I always thought that left-handedness was supposed to be the mark of creativity and original thinking, as well as that illegible backward hand-writing.

So I looked into it a little. Alan Searleman, a psychology professor at St. Lawrence University did some tests and concluded there were more left-handed people with IQs over 140 than right-handed    [Continue reading]]]>

I always thought that left-handedness was supposed to be the mark of creativity and original thinking, as well as that illegible backward hand-writing.

So I looked into it a little. Alan Searleman, a psychology professor at St. Lawrence University did some tests and concluded there were more left-handed people with IQs over 140 than right-handed people. According to Searleman, “Left-handers have a higher ‘fluid’ intelligence and better vocabulary than the majority of the population. This is perhaps why there are more of them in creative professions, such as music, art and writing.”

Ya think?

Not according to Paul Satz, chief of the neuropsychology program at UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute: “Being a leftie is not a marker for creativity. That’s sort of nonsense. Creative geniuses have been left-handed and right-handed. Lefties in the population have basically the same level of [thinking] skills as right-handed people. They also live as long. Being left-handed has nothing to do with it.”

(The above kind of stuff is why I’m glad I’m no longer in academia full-time.)

Turns out lots of famous people are lefties. Every U.S. president since Reagan except for Dubya is left-handed. Albert Einstein. Bart Simpson. Half of the Beatles (Ringo and Paul). M.C. Escher.

But not that many authors. Eudora Welty. Mark Twain. Dave Barry? So that brings me to the burning questions of the day:

Are lefties different than righties, and vice versa? If so, how?
Are you a leftie or a rightie?
Does it matter?

Please submit your answers in a blue examination booklet, using APA Style Sheet as your grammar and punctuation guide.

JUST KIDDING! But I am curious to know your answers. I’ll do it too. Thanks!