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At least eight of the 45 men who have held the office of United States president have been
left-handed
In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...
.
Only one U.S. president prior to the 20th century was known to be left-handed.
Since
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
there have been fourteen different U.S. presidents
and six of them have been left-handed.
Various theories about why left-handers are overrepresented among U.S. presidents have been proposed. Biologist
Amar Klar studied handedness and determined that left-handed people, "...have a wider scope of thinking".
In a 2019 ''
Journal of Neurosurgery
The ''Journal of Neurosurgery'' is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal covering all aspects of neurosurgery. It is published by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the editor-in-chief is James Rutka. It was established in 1944 ...
'' article Nathan R. Selden argued that since left-handed people are right-hemisphere–dominant individuals, this might make presidents, "more effective leaders or at least more effective political candidates".
A
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...
professor,
Stanley Coren
Stanley Coren (born 1942) is a psychology professor, neuropsychological researcher and writer on the intelligence, mental abilities and history of dogs. He works in research and instructs in psychology at the University of British Columbia in Va ...
, authored the book ''The Left-Handed Syndrome,'' in which he claimed that "left-handers actually have a profile that works very well for a politician".
In a 2021 ''
Business Insider
''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publ ...
'' article titled, "From Barack Obama to Julius Caesar, here are 12 world leaders who were left-handed" reporters Alexandra Ma and Talia Lakritz state, "According to some research, lefties may be more creative, be better at 'divergent thinking' — generating new ideas based on existing information — and face challenges better."
On the other hand, medical researcher Jonathan Belsey argued that, given a 13% prevalence of left-handedness, the long-term average is not
statistically high, but rather has a
p-value
In null-hypothesis significance testing, the ''p''-value is the probability of obtaining test results at least as extreme as the result actually observed, under the assumption that the null hypothesis is correct. A very small ''p''-value means ...
of 0.77, and that even the post-1881 prevalence has a 0.10 likelihood of occurring by chance.
Left-handed presidents of the United States
*
James A. Garfield
James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1881 until his death six months latertwo months after he was shot by an assassin. A lawyer and Civil War gene ...
(March 4, 1881 – September 19, 1881) was ambidextrous;
he was the only known left-handed president prior to the 20th century.
*
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...
(March 4, 1929 – March 4, 1933) was known to be left-handed.
*
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
(April 12, 1945 – January 20, 1953) was left-handed as a child,
he wrote with his right hand and used his left for most other activities.
*
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...
(August 9, 1974 – January 20, 1977) was left-handed.
*
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
(January 20, 1981 – January 20, 1989) was naturally left-handed but wrote with his right hand.
*
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...
(January 20, 1989 – January 20, 1993) was left-handed. All three major candidates for president in 1992 were left-handed: Bill Clinton won.
*
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
(January 20, 1993 – January 20, 2001) is left-handed.
*
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
(January 20, 2009 – January 20, 2017) is left-handed.
Other presidents who demonstrated left-handed ability
*
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
(March 4, 1801 – March 4, 1809) was right handed but after an injury to his right wrist, he wrote with his left hand.
He was said to have been ambidextrous, and he could write equally well with either hand.
*
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
(March 4, 1913 – March 4, 1921) was right handed but after a stroke Wilson was able to use his left hand to write "perfectly legible well formed characters". His ability was called "remarkable neurologically".
See also
*
List of presidents of the United States
The president of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States, indirectly elected to a four-year Term of office, term via the United States Electoral College, Electoral College. The officeholder leads the ...
References
Further reading
*
ttps://thejns.org/view/journals/j-neurosurg/131/1/article-p320.xml Right brain? Hemispheric dominance and the United States presidencyJNS Nathan R. Selden MD, PhD
{{DEFAULTSORT:Left-handed United States Presidents
Lists of people by physical attribute
Lists relating to the United States presidency