Scientists have debunked the myth about left-handed creativity

However, a new study by psychologists at Cornell University challenges the persistent myth that left-handed people are naturally more creative than right-handed people.

In a Psychonomic Bulletin & Review article, authors Daniel Casasanto, Owen Morgan and Xiyi Zhao analysed more than a hundred years of scientific publications to determine whether there is a real link between the leading hand and creative ability.

Details: Owen Morgan et al, Handedness and creativity: Facts and fictions, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review (2025). DOI: 10.3758/s13423-025-02717-2

"The data do not support any advantage for left-handed people in creative thinking," says Casasanto, associate professor of psychology and director of the Laboratory of Experience and Cognition.

He says right-handed people even showed a slight advantage in some tests of divergent thinking - the ability to quickly generate out-of-the-box ideas.

The study involved a meta-analysis of 17 papers covering about 50 different measurements taken since 1900. The authors found that in the three most common laboratory tests of creative thinking, there was little or no difference between left-handed and right-handed people.

"If you look at all the studies as a whole, the idea that left-handed people are superior in creativity just doesn't find support," Casasanto emphasises.

The study did, however, confirm: left-handed people are indeed more common among artists and musicians. However, the authors disproved another popular myth - that left-handed people predominate among architects.

In addition, the researchers used data from U.S. government surveys covering nearly 12,000 people in 770 occupations. The professions were rated on levels of "originality" and "inductive reasoning" - signs of high creativity. It turned out that in contrast, left-handed people were poorly represented in the most creative fields - including science, art and maths.

According to the authors, the myth is fuelled by several sources at once. One of them is the so-called "left-handed exceptionalism": left-handed people make up only about 10 per cent of the population, and truly creative geniuses are equally rare. This suggests that there may be a connection between these phenomena.

Another factor is the persistent image of the "artist's creative torment": statistics do show that left-handed people have higher rates of depression and schizophrenia. This link reinforces the romanticised myth of the suffering genius, the authors believe.

In addition, a typical error of thinking - over-generalising from individual cases - is behind it.

"The abundance of left-handed people among artists and musicians has led people to believe as if all left-handed people are more creative," Casasanto says. - "But if you do a broad study without bias, the 'left-handed advantage' disappears."