Why are so many Presidents left-handed?
I often notice left-handedness, perhaps because I am a left-hander. A few days ago, while watching a video of the most recent Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama debate, I noticed that Barack Obama was left-handed (he was taking notes with his left hand). That video reminded me that Bill Clinton was also a leftie.
After reading this ABC News article, I was reminded that Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush were also left-handed (George W. Bush is right-handed). The same article indicates that John McCain is also left-handed. So is John Edwards.
Pretty startling statistic, given the fact that only about 10% of people are left handed. The ABC News article suggests an explanation:
Scientists and historians agree that being left-handed, which is often associated with outside-the-box thinking, can be a political strength.
My experience is that lefties tend to integrate the indivudual parts of a concept to the whole pitcure as they learn it rather than learn a lot in one area by rote and look to integrate it into the larger fabric later. It is clear from the comments I have read here that a common trait of left handers is that they are proud of being adaptable. To me this is consistent with a ‘grouper’ rather than a ’stringer’approach to concepts. My understanding is that left handers tend to be wired for the hemisperes of the brain to communicate with each other better than pure right handers.
If this is true, then there is an inherent advantage in being left handed for managerial functions, especially when the environment is very dynamic. In a large IT department where I recently worked, 50% of the operations and line managers were left handed. Perhaps this explains the preponderance of recent left handed Presidents.
As far as Presidents from the distant past seeming to be more right handed, I agree with Floretta who said that there were probably more natrual left handed president in our history who are reported as being right handed. I read one study that indicated that there were no lefties older than eighty. One conclusion often cited (I think concluded by a right hander) is that lefties do not live as long. More likely is that no one over eighty admitted to being left handed because most people that age had been “converted”.
Keith: Thank you for your observations. Regarding your reaction to the “no old lefties” stats, I’ve read some studies indicating that you are spot on. The problem isn’t that lefties die out faster, but that the old lefties were switched to being righties. Therefore, there weren’t many YOUNG lefties many years ago–hence there aren’t many old lefties today.
Here’s an interesting graphic showing that tall candidates tend to beat shorter candidates (by a 2-to-1 ratio) and heavier candidates tend to beat lean candidates.
http://swissmiss.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/10/06/06opchart950.gif
aproximation of 4 of the past 6 presidents, also including the inevitable lefty…
occurring in 10% of the total population—-
1.16 in a thousand.
I’m a proud left hander! Has anyone who is left handed noticed that when a right handed person is presented with a left handed situation that they ponder what to do in order to make it workable for them and they get frustrated immediately?? How many situations, daily, are left handed people confronted with that, when we look at the situation, with in seconds we change it (the best we can) in order for it to work for us.
The keyboard for an example. Let’s get all right handed people to try and 10 key with their left hand!! But, we as lefties, know that we have to make it workable and we ‘learn’ to 10 key with our right hand.
My dad was born a left but forced to be right handed, my mom and my brothers are lefties!
I am left-handed. Both dads, and at least one grandmother are left-handed. Mom and sisters, and all nephews and niece are right handed.
My second grade teacher tried to convert me, and my mother got her fired over it. I also broke my left wrist in 4th grade, and had to spend 6 weeks trying to exist right-handed. School nurse lost her job over that fiasco. My right handed writing is almost physician-worthy legible.
I 10-key right handed, scissor right handed, peel veggies left handed and backwards, cut with a knife left handed, then switch fork and knife to eat left handed. I have to sit on the far left to eat or keep my elbow in my lap.
I deal with a right handed kitchen, right handed computer desk, try to read coffee mugs backwards, and ink pens upside down. Even my sewing machines are right handed. While my belly dance scimitar is balanced for dance, when in my left hand, its backwards - designed by a right-hander.
On/off switches on clippers, lighters, and safety switches on my cordless drill are all geared for righties. You get good at making your left thumb into a contortionist or turning things on with your pinkie. Which is usually stained black or blue or purple from ink, (smurf smudge) unless you’ve learned to write with your pinkie lifted out of the way, or your paper almost upside down. I’ve got good ‘english teacup pinkie’.
I find myself frustrated at the ‘unfairness’ of it all, and then go on, making adjustments to existing in a right handed world. I added a table to the area left of my computer, for room to write. The kitchen is a lost cause. In fact, so is the bathroom.
I have discovered there are several advantages to being left handed in a right handed world - the scissoring - having to do it right handed leaves the dominant left hand free to use the pen in the left. I hold my grooming shears in my right hand, and my clippers in my left. There are times 2 functioning hands comes in handy. hm. Sometimes 3 would be nice.
I would love to open a ‘lefties’ store, to order promotional pens printed upside down and sarcastic t-shirts, bumper stickers and coffee mugs - printed for the lefty, of course. A lefty notebook would be great! Punched for a righty binder is insane. I guess everyone has to make adjustments.
Enjoyed reading all the responses to lefthandedness. I too am a lefty. Feel special about it. Always notice other lefties and somhow feel connected do to this. Crazy or what? Besides being a leftie I am considered and idealist which makes living even a little more complicated. No complaints however! Guess I’ve always been in the minority and don’t mind it that much. Seeing Obama as a left hander and actually having the privilege to shake his hand was even more meaningful. Love this site
It broke my heart to find that Ronald Reagan was left-handed. We are supposed to rule nations. Why are we losing our supremacy?
I’m both left and right handed but I dont know how to spell the word for it haha, I used to be left handed but then I broke my arm so I began to use my right hand and began to right legibly. I am also a boxer and being able to go left and right can be in handy against an opponent. Just the other day I was boxing and I threw a punch to the right, then after he was stunned I threw another punch from the left and he was amazed at how much power I put into my leftie. I guess it shows theres always something good that will come out of the bad right?
I’ve not taken the time to read each of the above posts in detail - however - I am a leftie and come from a VERY left handed family. My late husband was a leftie and one of our two daughters is left handed. My father and my mother in law are also lefties.
It must be genetic! We tease my right handed daughter about being the oddball.
Just my two cents
I’m a lefty too, and proud of it. While using things like scissors, pens and spiral bound paper do create problems, I’ve noticed a few things that are considered “righty” that I consider “lefty”. One is the way PCs are set-up with the mouse on the right side. I think that this is actually set-up perfectly for lefties because I can use the mouse and write with my left hand at the same time. Another item is bait casting fishing reels. Normally they have the handle on the right side. To me this makes the reel “lefty” because I can cast with my left hand holding the rod and reel in fishing line without changing hands. Righties cast with their right hand holding the rod and then have to switch the rod to their left hand before they can reel in the fishing line.
I work in an Information Technology field and have observed that there are an inordinate number of IT professionals. I recently managed a group of 16 programmers. Half were left-handed. Maybe it has something to do with a lefthander’s creative and logical thinking abilities?
By the way, I’m the only lefty in my family except for my nephew, my sister’s son.
We could have had another left handed president in Al Gore too.
I don’t buy any of the left handed products. Most of us have learned to use right handed tools (like steak knives with the cutting edge on the “wrong” side) and if got used to using one, I’d feel hampered if I didn’t have my special knife.
I did have a few left handed products thrust upon me by well meaning employers and educators when I was in college- they were frustrating to use. They acted as if they were trying to accomodate a handicap which I don’t feel I have. I think coming up with my own improvised MacGyver solutions to the right handed tools has made me a better problem solver and better able to adapt.
I am a lefty, along with my sister and my dad (my mom was often frustrated by us). I was lucky and able to adapt to the righty-world but I know almost as many lefties that are unable to use their right hands as right-handers unable to use their left hands. I enjoy making people wonder what’s going on. I use my right hand as much if not more than my left - using the “hand” of the person that taught me. If sitting at a full dinner table I will start using my right hand just to avoid the dreaded elbow-bump. A number of years ago my ex & I moved to a different home and he had to leave on business so I unpacked the entire house. Since he did most of the cooking I consciously tried to put things where I thought a right-handed person would grab them. For the entire 3 1/2 years we were there he complained about the left-handed kitchen - my reply to him “welcome to my world”.
Well, now it’s official. We have yet another left-handed president: Barack Obama.
I am LH been that way for 58 yrs. I have adapted to a right hand world. But a few things that come to mind are, I bought a pr. of LH scissors and could not use them. You get so use the pressure applied to the cutting edge that you push the blades apart instead of together and they won’t cut paper or anything. When the electric calculator came out back in the day it was actually designed to be operated LH so the right hand could keep a finger on the numbers being added. Also the add or enter key was to be used by the left thumb and not the blade edge of the RH One of the comments above said they couldn’t wrap their mind around a LH guitar. I have 2 of them and it just feels natural to me. I thought about getting LH printed tab but had my eyes open the the fact that looking at right handed music or tab was like looking in a mirror when placing your fingers on a fret board. Made it alot simpler for me and being raised in a right handed world it feels natural for me to use the right hand on the fretboard. Be that as it may I guess it’s just a matter of choice, but I am proud to be a lefty and if playing a guitar or writing or I wear my watch on my RH or throw and bat LH or kick a ball with my left foot makes me odd then so be it. And one last little note that I learned from my psych teacher in college while in nursing school, is that lefties that right with a strange bend in the left wrist or look like they are writing upside down is because they are trying to use the wrong side of their brain to write with. They are trying to fit into a right handed world by the appearance of their writing style. Really kind of sad but oh well I guess what ever it takes to fit in. NOT ME!!!!
I am a lefty, and so is my husband. His sister is also a lefty and her husband as well. We always seemed to have sort of a bond because of it. Anyways a funny bumper sticker that was given to me when I was younger said:
God only made a few perfect people, the rest are right handed!
Just thought I would share.
Most people write left-handed inverted (hooked hand) but some write left handed erect as does Obama.
I’m left-handed and it is actually true that left-handers die about 7 years (on average)earlier then right-handers. I wrote a long paper about it in college. They’re not sure exactly why this is. The biggest theories are 1. Accidents- left handers use dangerous equipment that is made with right-handers in mind. Things such as power tools, construction equipment, scissors, etc. 2. The stress of always having to do everything backwards in a right-handed world. Left-handers have to do little adjustment 100’s of times a day (but most lef-handers don’t even realize it since they’ve been doing it all there life) that may cause a lot of stress that lead to an earlier death.
Brittany: There was a time when the experts were worried that lefties were much more likely to die younger than righties. These statistics were based on asking people of various ages whether they were lefties or righties. Those asking the questions found that there were relative many young lefties but hardly any OLD lefties.
Then someone figured out that in earlier decades, left-handed people were forced to switch over to be righties. Therefore, even back in the 1930’s (for example), there were fewer young lefties, because they were deemed “sinister” and many of them were forced to switch (this includes my mother, who was born in 1932). In other words many of the old “righties” walking around today are actually switched over lefties. They aren’t dead. Rather, they were converted.
The statistics thus need to be interpreted carefully. For further information, see the “Prevalence” section of this Wikipedia article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-handedness
As a leftie, I’m especially interested in this issue!
As a math teacher and leftie, I have always been intrigued by the math-science/leftie connection. As previously noted, there is a lack of recent research available on the topic. Some old studies from the 70’s done at Univ of Alabama found that the 10% rate of lefties when compared to a 30% rate in a large sample of doctors, mathematicians and scientists indicated that there is a significant correlation. It would be interesting to find out how our left-handed presidents performed in math and science…could that somehow be part of the link?
Gator Jan