If you think President Barack Obama favors the left, you're right.
When he took the oath of office yesterday, he became the seventh left-handed president.
”I think it's good, because people always talk about having a role model,” said Kristy Ainslie, 32, of San Francisco, founder of the online group Lefties for Obama. “I guess we finally have our role model.”
About 10 percent of the adult population is left-handed, and the percentage of southpaw presidents has been inching up recently. Three of the past six presidents were lefties. Obama makes it four of the past seven.
”It's interesting, in recent history, more (presidents) have been left-handed,” Ainslie said. “I guess it plays into (dispelling the myth) that left-handed people are sinister.”
Ainslie founded Lefties for Obama about a year ago to call attention to one more trait that made Obama a unique candidate.
The word “left” in English comes from the Anglo-Saxon word lyft, which means weak or broken. The Oxford English Dictionary's definition of left-handed includes the meanings crippled, defective and ambiguous.
That led to a stigma about lefties, who, in decades past, were taught to write with their right hand.
That stigma has lessened over the years, said Dr. Robert Needlman, a specialist in developmental pediatrics at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland.
”We celebrate diversity, and left-handedness is a form of diversity,” he said. “We don't pay much attention to it anymore, because the oppression has gone away.”
Dr. Paul Friday, chief of clinical psychology at UPMC Shadyside -- a lefty -- said his experience and research shows that southpaws aren't at a disadvantage.
”In a sense, left-handed people will tend to be more creative and sensitive than right-handed people, which tend to have left-brain dominance,” he said.
Research has shown that the left side of the brain commonly is associated with logic and detail and interprets language. The right side translates the big picture and is associated with creativity and imagination.
The right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, and people who are left-handed are right-side dominant. That's why lefties are thought to be more analytical and have more math and verbal ability, research shows.
”We already know (Obama) is more creative,” Needlman said. “It's evidenced by the fact that he has been elected, and (electing a black man) was never going to happen in the U.S. Now we have this brilliant, young guy being elected.”
Friday said lefties are more apt than righties to be partially ambidextrous and process information on both sides of the brain.
That could be good news for Obama supporters, who rallied behind the candidate's message of change.
”I think it probably means he is going to be more creative and less (particular) than most people,” Friday said. “He is going to come up with some creative solutions.”
Left-handed presidents
James Garfield, 1881, Republican
Herbert Hoover, 1929-33, Republican
Harry Truman, 1945-53, Democrat
Gerald Ford, 1974-77, Republican
George H.W. Bush, 1989-93, Republican
Bill Clinton, 1993-2001, Democrat
Source: Tribune-Review Research
Other notable southpaws
Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl
Microsoft CEO Bill Gates
Steve Forbes, CEO of Forbes magazine
Actor Tom Cruise
Talk show host Oprah Winfrey
im Henson, puppeteer (and Kermit the Frog)
Guitarist Jimi Hendrix
Paul McCartney, The Beatles' singer/guitarist
Oscar de la Hoya, boxer
Larry Bird, Ex-NBA star
Babe Ruth, Hall of Famer baseball player
Source: Tribune-Review Research
