durham University, left-handed cricketers are injured or killed almost twice as often as right-handers. Just because the protective equipment is not designed for them.
3. Lefties have an international holiday
It is celebrated on August 13th. Idea arrange a special day for them appeared back in 1976 with Dean Campbell, founder of the International Association of Left-handers.
This date was established to draw public attention to the difficulties experienced by left-handers in a world dominated by right-handers. At all times they often encountered with negative attitudes and discrimination because of their difference from the majority.
And in many languages of the world, for example, in French, Dutch, Norwegian, German or Chinese, the word "left-handed" is often synonymous expressions "clumsy, loser, not like everyone else."
Lefties Day was created to help society overcome these unhealthy stereotypes.
One of the ways to have fun during it is the challenge, according to which, during the celebration, all right-handed people must perform the usual actions with only their left hand. That's when they experience for themselves what life is like for left-handed people, when all devices, from a computer mouse to a jackhammer, are not adapted for them.
4. Many celebrities were left-handed
lefties constitute about 10% of the human population, but among them there are many famous personalities.
For example, the artist Leonardo da Vinci was left-handed - although he made some of his notes with his right hand. Contemporaries called his "mancino" is Italian slang for left-handed people.
His contemporary (and rival) Michelangelo Buonarroti was also left-handed, but from a young age he forced himself to work with the other hand so as not to differ from others. He used left only for work requiring strength, such as hammering, carving and drilling marble.
Left-handers were the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the legendary English comedian Charlie Chaplin, Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and philosopher Aristotle - he is still Plato arguedthat it is an innate skill, not an acquired skill. And of our contemporaries - Lady Gaga and Barack Obama.
However, the opinion that left-handed people are much more creative and smarter than right-handed people, which can be found on many sites, does not match reality. The study, which included more than 20,000 people, showedthat intellectual and creative abilities do not correlate with which hand you use.
Even in left-handers on popular sites, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein are often recorded and, suddenly, Jack the Ripper. But this is also a myth: these guys were right-handed. Sorry.
5. In many countries of the world, left-handers are still being retrained.
As we have already mentioned, for most of history, society has been extremely biased towards left-handers. Yes, in harsh medieval times it was believed that they have a connection with the devil's power.
And even if you do not add religion to the issue, people with "alternative laterality" were simply inconvenient for society, as they stood out strongly and were considered awkward and awkward. Therefore, until the middle of the 20th century, it was common practice in many countries to retrain them.
Now, judging by the polls, in Europe, Canada, the USA and the UK, no one does not, and their number in different countries ranges from 10 to 13% of the population. But in many states Asia and Africa, predominantly in Muslim countries, left-handers, according to various estimates, are less than 6%.
The reason is simple: in these countries they are still forcibly retrained.
The fact is that in Muslim cultures, in some parts Africa, as well as in India and Indonesia, the left hand counts impure. And therefore it is extremely outrageous to do something important with it. And if you give it to someone, even wanting to help, it may be considered an insult.
IN China and Vietnam left-handers are also strong do not like, and students who use the “wrong” hand are even deducted points when learning. But religion has nothing to do with it - it’s just that in these countries it’s not customary to stand out too much. In China, for example, the proportion of left-handed students is hardly 1–3%. It is obvious that they are reluctant to mention this feature of theirs in surveys.
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