The International Left-Handers’ Day 2021 is celebrated every year on August 13. It is a way to acknowledge those who, unlike the majority of the population, are born left-handed. While we mark this day by calling up our lefty friends and family, let us look into some fun facts about lefties. Here’s a list of 10 fun facts about lefties that makes them unique in many ways. From historical suppression of their traits to their advantages in certain games, we’ve covered it all.

Here is the list that you can read to know better about your left-handed friends:

1. A considerable part of the population, almost 10-12 per cent of the global population, consists of left-handers.
2. Left-handers use the right side of the brain more. The human brain is cross-wired — its right half controls the left side of the body and vice versa. Hence, left-handers use their right side of the brain more than right-handed people do.
3. Left-handers recover quicker after a stroke. The left side of the human brain, which is used a lot by right-handed people, controls our language function. Therefore, strokes on the left side of the body, tamper with the language of a right-handed person. But left-handers depend lesser on the left side of the brain. Hence, they can recover their language abilities faster after a stroke.
4. Left-handers have an advantage in some sports. They are usually good at sports when in a one-on-one face-off. In games like baseball, boxing, fencing and tennis, left-handers often have an edge over their right-handed opponents who are used to playing with right-handed players mostly.
5. Left-handers have typing advantages. On a QWERTY keyboard, they can type over 3,000 English words by solely using the left hand. But only around 300 words can be typed with the right hand alone. We’ll notice that the most typed letters are towards the left side of the keyboard.
6. There are people who are afraid of the left-side or left-handed people. This condition can take the form of a phobia and is known as Sinistrophobia.
7. A study at Queen’s University, Belfast shows that if the foetus chooses to suck its left hand while in the womb, it will grow up to be left-handed. Genetics also plays a role to determine left-handedness.
8. In many cultures and countries, being a left-hander is thought to be unnatural. In eastern countries like India or in the Middle East, left-handedness is thought to be rude. In the UK, too, left-handed children were once forced to use their right hands.
9. While this is still contested, studies have found that artists like painters, musicians and even architects are mostly left-handers.
10. Right and left-handed people deal with tasks and memory in different ways. Left-handers are known to efficiently multitask as they look at the tasks as a whole.