Presidents Are 4x More Likely to be Lefties

 So there’s this fantastic Wikipedia list descriptively titled “Wikipedia-colon-unusual-articles. ” I just remember it as “That Wikipedia List.” It’s a collection of hundreds of articles about unusual, unexpected, and unbelievable subjects. No matter what link you click, its bound to be interesting. For that reason, every week I’m going to click on a new link and teach you a little more about our amazing world. With that, let’s find this week’s article. So, US Presidents are four times more likely to be left handed than the general public. On average, about 10% of individuals are left-handed, while 46% of Presidents since 1923 were left-handed. Why do we only look at the President’s since 1923? Well, before recently, left-handedness was treated like a disease. Believe it or not, the bible included tons of anti-lefty rhetoric, so parents and teachers would often punish kids for using their left-hand. Therefore, most people, including presidents, would use their right hand to write even if they were born a leftie. It’s entirely possible that many early presidents were left-handed, but it’s just not known since by the time things were written about them, they were already using their right hands for everything. Herbert Hoover was the first President that we know was right handed and since his presidency, Truman, Ford, Reagan, Bush Senior, Clinton, and Obama have been added to that not-so-elusive club. So what’s behind this statistical anomaly? Well for one Americans and other westerners are more likely to be left-handed than our brethren in the eastern hemisphere. There’s a continuing social pressure in many Asian countries to use the right-hand so many left-handed children are taught to switch. There’s no longer that pressure in the US, so about 12% of Americans are left-handed. Men are also slightly more likely to be left-handed, so since approximately 100% of US Presidents have been males, this elevates the chance of a left handed president by a little bit. What most contributes to this phenomenon is that Presidents are generally considered to be smart people. The average iq of the general public is about 100, while the average estimated iq of presidents is around 130. It’s really hard to determine if left handedness is linked to increased intelligence, but Mensa reports that 20% of its members are left handed. That means that if you’re left handed, you’re twice as likely to have an iq over 130, or at least to be a member of Mensa. What is indisputable, however, is that left-handed kids have to learn to adapt to a world made for right handed people. Scissors, can openers, desks, doors, roads, and even the english writing system were made for right handed people. Michael Peters, a neuropsychologist at the University of Guelph, said that his research has shown that this necessity for adaptation leads to left-handed individuals being “slightly more resistant to social pressures,” and gives them “an independent streak.” These are traits that most agree are useful for leaders. Chris McManus of University College London wrote in Scientific America that “left-handers’ brains are structured differently from right-handers’ in ways that can allow them to process language, spatial relations and emotions in more diverse and potentially creative ways.” In the past couple decades, three of the five general elections have been exclusively between left-handed candidates. So are the candidates overwhelmingly left-handed in the 2016 election? Nope. In fact, no remaining presidential candidate is left-handed. Is this a sign of what’s to come? Well we’ll just have to wait and see.