Why are left handed individuals over represented in gifted populations

It's because God is left handed because the Bible says Jesus is sitting on his right hand.

Whatsleftisbest wrote:

Bill Gates

Leonardo DaVinci, Michelangelo

Obama,Clinton,Reagan, Bush (of course not W but his dad)

Henry Ford

Isaac Newton

Marie Curie

Jerry Seinfeld

Gandhi

Alan Turning

Beethoven

Its goes on and on.

With the exception of Beethoven, Leonardo DaVinci, and Michelangelo, those people were all luckier than they were talented.

Lucky enough to have a fantastic idea, or lucky enough to stumble across a discovery, or lucky enough to be in the right place, with the right philosophy.

Standard deviation is the short answer.

Your list does not show that left handed people are over-represented in gifted populations.

Left handed people are superior. End of subject. Next thread.

Hellen Keller was left-handed and that b*tch was freakin retarded.

So i guess since you posted your list, we assume all other gifted people are righties?

Whatsleftisbest wrote:

...

Obama,Clinton,Reagan...

Yeah, about that:

You can make a list of impressive people with just about any physical or demographic characteristic that appears infrequently in the general population: left-handedness, red hair, died young, very tall, born in Philadelphia, was alive in 1750, etc. Your list proves only that my statement is true with respect to left handed people. It does not prove your statement that they are over-represented. The list of the very impressive people who have ever lived is so large that a small percentage of that list, however selected, is a remarkable collection of people too.

Actually a study was presented in the Mensa magazine, about 25 years ago, that indicated mathematically-precocious children are--as you move from high levels to the highest levels--more frequently nearsighted, asthmatic, male, and lefthanded.

As someone pointed out above, standard deviation is the answer. Just as there are more high-IQ boys than girls--and more boys in special-ed classes, as well--so there are more genius lefties (and retarded lefties) than you would expect from their proportion of the overall population.

I'm the only righthanded member of a lefthanded family, so these are things I pay attention to...

Whatsleftisbest wrote:

...

Gandhi

...

Yeah, about that:

Why did my skinny---fall off? wrote:

Left handed people are superior. End of subject. Next thread.

Agreed.

Correlation DOES NOT = Causation

BTW, I am left-handed.

Atlrunner wrote:

Correlation DOES NOT = Causation

BTW, I am left-handed.

Atlrunner,

Agreed but who suggested there was a causation? I never thought forcing someone to be left handed would make them more likely to be gifted.

Nice list But,

And of course my list doesn't prove anything it is only presented as demonstrative. Research does indicate that gifted populations are over represented by lefthanded people. This is particularly true in mathematical and perceptual areas.

PS

I am not gifted but I am lefthanded. I'm just average for a left hander (although slightly above average compared to right handers)

for proof

http://www.lefthandersday.com/intelligence.html

magic man wrote:

Hellen Keller was left-handed and that b*tch was freakin retarded.

So i guess since you posted your list, we assume all other gifted people are righties?

She was blind AND deaf. I don't think you'd amount to much more than she did if you had her disabilities...jerk off.

It extends to sports too. Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Larry Bird, and Bill Russell to name a few are/were all lefties. I think it's because our brains process information differently or maybe the neuro wiring is different and it gives us an advantage over righties. An example is when a righty boxer can not "figure out" a lefty boxer. I think it's because roughly 90% of a boxers fights are vs. righties based on population % so when he eventually fights a lefty it's foreign to him and he loses. Happened to Roy Jones Jr. when he fought Antonio Tarver. Jones lost 2 of 3 and many analysts thought Jones lost all 3. In the end, Jones couldn't figure out the lefty because he was unfamiliar.

Artists and musicians are overwhelmingly left handed. I'm an artist, a musician and I was in gifted classes throughout school. I'm only an average athlete.

Its because left handed people are right brain dominant and it often leads to more creative thinking and the ability to see things more as a whole than small logical steps, which is often a characteristic of successful entrepreneurs

I'm left handed but use a right-handed mouse. Am I undermining my potential?

I write with my left hand, throw with my right hand. Pretty much half stuff with my left and half the stuff with the right. I had a 25 on my ACT sophomore year without studying