I’m left-handed, and I can say certainly that I’m neither smarter nor extra inventive than my right-handed counterparts. However then, I’m just one very humble instance in a cohort that features roughly 10% of the human inhabitants. On condition that handedness is rooted in a mysterious mixture of organic, genetic, and environmental components, scientists have lengthy sought to higher perceive it. That features learning the potential existence of a relationship between left-handedness and intelligence.
What have they discovered? In honor of Worldwide Left Handers Day, which is at the moment, we revisited a few of the newest research. Sadly for my fellow lefties on the market, the findings might not supply the affirmation of superiority you had been hoping for.
Contemplate these three meta-analyses out of the College of Athens. Researchers Eleni Ntolka and Marietta Papadatou-Pastou included 18 research of IQ scores involving greater than 22,000 people, half of a bigger systemic evaluation of 36 research involving greater than 66,000 people. Many of the research within the evaluation discovered just about zero distinction in imply scores between right-handed and left-handed contributors. Within the meta-analysis that in contrast right-handers and left-handers particularly, the researcher did discover that right-handers had the slight edge. Their imply IQ scores had been only a tiny bit increased.
However don’t panic, lefties: Whereas the distinction between the teams was statistically vital, it was too small to have any real-world impact. Furthermore, it vanished when the biggest research within the evaluation was eliminated. The researchers concluded: “General, the intelligence variations between handedness teams within the normal inhabitants are negligible.”
What about left-handedness and creativity? In response to a 2019 survey of greater than 20,000 people, lefties rated themselves as extra artistically inclined on a scale of 1 to 100, so it’s clear that lefties suppose they’re extra inventive. However as noted by Psychology Right this moment, the lefties in that very same research didn’t spend considerably extra time on inventive pursuits than righties.
It’s additionally essential to notice that “creativity” is a broad idea, multifaceted, and not easy to measure even beneath the perfect of circumstances, that means lefties may simply should be glad with secretly believing of their coronary heart of hearts that they’re extra inventive than righties, reasonably than ready for science to make the definitive name.
Within the meantime, for those who had been searching for an goal sense of your individual creativity, there’s at all times this four-minute phrase check, lately cooked up by McGill College, Harvard College, and the College of Melbourne. You don’t should be left-handed to take it, however so far as this humble lefty is anxious, it couldn’t harm.
