Can Left- Or Right-Handedness Influence Personality And Behavior?

According to some researchers, handedness can have marked effects on the abilities and behavior of humans and wildlife alike.

Notable Lefties ("Southpaws")

All that unites the great personalities from the list below is their preference to use their left hands in cases many of us would have used to work with our rights.

Military Commanders: Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Charlemagne, Napoleon was also heft-hander, it is clearly seen in the paintings.

Scientists: Einstein, Isaac Newton, James Maxwell and Ivan Pavlov. The students watching as Pavlov makes surgeries, had to turn everything upside down using the mirror.

Musicians: contemporary - Paul McCartney, and of the classics - Mozart and Beethoven.

Artists: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rafael, Rubens and Picasso.

Politicians: Benjamin Franklin and the British Queen Victoria. Since 1981, all of the American presidents have been "southpaws" - Reagan, Bush the junior and Clinton. The current president Barack Obama is also in the club.

Athletes: One of the most brilliant association football (soccer) players of the 20th Century, Diego Maradona, and best-known tennis players, Martina Navratilova.

Actors: Here you have almost all of Hollywood. Historically, Charlie Chaplin was southpaw, while among the existing are Robert de Niro, Julia Roberts, Sylvester Stallone, Tom Cruise, Whoopi Goldberg, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore and Mila Jovovich.

Businessmen: John Rockefeller, Henry Ford, and Bill Gates.

Writers: The famous children's writers Hans Christian Andersen, and Lewis Carroll who wrote Alice in Wonderland. In the book, he describes the feelings left-handed experience in the ordinary, right-handed world. Nikolai Leskov, who wrote "The Southpaw", was a southpaw himself.

5. What Causes One Hand To Dominate Over The Other?

Ed Wright published a book, Left-handed History of the World, wherein he says that left-handed individuals account for about 10% of the population of the Earth. In childhood, left-handed people often differ from their peers by exhibiting prolonged periods of stubbornness. But usually they are artistically gifted and very emotional children. Starting from the age of 3, in drawing and the molding of clay and plasticine art they are much more proficient than the other, right-handed kids. In adolescence, southpaws may more quickly develop musical abilities, and often go about with absolute hearing. The ability to speak blesses them later in comparison with other children, and it happens that, throughout life, they may experience difficulties in pronouncing certain sounds. Often, math causes certain difficulties, but the ability to find extraordinary solutions removes the problem in later years. By nature, left-handed people have a tendency for frequent mood change, to become whimsical, and to exhibit rage and anger, as well as show perseverance in the fulfillment of their objectives.

4. Influence on Behavior and Achievement

Left-handed people often tend to have a dreamy nature, possess a good memory, and excel in dimensional orientation. The left-handed could at times be said to be "slowpokes", although the results of their long-term thinking processes are often original masterpieces. Many of the genetic southpaws, under the greater society's pressures, were forced to "re-learn" to become right-handed. Men are almost 2 times more predisposed to left-handiness than women. Among the male population, left-handed people comprise 12%, and among females the rate drops to 8%. In one theory, this is due to the fact that left-handiness is a consequence of an excess of the male hormone testosterone during the intrauterine maturation of the fetus.

3. Handedness In Other Animals

Among the animal kingdom, the kangaroo often preferentially uses the left paw, while only one in ten humans are southpaw. The latest hypothesis says that the capability for bipedalism (walking on two feet rather than four) influenced the distribution of functions between the right and left hemispheres of the brain for both humans and other bipedal animals (such as kangaroos). The centers associated with speech are located in the left hemisphere of the brain, which means you likely came out well and fine with speech most certainly if you are right-handed. While in the process of evolution, being left-handed ensured better survival due to the effect of surprises, receiving the serious advantage of unexpectedness in fights.

2. Social Perceptions Of Left- and Right-Handed People

In English there is an expression: "Only the left-handed are in their right minds". Indeed, the left side of the body is controlled by the right hemisphere of the brain, and left-handers have their right hemispheres as the dominant ones. At the same time, studies have shown that the right and left hemispheres of the brain perform various functions. The Right Hemisphere is largely responsible for visual and spatial perception. There are plenty of left-handers among architects and sculptors. For example, in the cases of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Rafael, their left-handiness likely helped make it possible for them to achieve such accomplishments in the fine arts. Henry Ford, in the industrial design field, Babe Ruth, Martina Navratilova, and John McEnroe in sports, and Napoleon, who possessed a phenomenal gift to mentally restore maps of areas in all military fields, were all left-handed. Visual-spatial perception is also connected with the ability of abstract thinking. Being a minority group in such sports as tennis, baseball, and cricket, the success of left-handed athletes is remarkable. The trajectory of the ball, sent by southpaws to the side of the counterpart, is almost impossible to predict, since the attacks carried out under non-standard angles. Conversely, the fact that "lefties" must often play against "righties" acclimates them to such, and takes away the same prospective advantage for right-handers over left-handers. The ability of left-handed individuals to catch enemies by surprise is not limited to the realm of sport alone. We may look in a brilliant military career of other left-handers, such as Alexander the Great and Napoleon, who were genius commanders largely due to the ability to encounter their enemies in misleading situations and their knacks for unexpected strategic decisions.

1. Ambidexterity and Cross-Dominance

Another special case is those people who are "ambidextrous" or "cross-dominant". Ambidexterity refers to essentially equal capabilities of either hand, while cross-dominance refers to being more proficient at certain tasks with one hand and other tasks with the other. These rare people exhibit high levels of proficiencies with either of their hands, whether separately or in collaboration. Given the unique advantages of left- and right-handed individuals, respectively, in a number of fields, ambidextrous and cross-dominant individuals may have some of the greatest physical and cognitive advantages of all.


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