13/07-07   -   Press releases

Being left handed may affect your career choices

It has often been suggested that left handed people are more creative and artistic and a new study aims to establish, among other things, whether left-handers are proportionally more common (i.e. more than 1 in 10 people) in professions and leisure pursuits which call for a high degree of creativity or artistic flair. The Left-Handers Life Choices Survey is launched to mark Left-Handers Day on 13th August 2007 and will be the most widespread survey of left-handers’ careers and interests ever produced.

A study from the US National Bureau of Economic Research reveals that among graduates the earning power of left-handed men is 15pc greater than that of men who are right-handed. Certain professions are particularly suited to the traits of left-handers, who have often been cited as making excellent entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates, and politicians like Bill Clinton. Clinton was actually the third left-handed president in a row after George Bush and his predecessor Ronald Reagan. Right hand bias may also influence a left hander’s choice of career. It is thought that few surgeons are left-handed, possibly because medical students who are left-handed tend to specialize in other areas, as the surgical tools and layout of the operating theatre are not comfortable or safe for left-handers to use.

A preliminary study undertaken among members of the Left-Handers Club has produced some interesting results. For example, a higher proportion of left-handers engaged in music, drama or art related interests. The same trend appears among architects, possibly due to their ability to think in 3-dimensional images.

Through a new internet survey form at www.lefthandersday.com left-handers and their families, friends and colleagues are being encouraged to record the proportion of left handed people in any group, class, club or workplace they belong to, and their views on whether left-handedness provides any obvious advantages or disadvantages in that group. From their responses, the Left-Handers Club aim to compile an accurate picture of how hand preference, or more specifically right-brain dominance, can affect choices in career, sporting and leisure pursuits.

Club Organizer Lauren Milsom explains “We want to record the proportion of left-handers in as many different groups of people as possible to identify the niches where left-handers excel or struggle both in childhood and throughout their adult life. As well as highlighting areas of excellence, it may expose inadequate provision, training or equipment for left-handers in certain interests, which ultimately places limitations on their choices. We can then encourage more specific research into those target areas".

Participants can visit the Club website www.lefthandersday.com from now until the end of February 2008 and complete the simple survey form noting any social, work or study groups they belong to and the numbers of left and right-handers within each one.

Left-Handers Day is an annual event when left-handers celebrate the advantages their sinistrality brings. Free posters are available for download from the Left-Handers Day website, to create your own “Lefty Zone" at home, club or work – where everyone has to be left-handed for all their daily tasks!

The Life Choices Survey form and preliminary results can be found at www.lefthandersday.com where visitors will also find a host of information, games and quizzes about many aspects of left-handedness, proving there is much more to being left handed than just the way you write!