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44 Responses to “Why are so many Presidents left-handed?”

1. Niklaus Pfirsig says:

   January 30, 2009 at 11:34 am

   I have a theory the being left handed in a predominately right-handed world, forces the development of certain problem solving skills at an earlier age.

   I have a very rare hereditary neurological anomaly that causes a symptom called bimanual synkinesis. This is an involuntary mirroring of hand movement, and it has affected the way I do things that most people take for granted.

   It has also forced me to experiment and find ways to work around this impediment since I was a toddler, and as such caused my problem solving skills to develop before I could even talk.

   I suspect that something similar happens with lefties. The guitar example is a good one. The left-handed guitars differ mainly be having the bridge and nut inverted, so the low E string is at the top when the neck is held in the right hand. The two left-handed guitarist I’ve known personally simply learned to finger the chords in an inverted pattern on a right-handed guitar while playing it upside-down. This was the same way Jimi Hendrix played.

   I think this individualistic way of attacking a problem makes lefties stand out in a crowd, but does not necessarily make them better or worse as candidates.
2. Brittany says:

   January 30, 2009 at 2:23 pm

   As to my prior comments about lefties dying earlier than righties… A doctor at the university I went to was in the process of finishing his research regarding the topic. His studies were not completely finished but he said so far it appeared to be true (by the way this was in 2005 and I worked with him since I was a psych student). I had read that prior studies have debunked this theory but newer studies aren’t so sure. I don’t know if it’s true or not… let’s hope not! Just as a side note- I’m a lawyer and I read somewhere that there’s a higher amount of left-handed lawyers than ALMOST any other profession. I don’t know if that’s true either, but there was a lot more left-handers in law school than undergrad. I wonder why?
3. Erich Vieth says:

   January 30, 2009 at 2:43 pm

   Brittany: Thanks for the update. If you find any new research either way, I’d like to see it.

   I’ve also noticed quite a few left-handed lawyers (I’m a lawyer and I’m left-handed). I’ve also wondered about the apparent correlation. I also wonder whether my perception is skewed, because I do tend notice lefties (more than righties) at depositions and trials. For some reason, they stand out to me, even though I’m not trying to notice them.
4. Erich Vieth says:

   January 30, 2009 at 2:48 pm

   Here’s an excerpt from CBC News on the prevalence of left-handed lawyers:

   A psychology professor who studies handedness, Elias says that while it is unusual to see this many lefties becoming president, the key may be found in the initial careers that spawned their political lives.

   “Lefthanders specialize in areas like architecture, art, engineering, acting, some fields of medicine and law,” says Elias. “It’s not that we tend to elect left-handed politicians, but we tend to elect lawyers. Clinton, Ford, Truman were all lawyers and Hoover was an engineer. These are all fields where you find left-handers. Reagan was an actor, also a field that attracts left-handers.” . . .

   Elias says because the right side of the brain tends to control the left side of the body it means lefties are often better at visual arts, language and spatial co-ordination, which are attributes found more often in the brain’s right lobes.