A selection of interesting facts about left-handed people

The terminology "left-handed" refers to a person who uses his left hand more often and more intensively than his right hand for his needs. Let's talk about the characteristics of these people and figure out how to retrain a child from left-handed to right-handed and whether it needs to be done.

Attitudes of peoples towards left-handers

In ancient times, left-handedness was considered a serious disability and was rarely viewed positively. Now we can celebrate the day of left-handers. International holiday falls on August 13th.

In the languages ​​of some peoples, the word “left-handed” has an unrespectable meaning - clumsy, inappropriate, but life shows that this is far from the truth. According to the Incas, being left-handed is great luck and happiness. The ancient Germans despised left-handed people, considering them incompetent.

Today Hitler is considered left-handed, and he began to use his right hand only after coming to power.

In some African tribes There is a belief that left-handed compatriots can spoil food or even poison it. And the Eskimos are sure that every left-hander has the makings of a sorcerer. Also, people in the East were prejudiced against left-handed people. A Japanese woman who was left-handed and right-handed at the same time could lose her family. Men divorced wives whose left hand was more active than the right.

Left-handers were not trusted in Rus' either; they were forbidden to testify in court. In schools Soviet Union left-handed schoolchildren were taught to write with their right hand.

Why did they retrain left-handers in the USSR? The system that existed at that time assumed the equality of people in everything, the manifestation of individuality was suppressed. Until the 70s. They wrote with ink that smeared on the paper. It was easier to retrain.

With the beginning of perestroika, attitudes changed. In 1989, a monument to Lefty was erected in Tula. It symbolizes the city's craftsmen. Interestingly, among local residents The myth about Master Surnin spread. Allegedly, he lived under Catherine II and was the prototype of the hero from Leskov’s story. Nikolai Semenovich himself said that the image is fictitious and has no connection with real people.

In the old days, they didn’t think about how to retrain a left-hander to be right-handed. Inquisition judges considered left-handed women accused of witchcraft to belong to the devil. In the famous verdict and burning of Joan of Arc, the activity of her left hand played a decisive role.

How do you feel about left-handed people? Do you have such friends and are they sorcerers? :) Write in the comments.

Statistics

The percentage of left-handers in the world is quite large. In numerical terms, this group accounts for approximately 500 million people (8-10%). According to statistics, by 2020 the number will increase to a billion. There are several reasons for the appearance of left-handed people. The main one is genetics. The left-handed gene was first discovered in 2008.

A person with a developed left hand is not an anomaly. This is especially important to know before retraining a left-handed child to become right-handed. These people simply have a more developed right hemisphere of the brain. The site has detailed information on this topic.

Interestingly, there are more left-handed men. More often such people can be found in Southeast Australia, South Asia, of Eastern Europe, less often - in Northern and Western Europe, Africa.

The Greatness of the Left Hand

Facts from history testify to the tremendous successes of people with this feature. You can’t help but wonder, how can you quickly become left-handed if you’re right-handed?

Here are examples of great personalities:

• Politicians - Queen Victoria, W. Churchill, Alexander the Great, Fidel Castro, Barack Obama;
• businessmen - Henry Ford, John Rockefeller, Ross Perot and Bill Gates;
• athletes - Garry Kasparov, Pele, M. Sharapova. Interestingly, according to statistics for 2014, out of the 50 best tennis players, 20 are left-handed;
• scientists - I. Newton, A. Einstein;
• artists and painters - Raphael, Durer, Picasso, Leonardo da Vinci;
• actors - Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin, Paul McCartney.

Is Putin right-handed or left-handed? This issue was actively discussed on the Internet. The head of state wears a watch on his right hand, this became the reason for the discussion. This manner is characteristic of hidden left-handers. But people who know the president personally claim that he developed the habit after practicing judo.

Formation of left-handedness

child in preschool age There is no left-handed or right-handed person due to the peculiarities of the development of the body. The hemispheres of the brain develop unevenly. Up to 5 years the right part of the box is formed, and up to 8 – 12 – the left part of the box. Most kids try to do everything with their left hand, but you can only tell if a child is left-handed or right-handed when they reach the age of 5.

As children grow, both hemispheres can develop equally. Right-handed and left-handed at the same time is called ambidexter. This is a rare and little-studied phenomenon. Sometimes the system fails: heredity, head trauma, pregnancy, imitation of adults. Then the left side of the body becomes the leading one. Serious damage to the right hand causes a tendency towards left-handedness. But the body remains under the influence of the left hemisphere of the brain.

A left-handed child, due to developmental characteristics, differs from other children:

• Confused about spatial connections and the words that define them (lower, higher, left);
• prone to creativity, far from exact sciences;
• may stutter;
• demonstrates unconventional thinking in everyday matters.

These signs will help you both determine whether a child is right- or left-handed and make a decision about the further upbringing of the child.

Retraining lefties

Is it necessary to retrain a child to be left-handed? Previously, the answer was unequivocal - yes. We cited Soviet schools as an example, but this was accepted in many countries. People didn’t think about the fact that this was dangerous, because under pressure it’s impossible to learn to write with your right hand if you’re left-handed.

The brain reacts painfully to coercion, and a person’s mental and physical condition worsens. Forcing children to change their dominant side is like learning to walk on their hands.

Is it possible to retrain yourself? People show different learning experiences, but left-handed people tend to lose their creative potential. To relearn, you need to focus on your right hand, try to perform all actions with it.

When retraining yourself, it is important to act as desired. Interestingly, the brain itself switches the leading hemisphere. This happens after severe injuries, strokes, and heart attacks. In general, it is possible to partially retrain both left-handed and right-handed. But the part of the brain given by nature will remain dominant.

People with a dominant left hand, in other words, left-handed people, have always been born. In ancient centuries, left-handers were considered sorcerers and witches, because they often had extraordinary abilities. And such people were burned at the stake. IN Ancient Rus' Left-handers were not allowed to testify in court. It was believed that the devil was left-handed.

Fortunately, times have changed, and it has long been known that magic does not play any role here. A left-handed person is already born. Nature created us asymmetrical. Our brain itself chooses which hand will be dominant. If the right hemisphere of the brain is more developed, then the left hand becomes active, and vice versa, if it is more developed left hemisphere, then the main hand will be the right.

We have selected 5 of the most interesting facts from the life of left-handers:

- Left-handed people are very gifted people who have extraordinary abilities or have some outstanding talent. For example, scientist Albert Einstein, Roman emperor Gaius Julius Caesar, writer Leo Tolstoy, artist Pablo Picasso, actress Marilyn Monroe - they were all left-handed. But still modern psychologists They believe that a person's genius does not depend on which hand is dominant. But the thinking of left-handers and right-handers is different. And this remains a fact.

- Left-handed people are more creative, active, they do not sit still, they absorb information whole. But here they may have problems with logic. Left-handed people are able to grasp information on the fly, they see the whole problem, right-handed people need to sort everything out. If a purely left-handed person has difficulties with mathematical problems, then it will be easier for him to explain the material using images. Right-handers, on the contrary, prefer logic. They make good analysts and excellent strategists.

- Statistics indicate that There are many left-handed people among successful athletes. Tennis player Rafael Nadal, football player Pele. Left-handed tennis player Martina Navratilova held the title of world number one for nine years. This was an absolute record.

Statistics show that 40 percent of gold medals are won by left-handed athletes.

There are not so many pure left-handers in the world. In the animal world the opposite is true. There are more lefties there. For example, monkeys and polar bears have a stronger left paw. But, as an exception, right-footed animals are also found in the fauna world, although much less frequently.

The other side of the coin is that left-handers are more likely to suffer from schizophrenia and alcoholism. However, scientists different countries There are differences of opinion about this extraordinary fact.

In order to determine who your child is, you can conduct a simple test. To begin with, let's define main hand– to do this, ask the child to clasp his hands together. Whichever finger is on top - that hand will be the leading one. You can also fold your hands in front of you in the Napoleon pose (clasp your hands together in front of your chest); if the right hand is on top, then it is the child’s main one. Now let's try to determine the leading ear. Ask your child to listen to the ticking wristwatch. Whichever ear he reaches for them will be the dominant one. In order to determine the active eye, you need to make a small round hole in a piece of paper and ask the child to look into it. Whichever eye looks into this hole will be the main one. Finally, you can check the child's leg. Just ask him to cross his legs. The leg that is on top will be the leading one.

If the child did everything with his left hand, then you are looking at a pure left-hander, of whom there are no more than 10 percent on our planet. And about 45 percent are pure right-handers. If, when performing the test, “left” and “right” are mixed up, then it means that your child is a hidden left-hander; there are about 50 percent of such people. There are also ambidextrous people. There are very few of them. These are people in whom both hands function equally well and the dominant one does not stand out. Such people have the ability to use both hemispheres at once. Ambidextrous children learn better new information, more intelligent, adapt more easily to new conditions. When raising such a child, you need to take into account that if both hemispheres of the brain are under heavy load, then the child may experience neurasthenia, he will become very tired, and headaches may occur.

To avoid this, you need to try to reduce the load on the left hemisphere, which is responsible for intellectual development and logic, instead develop more the right, which is responsible for creativity. For example, instead of additional math classes, take your child to drawing, dancing, you can enroll your child in music school. Then the child’s brain will not experience excessive stress.

But our world is more suitable for right-handed people, since they are still the majority. For example, if you take a store. In all supermarkets, movement around the sales floor goes counterclockwise. This is designed to make it easier for right-handed shoppers to add items to their cart. The more goods are taken, the faster store sales grow.

Marketing move. Sports stadiums are built on the same principle. Athletes run around the stadium counterclockwise, so that when turning, active right leg could have saved the runner from falling. The turnstiles in the subway are adapted for right-handed people, as is the hand hole in the sewing machine. For left-handed people we were able to find only stationery supplies - scissors, sharpeners, rulers with a mirror scale. For now, lefties have to deal with the rest themselves.

The leading hemisphere of the brain is responsible for human development and thinking: the right hemisphere for left-handed people, and the left for right-handed people. However, the working hand does not yet determine the main hemisphere. There are absolute and partial left-handers and right-handers. In the former, one of the hemispheres is strongly dominant over the other, in the latter there is no such obvious difference. If a person has developed both hemispheres, then he is ambidextrous.

The left hemisphere is responsible for speech, as well as rational and constructive thinking, perception of verbal signals. It strives for consistency and specificity. Right-handers find it easier to concentrate, unlike absent-minded left-handers.

The right hemisphere is “associative”. Left-handers have developed intuition. They are constantly in close contact with their subconscious, so they have developed Creative skills, because it is the unconscious that processes all the information perceived by a person. If you know how to listen to it, it will definitely give you the most unimaginable and brilliant idea. This is the answer to the question why there were so many left-handers.

Some statistics

Lefties in a right-handed world

Scientists put forward several hypotheses about why there are more right-handers than left-handers: this and natural selection, and initial predisposition. Here is the most convincing of them: the left half of the brain began to sharply predominate over the right at the moment when a person mastered speech and thinking. This happened in time immemorial when primitive people lived in caves, hunted wild animals and survived by any means. In ancient drawings from the late Paleolithic, a person is already depicted with a metal spear or club in his right hand.

Naturally, the tools were made to suit the needs of the majority. The economy and everyday life were formed in such a way that it was carried out by the main part of humanity - right-handed people. This is how it was built cruel world right-handed For left-handed children, he was harsh and merciless. In the Middle Ages, out of fear, mothers swaddled and immobilized the baby's left arm while breastfeeding. A left-handed child became not only useless to society, but also dangerous. While mowing wheat, a left-handed peasant could injure another worker with a sickle or break a saw while working in pairs. Girls needlewomen also had a hard time; many skills required active use of the right hand.

The word “left” was associated with something bad and negative. In Spain, the Devil was considered left-handed. On icons depicting doomsday sinners were necessarily drawn on the left side of Christ. Under Peter the Great, crooked people, red-haired people and left-handed people were not allowed to be witnesses in court.

In the 21st century, civilized countries are creating comfortable living conditions for left-handed people. Household items for left-handers are produced, and even work machines, machines and other serious equipment are manufactured.

Historical exceptions

On Greek vases there are images of left-handed warriors: they hold a shield with their right hand and a sword with their left.
In the army of Alexander the Great there was a detachment of brilliant warriors of 700 people. They were all left-handed and were called the "Left Division".
For the Egyptians, entering a house with the left foot was a good omen.
Left-handedness was considered great luck among the Incas.
It is customary among the Eskimos to treat every left-handed person with respect, because he is the bearer of witchcraft power.

How to determine the main hemisphere

It is possible to determine whether a child is left-handed or right-handed only from the age of 1.5-2 years. Until this age, children are characterized by “obeseness.” They use one or the other hand at different periods of development, their duration is from 1 to 3 months. From the age of two, it is no longer difficult to understand which hand will be the dominant one. Observe the child with which hand he draws, plays, combs his hair, dresses, eats.

For older children and adults, the following tests are suitable to help determine the main hemisphere:

Place your arms across your chest in Napoleon pose. Which one is on top? Left hand- the right hemisphere predominates, and if the right hemisphere predominates, the left hemisphere predominates.
Interlace your fingers. Thumb, which is on top, will show which hemisphere is dominant. The pattern is the same as in the previous test.
When jumping, a person pushes off the ground with his leading leg. Jump.
To identify your dominant eye, select an object and point at it with a pencil or pen. Focus on the target with both eyes. Close the left one, then the right one. The dominant eye is the one that, when closed, causes the target to shift more.

Left-handed and right-handed differences

Left-handed people are impressionable and emotionally excitable, they experience negative events in their lives strongly and deeply, and are easily offended. Left-handers are characterized by increased moodiness.
Left-handers are more susceptible to the influence and mood of others than right-handers.
Left-handers tend to have difficulty pronouncing certain sounds and difficulty speaking. They often have problems writing letters, sometimes whole words and even phrases: they write in a mirror manner (da Vinci phenomenon). Right-handed people don't encounter this.
Right-handers are more practical and stable, in contrast to fickle, sensitive and changeable left-handers.
Right-handed children find it easier to concentrate on their studies than their left-handed classmates with scattered attention.

Outstanding left-handers

Many famous figures visual arts, writers, musicians and scientists had right-sided thinking: Leonardo da Vinci, V.I. Dahl, N.L. Pavlov, Napoleon Bonaparte, L.N. Tolstoy, A.S. Pushkin, Albert Einstein, M.V. Lomonosov, Julius Caesar, Mozart, Bill Gates, Lewis Carroll...And this is not a complete list.

Greetings to regular readers and guests of the site! In this article Interesting Facts about left-handers and right-handers, a little history, the most famous left-handers in the world.

About lefties

Norwegian scientists suggest that humanity at the dawn of its youth was entirely... left-handed!

But as a result of a cosmic mega-catastrophe that happened in the distant past, strange metamorphoses occurred to people. The authors of the sensational hypothesis cannot yet explain - everyone has become right-handed.

The “right” majority did not stand on ceremony with the left-handed minority that survived this terrible meat grinder. It outlawed him, considering him a conspiracy evil spirits, the product of evil.

In many languages ​​the word "left" has negative meaning. Translated from English as sinister, harmful, nasty. In French - dishonest. In Italian - deceitful.

Russia was no exception in its attitude towards left-handers. According to the decree of Peter the Great, they, as crooked and red-haired ones, were forbidden to testify in court, “before God marks the rogue.” It is known that the famous Maid of Orleans, Joan of Arc, was recognized as a witch. She was also burned at the stake because she held a weapon in her left hand.

Damn minority

Lefties really have no luck! They are more likely to suffer from disorders nervous system. Starting from harmless “autism” and mental retardation to deadly epilepsy, schizophrenia and cerebral palsy.

They are more prone to pessimism and despondency. Scientists have found that they usually have few offspring, large quantity spontaneous, low birth weight.

According to researchers from the University of Toronto, same-sex lovers are common among left-handers. According to statistics, the life expectancy of left-handers is on average ten years less than that of right-handers.

Scientists attribute the decrease in life expectancy of left-handers to complications during pregnancy and childbirth. They have slower development and a higher predisposition to diabetes, asthma and alcoholism.

And London scientists who studied the medical records of 17 thousand Englishmen came to the conclusion that left-handed people are prone to intestinal diseases. And to a much greater extent than right-handers.

Back in the 90s, it was noticed that left-handers are more likely than others to die at work as a result of accidents. Medical experts say instrument manufacturers must take this fact into account. And employers should create equal working conditions for everyone.

Gradually in the USA and countries Western Europe Products for left-handed people began to appear. These are: scissors, rulers, knives, sporting goods, office equipment. In Russia, such goods are still rare, although we have about 17 million left-handers.

Lefty shoed a flea

Scientists generally speak about Russian left-handers with particular tenderness and sadness. They remember our left-hander, who managed to shoe a flea: “Isn’t it true?” bad person would such a long memory be preserved, even in legend?”

In Russia, until the mid-80s of the twentieth century, left-handed first-graders were taught to write with their right hand, they were simply retrained. Although the harm from such retraining has been known for a long time: neurotic enuresis, neurosis, insomnia, stuttering.

And after that, do you want left-handed people to be happy and live long? Is this really life - in constant stress and struggle for your “leftist” rights?

Famous lefties

According to statistics, every fourth child in our country is left-handed. And the percentage of left-handed people is growing every year, and at the same time the hope is growing that there will be more talent on earth. And this is not idle chatter: among people who have achieved worldwide recognition, every fifth person is left-handed.

95% of geniuses “suffered” from left-handedness:

• Roman Emperor Tiberius,
• Alexander the Great,
• Julius Caesar,
• Rubens,
• Leonardo da Vinci,
• Picasso,
• Joan of Arc
• Michelangelo,
• Albert Einstein,
• Charlie Chaplin,
• Beethoven,
• Rockefeller,
• Bill Gates,
• Mozart,
• Henry Ford.

There is an assumption that time passes through the brain of left-handed people in the opposite direction. Not from the past to the future, as most people do, but on the contrary, from the future to the past. This was previously used to explain the extraordinary intuitive abilities and gift of predicting the future that many left-handers are endowed with.

Another theory states that in left-handed people the right hemisphere is dominant, responsible for out-of-the-box thinking and intuition. And the ancients believed that a warrior whose heart was on the right could become left-handed. Therefore, he was forced to hold the shield with his right hand and the sword with his left.

Facts about left-handers and right-handers → video ↓

At all times, left-handers were treated ambiguously. This was considered one of the signs of witches and sorcerers, a defect, they were beaten, branded, etc. Today, people with a dominant left hand are treated calmly and, moreover, they are considered to be predisposed to creativity and music. Despite this different attitude For left-handed people, scientists have always been interested in one question: why some have a dominant one side, while others have the other. What is this connected with?

Let's look together at the most interesting facts about left-handed people that you may not have known. You can also see left-handed celebrities in this article.

• 1. As statistics show, there are very few people on our planet who perform all actions mainly with their left hand - only 10-12%.

• 2. One of the advantages of being left-handed is that if such a person damages his dominant side, he will master the other faster. For right-handers, the opposite is true.

• 3. Scientists conducted a study which found that left-handed people are more likely to suffer from alcoholism, schizophrenia, and perhaps that’s why they live 9 years less.

• 4. But, despite the fact that in modern society Such people are treated more and more loyally, but there are still countries where this is considered wrong and is regarded as a violation of the law.

• 5. Scientists have discovered an interesting fact about left-handed people. As it turned out, they receive all information faster, this is due to the fact that the speed of connections between right side brain and left above.

• 6. Did you know that such famous people How did Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin and Alexander the Great do everything with their left hand?

• 7. Left-handed dominant students at Juniata, Guntingdon, and Penn State Colleges may qualify for a variety of scholarship benefits.

• 8. But left-handed people should pay close attention to their health, as they are more prone to allergies than right-handed people.

• 9. There are a huge number of holidays today. So left-handed people have a gala evening on August 13, since this is officially considered their day.