Three US Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and father George Bush, the Nobel Prize winner in physics Albert Einstein who revolutionized our conception of time and space, but also the actor Charlie Chaplin and Leonardo Da Vinci, considered one of the greatest geniuses of mankind . Or until today the actress Angelina Jolie, the singer Lady Gaga, the rapper Fedez. All of these well-known characters, like many other people, have one trait in common: they are left-handed, which means they use the left hand as dominant instead of the right. Left-handed people now make up about 10% of the population and compared to the past, their peculiarity is no longer seen as a deficiency to be corrected.
Famous lefties
To celebrate them, an international day was dedicated to them on August 13, International Left Handers Day, established in 1992 by the Left Handers Club in the United Kingdom. According to science, there is no lack of special features for left-handers, both positive and negative. Some can be considered additional gears. They remember events better, meaning they have better episodic memory, according to a 2001 study, because their brain hemispheres are more closely connected, they’re more adept at math, at solving complex problems, than at simple arithmetic, aloud a study of the 2017 in which 2314 Italian students took part. According to another 2017 study, they also have an advantage in interactive sports like table tennis or baseball that require responsiveness. You are strong at boxing. From a health point of view, they have a higher risk of breast cancer, but on the other hand they have an advantage, for example for recovery after a stroke and after brain diseases in general. You are also able to think outside the box when it comes to finding solutions to problems. It’s certainly still not that easy to be left-handed in a world that is predominantly suitable for right-handed people, but the prejudices about the past seem to have been dispelled. Franco Battiato, also left-handed, alludes to this in a song: “And Paganini knew well that the devil is left-handed and sneaky and plays the violin”.