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.
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.
