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Personality Traits of Lefties

The Psychological Characteristics of Left-handed People

© Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen

Mar 3, 2008
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If you're left-handed, your personality traits may include resiliency & independence. Here are a few fascinating facts about left-handed people, lefties, or Southpaws.

The personality traits of lefties are often confused with certain myths about left-handed people. For instance, people once believed that lefties or Southpaws were more likely to be dyslexic, schizophrenic, and stutterers. Some doctors believed that left-handed people are more likely to struggle with breast cancer, allergies, and asthma.

Those myths about left-handed people were debunked by Dr Michael Peters of the University of Guelph in 2006. However, some personality traits of left-handed people seem to hold true.

First, Some Left-Handed Statistics

About 10% of the world’s population is left-handed. There is a genetic component that determines right versus left-hand dominance, and it’s called the LRRTM1 gene. People with this gene are more likely to be lefties.

The speech centers of right-handers and most left-handers are in the left brain. The left brain focuses on syntax and order, while the right brain monitors context and emotions.

Some of us are “mixed-handed” people, which means both hands are used equally.

Psychological Characteristics of Left-handed People

  • Leadership. About 66% of American presidents in the last 30 years were left-handed men. Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and Gerald Fold were all left-handed presidents. Barack Obama and John McCain are both left-handed.
  • Quick thinkers. Studies have shown that lefties are “exceptional.” Australian research shows that left-handed people think more quickly when playing computer games or sports. Left-handed people also tend to earn more money.
  • Sexuality. Research from Canada reveals this interesting quality of left-handed people: they’re more likely to be homosexual.

Mixed-handed people are more likely to alter their beliefs as they get new information, making them better able to see both sides of the story.

Personality Traits of Lefties

  • Independence: Some experts believe left-handed people are more independent because they’ve had to get along in a world that’s not made for them. Dr Peters says that lefties are “slightly more resistant to social pressures, to have more of an independent streak.”
  • Adaptability: Canadian research shows that left-handed people are more adaptable than right-handed people. That is, a lefty can use her right hand to do tasks much easier than a righty can use his hand. Left-handed people seem to be able to switch over more easily.

Generally, Southpaws are thought to be more flexible, highly intelligent, and more resilient than right-handed people.

If you found Personality Traits of Lefties interesting, you might like:

Partial Source: The Toronto Star, "Left Stuff", Sunday March 2, 2008.


The copyright of the article Personality Traits of Lefties in Psychology is owned by Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen. Permission to republish Personality Traits of Lefties in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.


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Comments
Jan 7, 2009 2:57 PM
Guest :
Hello !me n my husband just found out yesterday tht our 2 year old daughter is a lefty !my husband keeps trying to teach her to use her right instead of her left . Is tht a good idea ?or should we just leave our lefty alone ?
Jan 28, 2009 2:25 PM
Guest :
I am left handed and i am not homosexual but i agree with the other traits i believe i learn faster than others that are right handed i am very independent i love doing things on my own for my self.
Feb 3, 2009 12:11 PM
Guest :
I AM A LEFT HANDED PERSON AND ALL OF THE DETERMINATIONS ABOVE ARE TRUE... AYLA
Feb 12, 2009 7:55 AM
Guest :
Im left handed and a homosexual. Does that make me special?
Feb 12, 2009 8:14 AM
Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen :
If your son or daughter is left-handed, you shouldn't try to change him or her! It's a natural inclination, and should be left alone. Pun intended :-)
Feb 14, 2009 12:33 PM
Guest :
i've always had a suspcion tha my brother is a homosexual and he is left handed that statistic makes sense to me
Feb 18, 2009 12:02 PM
Guest :
I write with my right hand. For most of my life. Then one day my dad tells me when I started to learnt to write I held the pen in my left hand but he would put it on the right. Which is really screwed up. I don't mind using any hand but the ironic thing is that he's ambidextrous.
Plus not all lefties are homosexuals

So I'm still wondering how much would that affect a person's personality- what is natural or what is conditioned.
Feb 18, 2009 12:03 PM
Guest :
I write with my right hand. For most of my life. Then one day my dad tells me when I started to learnt to write I held the pen in my left hand but he would put it on the right. Which is really screwed up. I don't mind using any hand but the ironic thing is that he's ambidextrous.
Plus not all lefties are homosexuals

So I'm still wondering how much would that affect a person's personality- what is natural or what is conditioned.
Feb 21, 2009 6:59 AM
Guest :
I'm also left handed ^^
Feb 25, 2009 1:48 PM
Guest :
Im a lefty and all the above are true..except that im not homosexual. Im smarter, more independent, AND asthmatic..yay for lefties!
Mar 5, 2009 4:54 PM
Guest :
Hey, is it OK if me and my group use your article for our research? We're doing a research on personalities of left-handers.(It's for school) Your article is really helpful, and I would be glad if you can consent.
:D
Mar 6, 2009 5:36 AM
Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen :
Your project sounds really interesting! To get permission to use my "Personality Traits of Lefties" article, you do need direct note from me -- not in this commetns section.

To email me directly, go to the top of the article, click on Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen, and email me!

Look forward to hearing from you....

Laurie
Mar 7, 2009 10:41 PM
Guest :
I'm left handed and just like the other lefties here, i think i do learn faster than righties and i like to do stuff by myself too. I love being a lefty!
Mar 18, 2009 6:22 AM
Guest :
i've just discovered my son is left handed.
how do i stop this?
Mar 18, 2009 6:33 AM
Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen :
Why do you want to stop your son from being left-handed?
Mar 26, 2009 7:31 PM
Guest :
I am a lefty, my mom is a lefty, her mom (my grandma) is a lefty and my dad was a lefty until his school made him use his right hand. Making a child change what comes natural is cruel. Due to my father's school changing his dominant hand, his writing is terrible and illegible. I strongly recommend you let your children progress naturally.

I completely agree with Ms. Pawlik-Kienlen's article. I have migraines on a weekly basis and so does my mother...we are also very independent as well. I suffer from asthma and allergies. My mother was dyslexic as a child and I sometimes find myself writing words backwards or reversing numbers.

I am not a homosexual and most all of the left handed people I know are not either. I don't believe this is a very accurate statistic.

5 out of the 18 people that I work with are left handed. It used to be split evenly down the middle until our company began to grow. It seems as if left handedness is becoming more common these days!

GO LEFTY'S!

P.S. The only drag about being left handed was all of the desks in school are made for right handed people :(
Mar 28, 2009 10:47 PM
Guest :
When I was young, my mom tried to make me write with my right hand as well, and it just doesn't work that well. You can do it, but there's honestly nothing wrong with working with your left hand and I like that I have a little quirk about me.

P.S. I still write with my left hand, but I can throw, open doors, catch, etc. with my right.
Apr 6, 2009 8:36 AM
Guest :
If any parent is thinking of changing their childs handedness - don't!!!

I discovered a few years ago that I was conditioned to write with my right hand as a child. Despite my right side being the dominant one for over 25 years, I've still managed to hold true to many of the lefty traits described above, however I'm not homosexual and don't have the medical issues.

The problem the conditioning may have caused for me, is that I've never been able to trust my own thinking - I feel it may be due to me being told as a child, that what come naturally to me (left handedness) was actully wrong! Without understanding why, I've always needed approval from others to ensure what I was doing what actually the right thing - in terms of school work and personal decisions.

Take it from me, if you don't want to mess your child's future up - leave them as they are when it comes to handedness! Some of my most intelligent friends are left handed, and I bet I'd have had a happier mindset if I had been left to be a lefty. Plus your child will only blame you for their struggles later in life when they discover you caused them to be anything other than who they truely were meant to be.
Apr 6, 2009 5:49 PM
Guest :
Did you ever notice how that almost universal comment of left handers is one of two things. Usually they were "made" to write right handed. Just like some children were "made" to practice the piano or whatever. If a child is "made" to do anything, it most often does not effectively work and resistance sets in that often takes the form of doing what they perceive to be the opposite. "Writing right handed is not GENETIC. I doubt seriously that genes even know what "writing is". We write right handed because it is much easier, given that most flowing writing [unlike chinese block characters and greek symbols] is arbitrarily done left to right on a page. Has anyone who grew up in a normal effective way, ever changed as a adult from right hand righting to left handed? Right handed people could write with their left hand. It just takes practice, either way. To believe that left handed people are either more intelligent or "homosexual" is has not basis in reality that I have heard. No one is "universally intelligent". Intelligence is simply a standard of those that choose to cater to the testing and grading system of our higher educational institutions which is over whelminly just a matter of memorizing and giving back to the teacher what they expect. Do that and you are smart. Tell them something else and you are dumb. In fact many who would call themselves "intelligent" are incredably inadept at many things. Does that make them dumb? Homosexuality is simply a personal declaration. Let's assume one might become attracted sexually to a particular person of the same sex, even tho obviously from a sexual point of view not how humans were made to have children. No one, however, has ever given a reason why one would make an advance decision to arbitrarily exclude having a sexual relationship with anyone of the other sex, that we were obviously designed to do.
Apr 21, 2009 6:00 AM
Guest :
Everyone of them apply to me, lol.
Apr 26, 2009 4:34 PM
Guest :
I'm left handed and there is nothing wrong with it. People need to stop changing their kids natural ablilities. if you think being left handed is the "sign of the Devil" then you are dead wrong. It's very frustrating for me to write legibly with a pen or marker and people would keep staring at me if i say i'm left handed. it's not a disease! and i wish everyone would stop trying to descriminate against left handers.
Apr 30, 2009 8:50 PM
Guest :
I am left-handed and I'm also an Aquarian. I guess that makes me extra independent, since independence is also supposed to be a personality trait of Aquarius. In all actuality, I am very independent. I happen to be homosexual too, but I have known many heterosexual southpaws. I can't understand how sexuality can be based on being left-handed, or right-handed.
May 14, 2009 3:08 PM
Guest :
IM LEFT HANDED AND I LOVE IT, it's not something that i can help, but i enjoy it. i also agree with most of the traits on this site
May 24, 2009 5:08 PM
Guest :
never force your kid to be one or the other...let them write how they wanna write

and about the gay thing...not cool your cant generalize us like that
May 31, 2009 8:05 AM
Guest :
As Ive studied left handedness , since it was named left handedness,we lefties have been given a bad name (sinister ,evil devil servers, clumsey awkward...just to name a few,a new one has entered the arena...homosexual.I think this is all because there are only 10% of us out there to defend ourselves.
Jun 13, 2009 12:28 AM
Guest :
i m also lefty but i am not homosexual. i didn't find any differences between right handed and left handed. both are equal and most thing practice.
Jun 14, 2009 9:07 PM
Guest :
I am left handed and thank God my parents didn't try to teach me to write with my right hand because my hand writing is pretty nice. I would leave her alone. You may just make things hard for her.
Jun 19, 2009 9:18 PM
Guest :
Hi
i'm a left handed too,and i'm a medical student.most of the things in this article is true except about homosexualily.i dont agree with that.
Jun 28, 2009 7:48 AM
Guest :
"As Ive studied left handedness , since it was named left handedness,we lefties have been given a bad name (sinister ,evil devil servers, clumsey awkward...just to name a few,a new one has entered the arena...homosexual.I think this is all because there are only 10% of us out there to defend ourselves."


That's just a little bit predjudic is it not? To state that homosexuality is classed as a bad name?

Jul 1, 2009 8:16 AM
Guest :
I'm left handed and I've took on many leadership roles, I do adapt very well and I also feel a lot of emotions.
30 Comments