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Subscribe to RSSThe hand you use to write, brush your teeth, and throw a ball may also tip people off to your taste in music, a new study reveals.
An Ohio researcher has found that people with a strong preference for using their right hand for most everything they do, seem to like popular types of music and tend to shy away from less familiar genres, especially bluegrass and reggae.
Strong righties, the study suggests, may be less open to new musical experiences and tend to gravitate toward styles they're more familiar with.
The research also found that people who are mixed-handed, meaning they use their non-dominant hand for at least two activities but it does not mean ambidextrous, reported broader musical interests. They showed greater "open-earedness," or a stronger liking of unpopular musical styles and more willingness to listen to them.
Many factors influence our music preferences, so why would hand choice matter? In part, it's affected by what's happening between the ears -- in the brain.
"Mixed-handers are more 'in touch' with a wide variety of right hemisphere processes," says study author Stephen Christman, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio. The right hemisphere of the brain plays a key role in updating thoughts and beliefs and in allowing us to see things in new ways, he explains, while the left hemisphere tends to stick with the tried and true.
Christman notes that about 80 percent of left-handers are mixed-handers while about 60 percent of righties are strong-handed.
The study, published in the journal Psychology of Music, looked at 92 college students who completed a hand preference survey. Forty-nine students were strong right-handers and 43 were mixed-handed.
Four participants were strongly left-handed, too small a group for statistical analysis. But other studies have found that the taste preferences of strong left-handers tend to resemble strong right-handers more than mixed-handers.
Students were asked to rate how often they listened to 21 different musical genres and their enjoyment of them. Nine were considered "popular" based on recording industry sales figures and the rest were "unpopular." Popular categories included classic rock, heavy metal, country and rap/hip-hop. Unpopular genres ranged from jazz and world to folk and reggae.
The top three musical choices of strong right-handers were R&B, modern pop and alternative rock; mixed-handers favored R&B followed by alternative rock and modern rock.
Although this study looked at college students, Christman suspects his findings would still apply to middle-age and older adults. He says "many of our enduring musical preferences are formed during our high school and college years, and they persist into adulthood."
Still, those interests can expand. Christman advises strong-handed people to keep exposing yourself to new forms of music and listening to unfamiliar genres. "Give the music a little time, and you may find yourself developing a liking for it and rewarded by broader musical horizons."
That's what happened to him. Christman's musical tastes have long favored acoustic/folk-based genres. But when his daughter started bringing home CDs by Eminem and Ludacris, the mixed-hander quickly developed an intense liking for rap and hip-hop.
What's been your experience? Are you right-handed, left-handed, mixed-handed? What kind of music is your favorite?
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Another dumb study - So I guess the entire island of Jamaica is left-handed?
I'm guessing you missed the entire point of the article.
Toots and the Maytals, Marley, Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff, Ijahman, Third World, Steel Pulse...Just a sample of some of my favorite artists and yet...I'm right handed. How can that be?
I am strongly right-handed and I most definitely do not match the profile they are providing. I love reggae and can't stand pop, hip-hop, country, or rap. It's only statistics, which become almost meaningless when referring to a single person.
Steve-2570999, in Jamaica, reggae would be pop music.
Of course, now you might understand about passing the duchie to the left. Most right handed people I know are anal-retentive pricks who listen to pop. Never trust someone who only listens to pop music.
I hate pop. I love reggae and bluegrass, and I'm right handed. Sorry, your study is an epic fail.
I tend to prefer Pop over Soda, but that's probably just where I live.
Hmm very right handed here and love reggae 8)
So I'm mixed-handed. Primarily a righty but use my left hand for the sports I play as well as for art (scuplting) and I listen to all kinds of music but am not open to new music really. I listen to gobs of reggae, rock, pop, r&b, alternative and reggae. I won't listen to bluegrass or heavy metal, no matter how "good" it supposedly is. Guess I am another exception to this study.
I'm roght-handed and I like pop and alternative, but i love reggae and accoustic too!!
Im right handed and I LOVE reggae
here here
Actually I have been right handed all my life and never cared for reggae until I saw the movie "The Harder They Fall" with Jimmy Cliff. If you don't like reggae after seeing that movie...well then you aint never gonna like reggae! Also I notice that small children, no matter what hand they favor really respond to reggae music. Play some reggae for some kids and they will be moving and "dancing" to the music almost instinctively. You can't resist.
The Jimmy Cliff film to which you refer is actually entitled 'The Harder They Come.' The film 'The Harder They Fall' starred Humphrey Bogart. BTW: Im also right handed and love reggae.
I'm another strong right-handed person who loves all forms of world music, including Reggae. My favorite radio music program, broadcast on KPRI in San Diego a few years back, was "Music Without Boundaries" (wish they would bring it back). It featured all kinds of music from all parts of the world. Best music program ever!
"The Jimmy Cliff film to which you refer is actually entitled 'The Harder They Come.' The film 'The Harder They Fall' starred Humphrey Bogart."
Did Humphrey Bogart like reggae?
You're actually left handed... according to the study.
You don't need a PhD to recognize that most people are right handed, and most people don't prefer reggae. But that doesn't mean the two are related.
Correlation does not imply causation.
Yes, but correlation implies correlation.
I didn't see anyone claiming causation. But thanks for the trite tip, Einstein.
At least once in every article of this nature someone has to come off with this statement. While it's true, it's also an easy dismissal of the big picture. I'm sure no one in this study in any way, shape or form thinks that people aren't as into reggae because they're heavily right handed. I, as a right dominant-mixed handed, have no physical trait that makes me more suited to putting on a reggae album. That's not what the study claims at all.
92 people in the study... so it must apply to everyone
Agreed. The pitiful sample size makes the study absolutely meaningless.
I'm a lefty and I can listen to most everything. I often play a CD of Celtic music on road trips to annoy a strong-righty friend. That and Blues-heavy Rock music.
I'm left handed (Mixed handed) and I don't like reggae. I taste is music is fairly broad but I also admit it covers some types that would be considered unpopular in the US. I like classical, I like the 50's and 60's. I don't care for much rock past the 90's. I like soft rock. I like folk songs. I'm real iffy with country or western. I detest acid rock. I despise rap. I like Irish (Celtic) music. I like Asian music. I like instrumentals. I like listening to woodwinds more than strings, except I love listening to the cello.
And the reason that 80% of left-handers are "mixed-handed" is simple -- they (we) have to adapt to right-handed oriented tools, sports equipment, etc. And most people that teach us skills are right-handed, so we learn that way. Not a complaint -- that's just the way things are.
So that adaptation now means my taste in music is different?
I completely agree. I throw with my right hand because that was "taught" to me by right handers. And what kid in their right mind wants to be ridiculed in P.E by needing to use the "left-handed baseball glove" or in art class by using the "left-handed scissors"? We adapt because sometimes the "left-handed" tools aren't even available or cost more. When was the last time anyone saw adult "left-handed" scissors? LOL. Just the way things are.
Me too. I have never met a right handed person that was also mixed-handed. I haven't met a left handed person who wasn't at least somewhat mixed-handed. I always figured it was because we were forced to live in a right handed world.
I won't say I care to write left handed but it's legible. There are several activities I do where is simply doesn't matter to me which had I use and there are several where I use only my left hand.
Interesting points about why mixed-handedness is more common in lefties than righties, and I completely agree. I'm a righty, but do a number of things with either hand - mostly sports related. A proficient left-handed jumper and lay-up are essential tools for any sub-six-foot white kid with basketball aspirations ;)
I'm a left-handed mixed-hander, and I can't stand country, rap, reggae, or mariachi. However, I have been listening to Miles Davis lately, having never before in my 45 years. What does that say? Absolutely nothing, except that Davis' "Green in Blue" makes me think of a private eye movie with the voice-over narrative in Robert Mitchum's voice.
Actually, I think that's "Blue in Green". Heh.
@Gneisenau, you haven't met me. :)
I suppose I would be considered a mixed righty, in fact rather proud of the fact that I'm nearly ambidextrous. I use whichever hand is convenient. Using a hammer, writing. table tennis, etc.
Personally I love Jazz, Smooth Jazz, Pop, R&B, Soft Rock, Old Country (50's and 60's), Celtic, Classic. I don't mind Reggae, but don't like Rap, Hip-Hop, Hard Rock (and the hard rock genres), and I barf at Opera.
This just seems to me to be a pretty stupid research project. I find his conjecture to be complete bunk. I'm glad for the variety that is obviously here. If we were all the same, what a boring place this would be.
I'm right-handed and my two favorites genres of music are reggae and bluegrass. Does that mean I'm really supposed to be left-handed? What a ridiculous thing to study.
too small of a study to be statistically significant, and not all factors are accounted for. But the point remains: strong-handers like conventional music, mixhanders like less familiar tones. It doesn't refer to any particular style of music, just with what the listener is most exposed to.
The study cannot both be too small to be "statistically significant", and have a point.
So this study included equal parts of left and right handed people. Out of those there were equal amounts of women and men from different parts of the country and in different age groups?
Statistically significant? Not a chance. Does is have a point? Also a no. I can't believe anyone would even consider this to be meaningful in any way. Total waste of time and hard drive space.
I hope tax-payer money or student tuitions fees were not used for this study.
As a right hander that likes both reggae and bluegrass, I have to wonder what the people that did this study have been baking into their brownies ...
Good God, this is a stupid article.
Someone had way too much time on their hands (left or right).
"No lefty, no cry"
As said in an earlier post -- correlation does not imply causation. Stats class taught me that numbers can be manipulated to imply almost anything. This was a small study of young college students -- I'm guessing if they expanded it, and it was world-wide, that they'd have a very different outcome. They tried to claim their narrow study would apply across the population -- it doesn't -- major error for a so-called scientific study. Almost everyone I know is right handed and enjoys music from many a genre, including reggae -- most of them don't like much popular music. It has more to do with exposure and real appreciation of all music than anything.
Strong right handed and open to most music. Studied music from 3rd-11th grades. Love it. I do shy away from bluegrass, heavy metal.
Maybe the music was popular in the first place because majority of the population is right-handed. This shows association, not cause and effect.
This sounds silly. I don't see how liking a genre of music has anything to do with being left-handed or right-handed. I know plenty of right-handed people who love reggae, among other "underground" types of music...
It doesn't. Either everyone commenting doesn't know what they're talking about, or they're just having some fun. The point of the article is that strong one-side-handers seem to be less open-minded and less receptive to new and different sensory experiences than mixed-handers; they tend to prefer what they're used to.
I'm left handed and my taste in music drives my friends INSANE.
My Ipod "mix" playlist will string together Bhangra > Nine Inch Nails > Stevie Wonder > Jack Johnson > The Dandy Warhols > Ryan Adams > Anthrax > The Ohio Players > DeBussey > Eminem > Barry Manilow > The Eagles > Toots and the Maytals...makes for a confusing half hour for them, they can't name half the music I listen to.
Rubbish and nonsense.
I'm right-handed and thoroughly enjoy reggae!
This article is ridiculous.
I'm left handed and my taste in music drives my friends INSANE.
My Ipod "mix" playlist will string together Bhangra > Nine Inch Nails > Stevie Wonder > Jack Johnson > The Dandy Warhols > Ryan Adams > Anthrax > The Ohio Players > DeBussey > Eminem > Barry Manilow > The Eagles > Toots and the Maytals...makes for a confusing half hour for them, they can't name half the music I listen to.
I think the music you love is a waste of time and aural energy that could be better utilized listening to something that has been deemed valuable by a bunch of DEAD people.
Welcome to the USA.
The research diary was not large enough to come to ANY conclusion. I agree with those that concur this study is BOGUS! ---I, too, am right-handed and love reggae.
Sounds like more money wasted on nonsense...
Use the money for something more productive, like feeding the hungry and putting clothes on the backs of homeless kids!
I'm right-handed and LUUUUUUUV reggae...'nuf said!!!