Lefties face a daily battle with a world designed for right-handers. Now it seems that left-handed people face a similar struggle in the mental sphere: behavioural research suggests they are prone to inhibition and anxiety.
When about to do something, left-handers tend to dither, says , a behavioural psychologist at the University of Abertay Dundee, UK, who led the study. 鈥淩ight-handers tend to jump in a bit.鈥�
On tests of behavioural inhibition, 46 left-handed men and women scored higher than 66 right-handers. Women, too, tended to rack up higher scores on the tests of reticence.
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Wright and her colleagues uncovered these predilections by giving subjects a behavioural test that gauges both personal restraint and impulsiveness, qualities which seem to emanate from opposite hemispheres of our brains.
Compared to right-handers, lefties and women were likelier to agree with statements such as, 鈥淚 worry about making mistakes鈥� and 鈥淐riticism or scolding hurts me quite a bit鈥�. All groups responded similarly to statements such as 鈥淚 often act on the spur of the moment鈥� and 鈥淚 crave excitement and new sensations鈥�, Wright鈥檚 team found.
The results could be due to wiring differences in the brains of left-handers and right-handers, she says. Research
suggests that handedness is a matter of degree (see 鈥淓dinburgh handedness inventory鈥�). But in left-handers the right half of the brain is dominant, and it is this side that seems to control negative aspects of emotion. In right-handers the left brain dominates.
鈥淚t鈥檚 all relative, you see,鈥� says , a behavioural neuroscientist at Swansea University, UK, noting that the differences in the brains of left and right-handers are usually slight.
However, he says handedness is not so much a predictor of personality as a great way to understand how emotions are handled in our brains. 鈥淎lthough we may have a predisposition to an inhibition, that may encourage us during adulthood or childhood to develop coping strategies,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t could act as a blessing.鈥�
Wright, a lefty, agrees. 鈥淭hey [left-handers] like to colour-code things, they like to write lists, it鈥檚 almost a way to alleviate their stress,鈥� she says, adding that she is the classic example of the things that she finds in her work 鈥� 鈥渨hich is frightening鈥�.
Journal reference: Personality and Individual Differences (DOI: )
