In the collective imagination, who writes with his left hand is a creative: but is this belief supported by science? This question tried to answer a study published on Psychonomic Bulletin & Reviewwhich has revised almost 1,000 studies conducted from 1900 to today. The answer is no: The idea that Mancini are more creative than the steed is scientifically unfounded And it would be the result of prejudices and bias.
Divergent thought. It had been proven previously that after having tightened a ball with the left hand, people better manage to carry out activities related to divergent thought (a mental process that gives original and unconventional solutions to a problem): this would mean that the motor activity controlled by the right brain hemisphere (which regulates the left half of the body) stimulates the areas responsible for creativity.
Right or left? To test this idea, the authors conducted a meta-analysis (a study that analyzes the results of different research on the same topic) on almost a thousand scientific articles published since 1900: after having discarded most of them because the data had not been collected in a standard way or only concerned steed, the authors found themselves only with 17 studies. Analyzing them, it emerged that Mancini and Desterimans had similar results in three of the most common laboratory tests on divergent thought.
What is creativity? A further meta-analysis confirmed that The musicians and artists would be more frequently Mancinibut not the architects: analyzing almost 12,000 individuals and over 770 professions emerged that In the most creative professions, the steed would even be more common.
Eyehowever: it must be understood that by creativity, in this case, we do not mean the ability to invent, to be imaginative or artistic, but rather a combination of originality and inductive reasoning – typical of works that would seem to us from first to the first to be anything but creative, such as mathematician or physique.
Between bias and popular beliefs. So why did this Mancini = creative equation consolidated over the years? According to the authors, a reason could be the fact that i left -handed they are rare (they represent about 10% of the world population) and that also be genes is rare; Another popular perception is that the genes are generally crazy or suffering from mental diseases, and also in this case there would be a connection with the fact that Mancini are more inclined to suffer from depression and schizophrenia than the steed.
Over the years, then, a limited number of studies conducted on a few participants or not very representative have been mentioned: “Focusing on the two creative professions, art and music, where left -handed are overlapped is a very common statistical error”, explains Daniel Casasanto, one of the authors. “People generalize that there are many Mancini artists and musicians, so the left -handed must be more creative: but if you impartially analyze several professions, this apparent superiority of the left -handers disappears”, concludes.
