In a recent comment on my Creativity as a Means of Communication post, Nancy asked how many of you creative types out there are left-handed.
There is some evidence to support the theory that left-handed people tend to be creative in nature. This stems from the assertion that left-handed people use the right hemisphere of their brains more predominantly and that the corpus callosum that connects the two hemispheres of the brain is slightly larger in lefties. One argument is that left-handed people may process information differently, perhaps in a less linear way than right-handed people.
There are plenty of famous examples of lefties throughout history — Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, and Leonardo da Vinci, just to name a few.
I myself am right-handed, but my four-year-old daughter is a leftie. I can’t quite tell with my one-year-old yet, as she seems to use both hands equally at this age.
Most of the left-handers I know are extremely creative and excellent problem solvers. I know a number of lefties who are writers, artists, and musicians, but also scientists and engineers. Craig Hampson of Newman-Haas racing told me that his engineering department was comprised entirely of lefties at one point.
I’d like to hear back from others about this issue. Are you right-handed or left-handed, and do you consider yourself a creative person? Do you have a tendency to ‘think outside the box’ or solve problems in innovative ways?
Damian Daily 
Hello Lisa
I’ve read your post, its funny that we both covered the same topic. I’m right handed for writing etc but I do somethings left-handed.I’m artistic and creative. I began using my left hand as a child but they stopped me using it so I’m a bit mixed up.Explains a lot.
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I’m ambidextrous. I type with both hand. đŸ˜‰
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Hi again Lisa-
What I’ve read is that lefties are more predisposed to be right-brain dominant than righties. Of course, we probably all know righties who are very creative as well.
Maybe another good question is: do you know any lefties who are not creative?
PS- Janice, my dad was a leftie as a child, and the nuns at catholic school and my grandmother whacked it out of him-literally, with a ruler. I guess they thought it was bad to be a leftie, as if anything different form the norm was bad.
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But seriously, I am kind of ambidextrous. Like a lot of people I am right handed. When I play hockey I’m left. Baseball I’m a little confused about.
But I am more technical with my art. When I shoot and print my photographs I study the angles and the technical aspects of the picture. But when I take pictures I shoot with my left eye through the view finder.
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Hi Lisa. Thanks for stopping by…so you know I’m left handed. I am a bit creative..I love to write poetry and I really have a knack for coming up with the most creative gift ideas. My brother is also left handed and equally creative. He’s into poetry and photography.
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At a writing class I attended, I was amused to see that out of the ten people in the workshop, four of us were left handed. Them are pretty good odds, as they say.
According to http://www.lefthander.com/facts.htm 4 of the 5 original designers of the Mac were left handed.
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This is a very interesting topic. Being that I’m right handed, I can now blame those moments of mild idea block (I don’t believe in writer’s block) on the fact that I don’t primarily use my left hand.
Actually, this is tempting me to try an personal experiment. If I should start to use my left hand more often, would that increase my creative output? Maybe I could tie my right arm to my side like they do in soccer to keep the kids from grabbing the ball with their hands.
Just a thought.
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