International Left-Handers Day 2022-Interesting Facts and Brief History

The 13th of August 2022 is International Lefthanders Day. 

The purpose of the day is to increase awareness of lefty people's experiences in a world dominated by right-handers. In 1976, Dean R Campbell established International Lefthanders Day to raise awareness about the everyday struggle’s lefthanders face.

A number of prominent leaders and celebrities across the world are left-handed, including famous Indian celebrities such as Ratan Tata, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth, and Sachin Tendulkar.

In celebration of International Left-Handers Day 2022, here are some interesting facts about lefties:

• It is estimated that between 10 and 12 percent of the population is left-handed.

• Left-handed individuals type faster than right-handed individuals. When using a QWERTY keyboard, the average right-handed person can type 300 words per minute, while left-handed individuals can type close to 3,000 words per minute.

• It is likely, that an individual who is left-handed will pass on the gene to their descendants.

• There is an 11-fold greater risk of allergies in left-handed people than right-handed people, according to a study published in "Cerebral Dominance: The Biological Foundations."

• It was also found in the book mentioned above that left-handed people are roughly twice as likely to suffer from sleep deprivation, migraines, etc. than right-handed people.

• Researchers found that lefties have higher IQs than righties in a study published in 2007 titled "Effect of Handedness on Intelligence Level of Students."

• Data from the Illinois Research Consortium in 2008 showed that left- and right-handed people approach task and memory performance differently, concluding that left-handers are better at multitasking.

• Lefties excel particularly well in tennis, swimming, and boxing (almost 40% of the top tennis players at the moment are lefties). A lefty excels at individual sports, meaning sports that are not team-based. Players who are right-handed tend to prefer playing against other right-handed players than players who are left-handed.