A new study has revealed that left–handed people tend to be more left–leaning when it comes to their politics.
On a 10–point scale ranging from extremely right–wing to radically left, lefties rate themselves almost half a point more to the left than their right–handed counterparts.
That might not sound like much.
However, researchers say this difference is even more significant than gender when it comes to political views.
By comparison, women were only 0.4 points more left–wing than men, despite the gender divide in politics being more pronounced than ever before.
However, this difference disappeared when the researchers actually measured which hand people used for tasks, rather than asking them if they were left or right–handed.
Lead author Professor Jérémie Bertrand, of the IÉSEG School of Management, told the Daily Mail: ‘That matters because the obvious biological story predicts the exact opposite.
‘What appears to matter is whether someone files themselves under the word. It is the identity, not the hand.’
Scientists say that left–handed people tend to be more left–leaning when it comes to their politics. Pictured: Former US President Barack Obama signing a bill left–handed
Typically, where someone falls on the political spectrum is explained by factors like income, age, job, and education.
But Professor Bertrand and his co–authors wanted to see if subtler factors could also play a significant role.
They surveyed 1,404 people across 18 Western countries, including France, Germany, the United States, Italy, Spain and a higher proportion of people from the UK.
At first, they simply asked them to state where they fell on the 10–point political scale and whether they were left or right–handed.
This revealed an unexpected connection between saying you are left–handed and believing in left–wing political views.
‘If this ran through brain lateralisation, then the more thoroughly left–handed you are, the more the effect should show,’ says Professor Bertrand.
The researchers had suspected that there could be a subtle difference in the way people’s brains are wired that would produce left–handedness and left–wing beliefs.
For example, the brain functions of lefties are slightly less evenly distributed between their brain’s hemispheres, with more communication between the hemispheres.
Researchers found that people who called themselves left–handed were 0.57 points more left–wing on a 10–point political scale than right–handed people. Pictured: Famous leftie Fidel Castro, communist leader of Cuba
Some studies have linked this to greater cognitive flexibility and openness to new ideas, characteristics typically associated with left–wing political leaning.
However, in a follow–up test, the researchers observed which hand people actually used in a range of tasks, including writing, using scissors, brushing their teeth, and throwing a ball.
Once they measured left–handedness this way, the connection between left–hand dominance and political left–leaning vanished.
That suggests the connection between being left–handed and left–wing politics isn’t biological, but psychological or social.
One theory is that people who call themselves left–handed might feel more drawn to the political left due to their experience of being part of a minority group.
The researchers point out that lefties make up just 10 per cent of the population, and have historically been subject to social stigma.
Up until the 1970s, especially in France, many European children were forced to write with their right hand even if they were naturally left–handed.
However, the researchers found that older lefties forced to use their right hand didn’t lean harder to the left than their younger counterparts.
Researchers say that the link between left–handedness and politics is likely to be psychological or social rather than biological. Pictured: Paul McCartney playing his left–handed guitar
Previous research has found that ‘Lefties’ are also driven by a strong desire to win. Mark Zuckerberg (pictured) is one of the most successful CEOs in the world and also takes part in Brazilian jiu–jitsu (BJJ) and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)
Alternatively, the researchers suggest that the linguistic connection between the ‘left’ wing and ‘left’ handed actually has a powerful psychological effect.
Psychologists have observed a phenomenon called implicit egotism, which means we tend to be subconsciously drawn to things that resemble us.
For example, studies have shown that people called Lawrence are more likely to become lawyers and people called Louis are more likely to move to St Louis, Missouri.
The researchers suggest that something similar might be happening to people who describe themselves as left–handed, and they point out that there is quite good evidence for this idea.
Co–author Dr Caroline Perrin, Postdoctoral Researcher involved in the RE Wiring Project, told the Daily Mail: ‘If a shared word is doing the work, the association should be strongest where that vocabulary genuinely structures political debate.
‘It is. It is significantly stronger in France, Spain, Italy and Portugal, where competition is explicitly organised along a left–right axis, than in the United Kingdom, where the divide usually goes by the names Labour and Conservative.’
The researchers add that their findings don’t mean that all left–handers vote left, or that switching hands would change someone’s political identity.
However, they say that this research highlights the fact that our political views might be less rationally chosen than we think, and could be affected by factors entirely outside our conscious awareness.
