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By Carolyn Gregoire 11302016 07:05pm EST Updated August 28, 2020 iconfacebook Created with Sketch.

Teresa Short via Getty Images Lefties historically have had a tendency to get left behind.

Until relatively recently, being left-handed was stigmatized, sometimes as an abnormality or sign of weakness.

Left-handed children were forced to learn to write with their right hands, often to their significant disadvantage.

Of course, we now know that theres nothing wrong with being left-handed.

As University of Toledo psychologist Stephen Christman recently explained in Scientific American, theres almost no evidence to suggest that lefties are at any sort of physical or psychological disadvantage.

For one thing, lefties have comprised roughly 10 percent to 15 percent of the general population for many thousands of years.

The fact that the trait has remained stable over many generations suggests that left-handedness is not an evolutionary weakness, as many psychologists of the past believed.

But handedness does come with certain physiological and neurological differences.

Research remains incomplete, but here are some things we know about the unique cognitive and psychological profiles of the left-handed: They may be quicker thinkers.

Lefties may be able to use both sides of their brain more easily and efficiently.

According to an Australian study published in 2006 in the journal Neuropsychology, left-handed people tend to have faster connections between the right and left hemispheres of the brain, which leads to quicker information processing.

The study authors measured participants performance on a task that assessed transfer time between brain hemispheres, and one that required them to use both sides of their brain at the same time.

The research revealed that left-handed participants were faster at processing information across the two sides of the brain a cognitive advantage that could benefit them in things like video games and sports.

The hand you use may have a surprising effect on the way you judge abstract ideas, like value, intelligence and honesty.

A 2009 Stanford University study found that left-handed and right-handed people may engage in an implicit favoring of their dominant side.

In the study, participants viewed two columns of illustrations and were asked to judge which seemed more happy, honest, intelligent and attractive.

Left-handers implicitly chose illustrations in the left column, and righties tended to choose images on the right side.

While less than 15 percent of the general population is left-handed, 25 percent of Major League baseball players are lefties.

Why It may be because they tend to have faster reaction times, as the 2006 Australian study cited above found.

Studies have found that lefties seem to have a real advantage in interactive sports, such as boxing, fencing, tennis and baseball but this advantage doesnt extend to non-interactive sports, like gymnastics and diving.

Its possible that because of their different physical orientation and movements, lefties are able throw off right-handed opponents, who are used to going up against other righties.

Left Handed Carvin V