LEFT HANDED PEOPLE - Fact or fiction... is the average left-hander more intelligent?

**Martijn (admin)** on Wed Jan 05, 2011 10:25 pm

Did you know, while less than 10% of the world population is left handed - various curious facts indicate that left-handedness is relatively often featured with high IQ:

• ... Mensa International - the largest and oldest high-IQ society in the world - claims that 20% of their members are left handed - while less than 10% of the world population is left handed.

• ... One out of four (25%) Apollo astronauts - who were all selected e.g. by their high intelligence - was left handed.

• ... Five out of the last seven (71%) US presidents were left handed.

• ... Four out of five (80%) original Macintosh computer designers were left handed.

And... Albert Einstein - who has repeatedly been praised for his intellectual genius - and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - who repeatedly praised for his musical genius - were very likely left handed (a few other unusually famous & intelligent left handers are: Pablo Picasso, Isaac Newton, Leonardo Di Vinci, and Michelangelo).

More evidence appears to be available in Chris McManus' book 'Right hand, left hand - see': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-handedness#Correlations

thinking

If anybody has access to likewise 'impressive' facts, you are very welcome to share those facts here!

Today I have updated an article about left handed people:
http://www.handresearch.com/news/left-handed-people-are-intelligent-and-creative.htm

While doing a little more background research about what today is know about left handedness, an interesting pattern occured to me: because while the intelligence of the average left hander might be slightly higher than the average right hander... there are quite a few less preferable side-effects:

• Left-handers usually reach puberty 4 to 5 months after right-handers:
http://www.squidoo.com/left-handers-day
• Left-handers suffer more often from autistic spectrum disorders:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/n16680560k117000/
• Left-handers suffer more often on brain asymmetries & dyslexia:
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=121743
• Left-handers tend to have a shorter longevity http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19044215 , http://www.buffalo.edu/news/fast-execute.cgi/article-page.html?article=31610009 , http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf058/sf058b07.htm

**Martijn (admin)** on Mon Jan 24, 2011 6:16 pm

Another example of the link between left handedness & high IQ is seen in Chess - which indicates that the link should be recognized as specified to visuospatial cognition. Various studies have indicated that a high percentage of chess players is left handed:

2007 - Handedness, practice and talent in chess: Campitelli & Gobet report among 104 Argentinean chessplayers: 17.9% are left-handed of ambidextrous vs. 10.2% in the control group (= non-chessplayers). [The study was also published in: http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/611/1/Gobet_DevPsyc_Final.pdf ]

1988 - The Exceptional Brain (see chapter 7: 'The Chess Mind', page 176) - Cranberg & Albert reported: 16.9% of 266 United States Chess Federation players (males + females) being left-handed or ambidextrous; among male chessmasters the percentage was even higher: 18.1% of 138 players (but not lower in male chess amateurs: 19.4% of 98 players).

NOTICE: Chess has a magic attraction to many intelligent people; for example: 4 chess players (e.g. Gary Kasparov, Judith Polgar, Robert Byrne & Bobby Fisher) are listed among this TOP 15 'highest IQ's on record' of people who were still alive in 2007:
http://onemansblog.com/2007/11/08/the-massive-list-of-genius-people-with-the-highest-iq/

LEFT HANDED PEOPLE - Fact or fiction... is the average left-hander more intelligent?

LEFT HANDED PEOPLE - Fact or fiction... is the average left-hander more intelligent?

Re: LEFT HANDED PEOPLE - Fact or fiction... is the average left-hander more intelligent?