Left-Handed Creativity Myth Debunked

Summary: The long-standing belief that left-handed people are more creative has been challenged by a new meta-analysis of over a century of research. After reviewing nearly 1,000 studies, researchers found no consistent advantage in creative thinking for lefties—in fact, right-handers slightly outperformed on some tests.

Left-handed individuals are overrepresented in fields like art and music, but this does not generalize to overall creative superiority. The enduring myth likely stems from statistical bias, cultural associations, and the romanticized notion of the “tortured artist.”

Key Facts:

• No Creativity Edge: Left-handers do not show an overall advantage in creativity.
• Righty Representation: Right-handers dominate the most creatively demanding professions.
• Myth Origins: The stereotype is rooted in biased data, mental health links, and anecdotal overrepresentation.

Source: Cornell University

Scouring more than a century of studies that explored links between handedness and creativity, new Cornell University research finds the widespread belief that lefties are more creative is not actually true.

“The data do not support any advantage in creative thinking for lefties,” said Daniel Casasanto, associate professor of psychology.

“In fact, there is some evidence that righties are more creative in some laboratory tests, and strong evidence that righties are overrepresented in professions that require the greatest creativity.”

Casasanto is the senior author of “Handedness and Creativity: Facts and Fictions,” published in the Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.

Casasanto said there are scientific reasons to believe that left-handed people, conservatively estimated to comprise about 10% of the population, would have an edge in creativity.

Divergent thinking – the ability to explore many possible solutions to a problem in a short time and make unexpected connections – is supported more by the brain’s right hemisphere.

The researchers conducted a meta-analysis – sorting through nearly 1,000 relevant scientific papers published since 1900. Most were weeded out because they did not report data in a standardized way or included only righties (the norm in studies seeking homogeneous samples), leaving 17 studies reporting nearly 50 effect sizes.

The meta-analysis revealed that handedness made little difference in the three most common laboratory tests of its link to divergent thinking; if anything, righties had a small advantage on some tests.

“If you look at the literature on the whole,” Casasanto said, “this claim of left-handed creativity is simply not supported.”

What has sustained belief in left-handers’ special creativity?

One factor, the authors speculate, is left-handed exceptionalism: the idea that it’s rare to be a lefty and rare to be a creative genius, so perhaps one explains the other.

Another is the popular perception that creative genius is linked to mental illness. It turns out lefties, who are more likely to be artists, experience higher rates of depression and schizophrenia.

“This idea that left-handedness, art and mental illness go together – what we call the ‘myth of the tortured artist’ – could contribute to the appeal and the staying power of the lefty creativity myth,” Casasanto said.

Finally, Casasanto said, the urban legend is a case study in statistical cherry picking – frequent citing over the years of a small number of studies with small or biased samples.

“The focus on these two creative professions where lefties are overrepresented, art and music, is a really common and tempting statistical error that humans make all the time,” Casasanto said.

“People generalized that there all these left-handed artists and musicians, so lefties must be more creative. But if you do an unbiased survey of lots of professions, then this apparent lefty superiority disappears.”

About this handedness and creativity research news

Author: Becka Bowyer
Source: Cornell University
Contact: Becka Bowyer – Cornell University
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News

Original Research: Closed access.
“Handedness and creativity: Facts and fictions” by Daniel Casasanto et al. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

Abstract

Handedness and creativity: Facts and fictions

Are left-handers more creative than right-handers?

In both popular belief and scientific literature, left-handedness is linked with higher creativity.

In a qualitative review supported by meta-analyses, here we evaluated whether left- or mixed-handers are more creative than right-handers, as measured by tests of divergent thinking, and evaluated whether left- or mixed-handers are overrepresented in creative professions.

We argue that plausible mechanisms for a link between creativity and handedness can be found within influential theories of the neural basis of creativity.

However, we found no evidence that left- or mixed-handers are more creative than right-handers; on the contrary, right-handers scored statistically higher on one standard test of divergent thinking (the Alternate Uses Test).

Additionally, although left- and mixed-handers may be overrepresented in Art and Music, they are underrepresented in creative professions, in general.

Both right and left-handers tend to believe that left-handers are more creative, but this belief is not supported by the available empirical evidence.