Are left-handed people smarter or more creative? I frequently hear that left-handed people tend to be smarter or more creative. For example, a disproportionate number of musicians, presidents, and doctors are left-handed. Does being left-handed give you these traits or is it a correlation due to another factor? If true, why?

Here's a study from the 1975: <

> Summary
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> Verbal and performance scores in a standard intelligence test (WAIS) were considered in relation to patterns of hand preference (measured by questionnaire) in a large sample of the general population.
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> Left-handers and mixed-handers did not obtain lower scores than right-handers. Indeed, there was a tendency for subjects who reported that they could use either hand for at least one of the questionnaire tasks to obtain higher I.Q.s. Otherwise, there were no significant differences in I.Q. with the exception of a consistent sex difference, in that men achieved higher scores on both verbal and performance scales.

Most other studies have the same inconclusive results. What I suspect as the origin of this apparent myth is confirmation bias: Whenever a smart or otherwise famous person is left handed, this will get noticed, whereas the right handedness of famous people does not surprise anyone.