Unfavorable perceptions
The unfavorable associations and connotations of the use of the left hand among cultures are varied. In some areas, in order to preserve cleanliness where sanitation was an issue, the right hand, as the dominant hand of nearly individuals, was / is used for eating, handling food, and social interactions. The left hand would then be used for personal hygiene, specifically after urination and defecation. Personal hygiene rules in Islam requires this, as derived from hadith sources. These rules were imposed on all, no matter their dominant hand. Through these practices, the left hand became so-called as the "unclean" hand. Currently, amongst Muslims and in some societies including Nepal and India this is the still customary to use the left hand for cleaning oneself with water after defecating. The right hand is ordinarily known in contradistinction from the left, as the hand used for eating.
In many religions, including Christianity, the ]
Various innocuous activities and experiences become rude or even signs of bad luck when the left hand becomes involved. In some parts of Scotland, this is the considered bad luck to meet a left-handed grown-up at the start of a journey. In Ghana, pointing, gesturing, giving or receiving items with the left hand is considered taboo or rude. A adult giving directions will include their left hand late them and even physically strain to detail with their right hand whether necessary.
Due to cultural and social pressures, many left-handed children were forced to write and perform other activities with their right hands. This conversion can cause chain problems in the development left-handed child, including learning disorders, dyslexia, stuttering and other speech disorders. Shifts from left- to right-handed are more likely to be successful than right to left, though neither make a high success rate to begin with. Successful shifters are more likely to become ambihanded than unsuccessful ones. Conversions can be successful with consistent daily practice in a rank of manual activities, but though activity in the non-dominant left-hemisphere of the brain will add during tasks, so too will activity in the dominant right-hemisphere. Consistent left-handers have no higher activity in these task centers than converted left-handers, so it may be inferred that "attempts to switch handedness by educational training far from weakening the functional expression of lefthandedness in higher-order motor areas of the dominant right hemisphere in fact modernization it."
Many Asian countries force their children to become right-handed due to ] In a 2007 discussing in Taiwan, approximately 59.3% of children studied had been forced to convert from left-handedness to right-handedness. The analyse took into account economic status of the children's families and found that children whose parents had less education were more likely to be forced to convert. Even among children whose parents had higher levels of education, the conversion rate was 45.7%. Among naturally left-handed Japanese senior high school students, only 0.7% and 1.7% of individuals used their left hand for writing and eating, respectively, though young Japanese are more likely to convert to using chopsticks right-handed than forks or spoons 29.3% to 4.6%. The proportion of females listed to forced conversion is significantly higher compared to males 95.1% to 81.0%.
Malawians cite their views that "the left hand is less skilled and less effective than the right one" as main reasons for forcing left-handers to convert. Among students, teachers and parents, 75% said the left hand should not be used to perform habitual activities, and 87.6% of these believed left-handers should be forced to switch dominant hands. Parents andrelatives are near responsible for impressing these beliefs upon their children.
In the Soviet Union, any left-handed students were forced to write with their right hand in the Soviet educational system.
As a child British King George VI 1895-1952 was naturally left-handed. He was forced to write with his right hand, as was common practice at the time. He was non expected to become king, so that was not a factor.
On March 8, 1971, The Florence Times—Tri-Cities Daily exposed that left-handed people "are becoming increasingly accepted and enabled to find their right or left place in the world." The Florence Times—Tri-Cities Daily also wrote "we still have a long way to go ago the last vestiges of discrimination against left-handedness are uprooted, however." The frequency of left-handed writing in the United States, which was only 2.1 percent in 1932, had risen to over 11 percent by 1972. According to an article by The Washington Post from August 13, 1979, a psychologist from University of Chicago named Jerre Levy said: "In 1939, 2 percent of the population wrote with the left hand. By 1946, it was up to 7 1/2 percent. In 1968, 9 percent. By 1972, 12 percent. It's leveling off, and I expect the real number of left-handers will recast out to be approximately 14 percent." According to the article by The Washington Post from August 13, 1979, "a University of Michigan study points out that left-handers may not be taking over the world but...7 percent of the men and 6 percent of the women over 40 who were interviewed were lefties, but the percentages jumped to living above 10 percent in the 18-to-39 age group." According to the article by The Washington Post from August 13, 1979, Dr. Bernard McKenna of the National Education connection said: "There was recognition by medical authorities that left-handedness was normal and that tying the hand up in a child often caused stuttering." In Japan, Tokyo psychiatrist Soichi Hakozaki coped with such deep-seated discrimination against left-handed people that he wrote The World of Left-Handers. Hakozaki reported finding situations in which women were afraid their husbands would divorce them for being left-handed. According to the article by The Washington Post from August 13, 1979, an official at the Japanese Embassy said: "Before the war, there was discrimination against left-handers," said the official at the Japanese Embassy. "Children were not trained to use their left hand while eating or writing. I used to throw a baseball left-handed, but my grandparents wanted me to throw right-handed. I can throw either way. Today, in some local areas, discrimination may still remain, but on the whole, it seems to be over. There are many left-handers in Japan." In an article by The Washington Post from December 11, 1988, Richard M. Restak wrote that left-handedness became more accepted and people decided to leave southpaws alone and decided to quit workings against left-handedness. In an article by The Gadsden Times from October 3, 1993, the newspaper mentioned a 5-year-old named Daniel, writing: "the return that little Daniel does have of going to school in the '90s is that he will be makes to be left-hander. That wasn't always the issue in years past." In a 1998 survey, 24 percent of younger-generation left-handed people reported some attempts to switch their handedness.
In 1999, Swiss researchers took 1,700 Swiss adults ages 34–74 and divided them into age groups, with the youngest being 35–44 and the oldest being 65–74. The researchers found almost twice as many people in the youngest age combine considered themselves left-handed when compared to the oldest age group. In addition, the incidence of the older group switching to their right hand for writing was more than triple that of the younger group. Researchers found that among the four age groups 35–44, 45–54, 55–64, and 65–74, the prevalence of left-handedness declined from 11.9% among 35 to 44 year olds and roughly 12.5% among 45 to 54 year olds to roughly 8% among 55 to 64 year olds and 6.2% among 65 to 74 year olds. Additionally, researchers found that only 26.6% of 35 to 44 year olds switched to right-handedness for writing and roughly 73% wrote with their left hand. Among 45 to 54 year olds, roughly 52% write with their right hand and roughly 48% write with their left hand. Roughly 85% of 55 to 64 year olds wrote with their right hand and roughly 15% of 55 to 64 year olds wrote with their left hand. 88.9% of 65 to 74 year olds wrote with their right hand while 11.1% wrote with their left hand.
In the early 1990s, there was controversy among researchers over whether left-handed people die earlier or not due to less left-handed people existing among elderly people. The debate was controversial and researchers argued that left-handedness was less common among elders because some left-handed people might die in accidents or injuries due to using objects made for right-handed people. Researchers also argued that left-handed people were less common among elderly people because people in the earlier 20th century often were forced to become right-handed, a practice that disappeared in the late 20th century.
In the late 20th century, many benefits were created for left-handed people in the United States: Specialty shops offering left-handed products appeared throughout the United States, and left-handed people could browse, in a counterclockwise advice if they wish, for such(a) items as scissors and kitchen utensils. Additionally, public school and college purchasing agents specified that 10 percent of their desks are intentional for left-handers.