Left vs. Right
“The right half of the brain controls the left half of the body. This means that only left handed people are in their right mind.” ~Anonymous
Recently, I discovered something that got me thinking: after taking a brain dominance test (repeating it several times for confidence), it was determined that I do, in fact use both halves of my brain almost equally. When it came to specifics, the test determined that I am more right-brained than left (59%-41%).
Just for clarity, some background information regarding brain dominance follows: left-brain dominance is associated with rules, rationality, and logic. Being left-brained is also strongly correlated to being right handed. On the other hand (literally), right-brained individuals are almost always left-handed, and this side of the brain represents chaos, creativity, and intuition. Roughly 10% of the population is left-handed.
This is surprising for several reasons. First of all, while I am right brained, I am also dominantly right-handed. I eat and write with my right hand. As much as I try to convince myself that i’m one of the few ambidextrous people out there, a sample of my left-handed writing is at best horrendous, and at worst just plain illegible. Furthermore, I am not creative, intuitive, or chaotic in my thinking. Like a good right hander, I think logically, and feel most comfortable in situations where logical thinking is rewarded. Weird.
Still, there have been signs of the contrary. When I first wore my watch, I wore it on my right hand by instinct (Instead of my left like most right-handers). When I first bought an archery set several years ago, I used my left hand to pull the bowstring; I later found out that proper technique dictated that I use my right. Most importantly, however, I have been playing tennis left handed since four years ago, when I injured my right hand. What does all of this make me? Am I effectively left-handed, am I right handed, or am I some kind of mutant-ambidextrous-ish combination of the two? I have to admit, the idea of being left-handed, or even thinking like one, feels a bit like being part of an elite club. Below is a list of some left-handed people (that you may or may not have expected) from a variety of different fields:
- Barack Obama
- Leonardo DaVinci
- Bill Gates
- Aristotle
- Oprah Winfrey
- Albert Einstein
- Many others
Still, this trend can be relatively easy to write off. After all, there are plenty of right-handed people who are also famous. But sometimes, the pure numbers can be overwhelming. Although it is simple to see how left-handed athletes have intrinsic advantages to righties (Baseball, tennis,football, boxing), the phenomenon of handed-ness in US presidents is most immediately fascinating:
Historically, there has been a cultural aversion to left-handed people that could have hurt their chances to run for public office-thus, this trend is not nearly as reliable in years past. This past culture was so intense that Ronald Reagan is said to have been forced to switch to his right hand by his schoolteacher. But thanks to increased cultural acceptance in recent years, this has changed. Six out of the last twelve presidents have been left-handed, five times the proportion of lefties in the general public.
Why is any of this important? Past only weak evidence that left-handed people are more creative, successful, and accomplished than they would seem given their very small numbers, the life of a lefty seems tough. Notebooks, appliances, and desks are all designed with the righty in mind; Writing left to right is a struggle.
In my own life, its safe to say that handedness has not affected my judgments on others. Perhaps in the past, a left-hander has been disparaged as “unlucky” or “malicious”. But nowadays, peoples’ handed-ness is not a clear indicator of creativity or intuition. It rarely even holds a positive or negative connotation. Instead, someone’s dominant hand, as with many traits, is part of their unique identity-it is the fact of knowing yourself that begins to shape the perception by which you see and think about the world.
-Chris
