4. Left Handed People Are Weirdly Competitive
Left handed people are weird, in the sense that there are so few of them. With only 10% of the population as lefties, you'd have thought they'd either be on their way in or out, and yet the percentage of the population that is left handed has remained pretty much constant since pre-history (we know this due to left-handed tool finds at stone age sites). Well, now researchers at Northwestern University think they might be on to the reason why. The balance of left-handers and right-handers in the human population pretty much matches up with the balance of competition and cooperation involved in human evolution. Their suspicions were raised by the disproportionate amount of lefties that excel in competitive sport. Using real-world data from a range of disciplines, those clever boffins were able to confirm the correlation between left handedness and competitiveness, as well as actually using the data to accurately predict the percentage of lefties in any given group. Human society is mostly based on cooperation, we are social creatures, but there is still a little room for competition in there. Plus, being left handed would give you a competitive edge over your right-handed opponents. So, the lesson here is never challenge a leftie to a game of pool.