Brain Trick
Ambidexterity
Using both hands equally well for every task. Fewer than 1% of people are truly ambidextrous. Most people who say they are ambidextrous are mixed-handed: right hand for some jobs, left for others.
Under 1%
Learnable
Can be trained with practice.
20 oddities.
Spiritual 6Icky 4Not an emergency 20Get it checked 14Try it 62Learnable 20Party trick 19Vestigial 7Genetic 35Sleep 6Illusion 21Childhood 10Debunked myth 11Community 13Famous people 14Record 7
Mouth Trick
Cloverleaf tongue
Folding the tongue into three lobes, like a clover leaf. Between 10% and 15% of people in Western samples can do it. It is usually called the hardest tongue shape.
10–15% (Western samples)
Ears Trick
Ear wiggling
Moving the outer ears using three small muscles that most mammals use to point their ears at sounds. Between 10% and 22% of people can wiggle at least one ear. Many more can learn.
10–22% (one ear)
Organs Rare ability
Extraordinary breath-holding
Most adults can hold their breath for 30 to 90 seconds. Trained freedivers manage over 11 minutes, and over 24 minutes after breathing pure oxygen. One group of sea nomads has evolved larger spleens for diving.
Trained divers only
Eyes Trick
Eyelid flipping
Turning the upper eyelid inside out so the pink inner surface shows. Most people with reasonably loose lids can learn it. Eye doctors do it to patients to look for grit.
No formal count Icky
Muscle Trick
Flaring your nostrils
Widening the nostrils on purpose. About 30% of people can do it on command. Everyone does it without thinking during hard breathing and strong emotion.
~30% on command
Mouth Trick
Gleeking
Shooting a thin jet of saliva from under the tongue, sometimes a metre or more. About 35% of people do it by accident now and then. Only about 1% can do it reliably on command.
~1% on command Icky
Eyes Perception
Haidinger's brush
Humans can see the polarization of light without any tool. It appears as a faint yellow bow-tie in the middle of your vision when you look at a white screen or a blue sky.
Most people, with practice
Heart Trick
Heart rate control
Slowing or speeding up your own heartbeat on purpose, using breath, attention, or training. Most people can shift it a little within minutes. A few trained people shift it a lot.
Most people, a little
Brain Rare ability
Human echolocation
Some blind people find their way by making sharp tongue clicks and listening to the echoes. Brain scans show the echoes are processed in the visual cortex. Sighted people can learn a basic version in a few weeks.
Rare, mostly among blind people
Mouth Trick
Khechari mudra
A hatha yoga practice in which the tongue is turned back and up behind the soft palate, into the space at the back of the nose. Very few people can do it without months or years of stretching.
Very rare without training
Muscle Trick
Platysma display
Tensing the thin sheet of muscle under the skin of the neck so that cords stand out from jaw to collarbone. Everyone has the muscle. Isolated control of it is uncommon.
No formal count
Mouth Trick
Pointed tongue
Making the tip of the tongue narrow and sharp, like a pencil point. About 55% of people can do it. After rolling, it is the most common tongue trick.
~55%
Muscle Trick
Raising one eyebrow
Lifting a single eyebrow while the other stays down. Between 30% and 35% of people can do it without training. Most of the rest can learn it in front of a mirror.
30–35%
Mouth Trick
Tongue folding
Folding the tip of the tongue backward over itself inside the mouth. Between 14% and 27.5% of people can do it.
14–27.5%
Mouth Trick
Tongue rolling
Between 65% and 84% of people can curl the sides of the tongue up into a tube. For decades it was taught as a simple one-gene trait. It is not.
65–84% of people
Mouth Trick
Tongue twisting
Turning the tongue on its side so the edges face up and down, or all the way over. Between 12% and 36% of people can twist it at least halfway.
12–36%
Organs Trick
Voluntary burping
Swallowing air on purpose and letting it back up as a belch. Most people can learn it. The loudest recorded burp is louder than a motorcycle.
Most people can learn it
Ears Trick
Voluntary Eustachian tube opening
Opening the tubes that link the middle ear to the throat on command, without swallowing or pinching your nose. You hear a click, and your own voice gets loud. Divers and frequent flyers learn it.
Many can learn it; no formal count
Eyes Trick
Wall-eyed divergence
Turning both eyes outward, away from the nose, on purpose. It is much rarer than crossing the eyes. Most people can learn a mild version through Magic Eye pictures.
Rarer than crossing; no formal count