7 Advantages Of Being Left-Handed: The Odds Are In Your Favor


Only about 10 percent of the population is left-handed, but lefties seem to have a big presence in the world of high-achievers. Though the difference seems to just simply be on the surface (which hand you use), research actually shows that are left-handers and right-handers have dominance in different sides of their brains. So it better to be left or right-handed? It seems like both have their strengths and weaknesses but there are many advantages to being left-handed.

Right-handed people have dominant left brains and left-handed people have dominant right brains. Righties are perceived to have the advantage when it comes to math, languages, and computation, while lefties lead in holistic thinking, intuition, and expressing their feelings, according to Medical Daily. The list of high achieving left-handers contains many familiar names. Indiana University has put together a list of left-handed people through history, that includes everyone from Joan of Arc and Michelangelo to Tom Cruise and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. One disadvantage? Righties don't want to sit next to you at the dinner table, because your dominant eating arms will keep bumping into each other.

Though there have been parents who have tried to train their lefties to use righties and join the other 90 percent of people who use that hand, it really isn't something you can change. So if you are a lefty or have a kid who is, rest easy, as there are many great things about it.

1. You Earn More Money


Well, only if you're college educated. A study in the United Kingdom showed that college-educated lefties earned 10 to 15 percent more than the righties, according to Slate. Media Planet has the advantage even higher and said that lefties are 26 percent richer than their righty friends.

2. You Are Better Drivers


Or better at taking the driving test. An AA Driving school test found that, "57 [percent] of lefties pass their driver's tests on the first try, compared with only 47 [percent] of righties," as reported in BuzzFeed.

3. You Are Better At Daydreaming


With the constant influx of info these days, it doesn't seem like there's much time left for daydreaming, but that doesn't stop most. Media Planet said that lefties have an advantage in daydreaming, imagining, and in general being creative. You're just better at visualizing things.

4. You're A Better Baseball Player


Lefties have the upper hand (pun intended) in boxing and tennis, according to Media Planet, but they have an extra advantage at baseball. It's better for batters, who are closer to first base when hitting the ball, and also as he swings, his momentum is turning him towards first base, explained Washington University aerospace engineer David Peters to Newsweek.

Baseball is also one sport where equipment is specially made for lefties, as they need to wear their gloves on their right hands and throw with their left. This is a disadvantage to any parent who is seeking to save some money by getting hand-me-down sporting equipment. You need to find a baseball player who is also a lefty and hope they have some old gloves they are willing to give.

5. You Are Better At Computer Games


How much you value this advantage is in the eye of the beholder, but many would think this is pretty important. A study published in Neuropsychology suggested that "people who favor their left hand for writing probably have brains that are more conducive to simultaneous, bi-hemisphere processing of information," reported How Stuff Works. "It could mean that left-handers have a slight advantage in sports, gaming and other activities in which players face large volumes of stimuli being thrown at them simultaneously or in quick succession," the site explained.

6. Eating Is much simpler


While righties have to take an extra second when they cut up food on their plate and switch their fork and knife from hand to hand, lefties can get right to it and use the fork that's in their left hand to spear the food and get it to your mouth, according to Buzz Feed.

7. You Are Better At Problem Solving


When you look at the list of left-handed presidents (Obama, Clinton, Reagan, Ford, Bush Senior) and inventors (Ben Franklin, Henry Ford), not to mention the ambidextrous Nicolas Tesla and Albert Einstein, it would appear that being left-handed is an advantage. Whatever is happening in a lefty's brain sure seems to help with the big picture.
