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Be careful next time you cast a vote. Your “handedness” might make you choose the wrong candidate, according to a research review published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
The research sheds light on the so-called “body-specificity hypothesis” which simply means that how we make decisions and how we communicate with each other is influenced not only by our minds, but by our physical bodies.
“Handedness is a good tool (to use) because it’s easily measurable, and our hands our important in how we interact with the physical world,” explains lead author Daniel Casasanto, Ph.D., a cognitive scientist and assistant professor at the New School for Social Research in New York.
Experiments show that right-handed people tend to view things situated on the right hand side of a page, for example, as being more positive. And if you’re a leftie, well, you favor those things on the left hand side. When participants were asked which of two products to buy, which of two job applicants to hire, or which of two alien creatures looked more trustworthy, right-handers routinely chose the product, person, or creature they saw on the right side of the page. Left-handers preferred the ones on left hand side of the page.
Interestingly, right-handers who had their dominant hand temporarily handicapped in the laboratory actually started to think like “lefties,” showing preference for the left side. That’s because we’re most comfortable using our dominant hand, according to the research, and we tend to view the things we are most comfortable with as being positive or good.
About 90 percent of the population is right-handed. So if you want to get votes or sell products, the right side of a page or a computer screen may be your best bet, says Casasanto.
The two most recent presidential debates provided some fodder for the researchers. The 2004 candidates, John Kerry and George W. Bush, are right handed and the 2008 candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain, are left handers. The right-handed 2004 candidates made a greater proportion of right-hand gestures when expressing positive ideas. And when it came to the negative, they used their left hands. For the left-handed 2008 candidates, the opposite was true.
The researchers also wanted to find out if the meanings of action verbs actually differed between righties” and lefties.” Using sophisticated brain mapping techniques, the researchers found there are distinct differences between right and left handers when hearing a word like “throw.”
“People tend to understand verbs as referring to actions they would perform with their particular bodies,” says Casasanto. “In this sense, people with different bodies understand the same verbs to mean something different."
Which, of course, begs the question, how we do understand each other?
“The short answer is we don’t,” says Casasanto. “Most of the time, we feel like we understand each other because what a word means to me, is close enough to what it means to you, but it’s never the same, and what a word means in your mind may depend on quirks of your body.”
More strange stories on what handedness says about us:
- New book explores the mysteries of southpaws
- Right-handed people don't care for reggae
- White House leans again to the left(ies)
Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.
Leave a Comment:
left handers are the only ones in their right mind.
And us poor ambidextrous folks just can't make up our minds!
Nah, Softdue, we're the only ones who ever get it correct, because we look at BOTH sides.
Patricia Paulson-A Mom: Ma'am, never thought of it as you put it. The logic of the article says you are right. I like it, since I too, am ambidextrous. My father used to yell, "Hang nation boy! Hurry up and decide which hand you're gonna use this time"! Very intelligent comment ma'am. Regards
The writer misuses the term, "begs the question". He/She should have said, "raises the question". Anal, I know. But this is someone with a journalism degree.
"But this is someone with a journalism degree." Exactly.
Do you know for sure that Joan Raymond has a degree in journalism? However, I agree with the idea. She is working as a journalist.
Spell-check is the downfall of society.
CFinLex - Here is another example of the high quality of MSNBC journalism to go along with your observation. It has been literally months since I have read an article on MSNBC that didn't contain major grammatical, spelling, punctuation, etc., errors. Apparently, no one there has ever heard of editing.
No, Suze, people who are too lazy or dumb to use spell-check are the downfall of society.
10% of the general population is left-handed, but something like 90% of all NASA astronauts have been left-handed. Whattup wit dat?
YOU ARE WRONG. Begging the question and raising the question are two TOTALLY DIFFERENT concepts. Let me give you an example.
"Begging the question" is a form of logical fallacy in which a statement or claim is assumed to be true without evidence other than the statement or claim itself. When one begs the question, the initial assumption of a statement is treated as already proven without any logic to show why the statement is true in the first place.
A simple example would be "I think he is unattractive because he is ugly." The adjective "ugly" does not explain why the subject is "unattractive" -- they virtually amount to the same subjective meaning, and the proof is merely a restatement of the premise. The sentence has begged the question.
The author is stating the same idea (a logical fallacy, not the act of asking a question) in this article by mentioning "...begs the question..."
.
Let's see, if your left handed it's "beg the question" and if your right handed it's "raises the questions"
Everyone satisfied now?
Prove your assertion by pointing out where "we do understand each other" is presented as a claim assumed to be true without evidence. I don't see that anywhere. Rather, it appears to be an entirely new line of inquiry raised by the previous paragraphs.
Well there that proves it Obama is a lefty socialist communist marky....fox news was right he is left handed...
" . . . the 2008 candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain, are left handers."
Well, then he's in good company, Amunaka.
In the race for the White House, lefties seem to have the upper hand. No matter who wins in November, six of the 12 chief executives since the end of World War II will have been left-handed: Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, the elder Bush, Clinton and either Obama or McCain. That's a disproportionate number, considering that only one in 10 people in the general population is left-handed. (Washington Post 2008 article on presidents and handedness)
And:
Even today, left-handers are thought to be accident-prone (not true), and a study once showed them to be at risk for early death (it was debunked). But what about their brains? Is it possible that right- and left-handed people -- and presidents -- think differently?
Perhaps. Some left-handers may be better armed for the challenges of leadership because of the way their brains handle language and dexterity (sorry, there's no other word). For nearly all right-handers, language abilities reside exclusively on one side of the brain -- usually the left, which controls the right hand. But one in seven lefties process language on bo th sides of the brain, possibly because using their left hands during childhood stimulated the development of the right half. So Reagan, Bill Clinton and Obama may have left-handedness to thank for their legendary speaking abilities.
The benefits of being a lefty aren't only verbal. Many artists and great political thinkers were lefties -- Pablo Picasso and Benjamin Franklin, for example. Lefties are overrepresented among the mathematically talented and are also more likely to find unexpected or counterintuitive solutions on problem-solving tests.
The "accident-prone " thing you talk about is true because some 1,800 get hurt. People every year using equipment that was meant to be used with right haned people in mind. ie: power tools,knives etc....
iam left handed...and right all the time..and who cares..
This makes no sense. People tend to pick the item that is closes to the dominate hand. That just indicates laziness, not any real decision making. What I want to know is how I can get a grant to do one of the worthless studies so I don't have to do any real work.
Go after a Pell grant - don't need to work , don't need to study, and don't need to pay it back. Hell of a deal.
why wouldn't you need to work or study? I received a Pell grant of $1500 once during my college years. It was extremely helpful in getting me through a particular semester of school. I worked during the semester and have a job now afterwards. I probably couldn't have afforded the costs of living without the Pell grant. I now have a job that pays well and I pay in more taxes. I had to pay my way through college, so even something like $1500 was very helpful.
I think the bigger question here is:
"Which alien creature looks most trustworthy." WTF? Who asks that question? Who bases trust of an intergalactic intelligence based on their handedness?!?!?
And to add to the confusion, most lefties are forced by the right handed world to use their right hand a good part of the time.
That is why I am One really fed up boomer!!! I am a lefty forced to use my righty - perhaps that is also the Arabs don't like me either.
Sigh ... too true. But then again, lefties are "satanic", remember?
Left in Latin - sinistra
I'll be there are still some people out there who went to Catholic school (and some Protestant schools) who had their left hands slapped to force them to become right handed.
My mother grew up in England and had her left hand tied to her body to force her to write right-handed.
Yes its a prejudiced world we left-handers live in. Doors open the wrong way, scissors cut the wrong way, circular staircases turn the wrong way. The only parts of society that are well-suited for left-handers are toll booths & drive-through's.
Beth, after you read Suze's post, do you find yourself asking why did I have to bring religion into this??
However in the right and world the lefty learns to adapt - too bad too many people seem to have forgotten that skill.
barry: toll booths and drive thrus are reversed in europe where it is right hand drive. lefties LOSE! tee hee!
Jrl, Beth didn't bring religion into the discussion other than to say that it was a common practice in the past for Catholic (and some Protestant) schools to force left-handed children to become right-handed. There are Catholic schools in England, so it is indeed possible that Suze's mother attended one of those schools during her childhood. It happened to both of my grandparents here in America; my grandmother also had her left arm tied to her body during the school day in order to force her to use her right hand. My grandmother never learned to write with her dominant hand, although she did knit using her left hand. Her handwriting was horrible as a result. As for the Latin in Beth's post, it's true that "sinistra," the root word of "sinister," does mean left in Latin, a language that predates Christianity. Besides that, I think that Beth was writing in a tongue-in-cheek manner.
LOL thanks PCH ... I forgot to click the "sarcasm" button.
I've always found it interesting, the religion and the lefty thing. It dates back from Lucifer, the fallen angel, being on God's left hand side. As opposed to sinistra, dextra (right) is the root for good things (i.e. dexterous).
BTW: I did get the fingers slapped a few times!
Nope.
How about ambidextrous people? I guess we are the only ones that aren't biased when we decide things?
Not that at all but you sure can spell!
I am ambidextrous and I tend to have trouble deciding some things...lol. But that is more related to personality than handedness I personally think. Actually it's a bit annoying sometimes when I switch hands without realizing it and have to change or move my things around to resume what I was doing with the other hand...lol.
Anyone who votes for the candidate on a particular side of the ballot because s/he is on that side doesn't need to be voting.
Well, ram, if sgbear's assertion is true, then that might help to explain your indecisive nature. Decisions are easier when you are heavily biased, especially if you aren't aware of the bias or that it is, in fact, a bias. If you aren't biased, then you will tend to weigh the merits of each choice against the others, which takes time, patience, and some thinking...
But, in modern society it seems like rational and deliberate thought are merely distractions along the path to accomplishing some agenda...
ram: a known trait of left-handers is that we have a hard time finishing what we start. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that is associated with your relative indecisiveness.
I am left handed but ONLY use my left hand to write. I do everything else (cutting, throwing a ball, eating, etc.) with my right hand. How then am I categorized?
Probably partially ambidextrous, D.
I write lefty, shoot lefty, cut lefty, etc. But I throw/bat righty when I play softball.
Most lefties are indeed forced by the right handed world to do things right handed. This is why lefties seem to be ambidextrous. I am completely a left handed person, with the exception of playing softball. I bat right handed because when I learned at a very young age, the coached did not know I was left dominant. As much as I love being left handed, it's a pain! Have you ever hear of a right handed person being ambidextrous?
Just like the rest of us SCREWED UP!
I am considered right handed because I write that way usually, but really I use whatever hand happens to get there first and am only more coordinated on the right when I practice something more on that side. When I bowl I use whatever hand isn't tired, I write sometimes with the left if I feel like it, and I have family that are some right and some left.
D-1419779 - cross-dominant. I'm the same way. Writing and eating are almot the only two things I do left-handed.
D-1419779 - you are that way because it's a coping mechanism. Everything in society is designed for right handed people, so we left handers are forced to adapt. I knit right handedly because I learned to knit from my right handed mother. Being left handed is fine with me, though, because I find that I can do more things better than my right handed friends because they are less adaptable. BTW, Scientific American speculates that 20% of men are lefties, while only 8% of women are. Left handed people are usually better at math, science and music. Also, there are societies past and present in which being left handed has a positive connotation. For example, indigenous peoples of the Andes consider that left-handers possess special spiritual abilities, including magic and healing.
Left-handers are forced by society to become ambidextrous. Who the heck has an extra pair of left-handed scissors lying around, for example? :-)
Believe me, anyone who is left handed will own at least one pair of left handed scissors because right handed scissors are painful to use for a long period of time.
Be careful when buying left handed scissors. Some are marked as being left handed when it's only the hand grip that is left handed. The blades are still positioned the same as right handed blades, which makes it impossible to cut along a straight line with accuracy if one is cutting with the left hand.
My maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather were both left-handed; my brother is left-handed as well. My mother-in-law is left handed. In my family, it seems as if this trait skips generations. I wonder if my children will inherit it from their paternal grandmother.
You must be rightfully called "part time left handed"
I am left handed. While i throw a ball with my left hand, i bat right handed. i bowl left handed, but play golf right handed. I use a mouse with my right hand--left handedly is too awkward. And i use right handed scissors.
atticusrules - It's not necessarily a coping mechanism. My oldest child is writes left handed and does everything else right handed - including golf. We had picked up some cheap left-handed clubs when she wanted to learn & she didn't like them. Right-handed clubs were more natural for her. We made sure when she was small to let her use whichever hand she preferred. My youngest writes right-handed and does everything else left-handed. She bats left handed for softball & is more dominate with her left foot in soccer.
Hmm this dosent make much sense to me.
I don't think it matters as much which hand you use, it's which eye is dominant. Usually they're the same, but in some cases there is a cross-domination, right-handed, left-eyed, for example. You can check it by blocking out a small object across the room with your thumb. Close one eye and see if the thumb is still covering the object. That's your dominant eye.
I write with my right hand, do most things with my left hand, and I'm left eye dominant. I'm basically screwed, eh?
I am left handed. We "south paws" do lots of things right-handed. The term describing us is "mix handed".
What am I if I write/eat/draw with my left, but my right is dominant in the sense that I want to throw a ball, or catch a ball, or carry something.... ? lol. It's like my left is for detail, and my right for strength. Same goes with my legs.. if I wanted to kick a ball, definitely my right leg.
As a member of the left-handed minority I have been forced all my life to accommodate the right-handed majority. I have had to adapt in virtually everything endeavor I undertook which I did without complaint because I knew I was special. I could do something the right-handed couldn't do; I could do it left-handed and if necessary, I could also do it right-handed. When was the last time you saw a right-handed person try to do something left-handed? From the day I began school back in the 50's I accommodated the right-handed majority, sitting in their right-handed desks, using their righted handed notebooks, and for all I know right-handed pens and pencils. It's time for all leftys to rise up and declare ourselves a true minority that has been discriminated against and demand and end to this insanity. I demand a keyboard with teh number pad on the left rather than the right.
I used to enter a lot of numbers into spreadsheets, as a lefty I kept my keyboard on the left side of my desk and used the keypad with my left hand. I taught myself to use the calculator with my right hand so I could add certain figures together with my right hand and enter the total into the spreadsheet with my left. When I first started my right hand was slower than my left, but it soon caught up! Has any one else noticed as left handed people we are forced to push the pencil across the paper to form letters and right handed people pull the pen or pencil, so we have to contend with a natural resistance just to hand write a letter!
As a member of the left-handed minority I have been forced all my life to accommodate the right-handed majority. I have had to adapt in virtually everything endeavor I undertook which I did without complaint because I knew I was special. I could do something the right-handed couldn't do; I could do it left-handed and if necessary, I could also do it right-handed. When was the last time you saw a right-handed person try to do something left-handed? From the day I began school back in the 50's I accommodated the right-handed majority, sitting in their right-handed desks, using their righted handed notebooks, and for all I know right-handed pens and pencils. It's time for all leftys to rise up and declare ourselves a true minority that has been discriminated against and demand and end to this insanity. I demand a keyboard with the number pad on the left rather than the right.
"...our hands our important..."
Great writing!
I write left handed but read right handed. I shift gears with my right hand but drive on the left side. I wink with my right eye, but use my left to see through a telescope. I get into bed from the right side but get out on the left. I go around an oval track starting out on the right, but go to the left when walking around a square city block. I often feel left out but right on.
Ok, so I am mostly left handed for some things, and completely right-handed in others. I guess I use my entire brain all of the time, right?? :) True, though; and it doesn't make sense; for sports, I cannot throw, golf, bat or otherwise with my left hand. I can write with both hands at the same time. I switch hands equally to cut, chop, and generally cook. I stir, though, with mostly my left. Hmm, wonder what the scientists would think about that?
I'm left-handed in almost everything except throwing a frisbee.Can only do it with the right hand.
In college I was on the fencing team.There,being a lefty is a major advantage unless you have to fence another lefty.
10% of people are lefties. Those of us who keep up with politics know that already.
Dumb story. I submit the following:
If you're not a liberal by the time you're twenty, you have no heart. If not a conservative by the time you're 30 you have no brain.
In response to your unwarranted political comment I feel that I must add this to your post, Disgruntled Conservative: "if you're not a moderate by the time you're thirty-five, you've not learned to think for yourself and understand that sometimes you need to both feel with your heart and think with your mind on this journey called life."
Hey, pch. I can post any damned thing I want, irregardless of your categorization on "warranted". FY very much...
I am right-handed but left-footed (lead with my left foot when walking, kicking, etc). I wonder how, if at all, that factor plays into it.
Only 10% of the population is left-handed. How do we correct that other 90%? :)
"You ain't got no friends on the Left (You're Right!).
You ain't got no friends on the Right (You're Left!).
“Hound dog”--- “One two”
“ Poontang” --- “Tree Frog”
“Hound dog, poontang, tree-frog --- “I'se white!"
From the 1969 Firesign Theatre Album “How Can you be in two places at once, when you're not anywhere at all?”
(Yeah, yeah … I know… it ain’t politically correct; but it’s part of our culture, so get over it.)
my impression is that left handed people see the world in different way that right handed people, too bad sometimes is hard to find hand tools for left handed, I'm left hand/foot and very seldom use my right hand, but the mouse I feel better using my right hand, the same apply to left guitarrists, seem that for certain complex operations, the "other hand" perform better. My experience show me that left handed people are more "accurate"specially when drawing or shooting, also have an advantage in sports like boxing.Still I think that the mind is wired on different way, more complex that simply left/right side of the brain, more study is needed.
God created the first couple left handed, and the world was mean to be paradise, but then satan, who is right handed show up, and push the whole idea that God was wrong, but that he was "right", the first couple fall to this lie about "who's right and who's wrong" and decided against God will.
Since then the whole world has been wrong in every way, have you hear anybody fight about "who's left"???
Whatever, just don't vote for Obama.