Laterality: Exploring the Enigma of Left-Handedness

by Clare Porac

Left-handedness has been connected to many different conditions, traits, and abilities. This is especially true for pathological syndromes, such as schizophrenia, along with learning disabilities and autism. The published research on handedness is vast and frequently contradictory, often raising more questions than providing answers. Questions such Exploring the Enigma of Left-Handedness examines the research conducted over the past 50 years with special emphasis on twenty-first century research on handedness and translates this literature into an accessible and readable form. Each chapter is based on a question or questions covering diverse topics such as genetic and biological origins of handedness, familial and hormonal influences on handedness, and the effects of a majority right-handed world on the behaviors of left-handers.

Genres: Nonfiction

232 pages, Paperback

Published January 18, 2016

About the author

Clare Porac is a psychologist and Professor Emerita of Psychology and an Academy Professor at Penn State University. She is a dual citizen (Canada/USA) and has taught in universities in both countries. She has authored/coauthored textbooks, scientific monographs, and over two hundred scholarly articles and presentations. Her most recent books are Laterality: Exploring the Enigma of Left-handedness published in 2016 and In Strange Places, her first novel, published in 2021. Is This My Place, her second novel, is the sequel to In Strange Places. Her blog, In Your Hands, is found at sites.psu.edu/clarep. Clare Porac lives in Pittsburgh, PA.

Reviews

[Arimo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good summary of research done on left-handedness. The author has an excellent critical approach, leaning on meta-analysis of multiple studies whenever possible. She also debunks lots of myths and bad science along the way (e.g. the one about left-handers dying many years earlier than right-handed people – it's not true folks!).

If you're hoping that this book offers some big revelations about left-handedness, you might be disappointed. Most of the big questions ("Is there a left-handed personality?", "Are left-handed more creative/intelligent/whatever?") are given a negative answer, or the research done on the subjects yields mixed results at best.

Overall, the author does a very good job on the book, although there are a few occasions when her sources include some very bad research. As a Finn, I was amused by this paragraph in particular:

"[....] Finnish, shows a similar rightward positivity bias. The word for right is oikealla meaning straight or honest while left or vasemmalla is associated with being defective or dishonest."

Besides using the wrong conjugation of the words (oikea and vasen), the associations for left are simply not true. The word oikea does also mean correct (just like right does in English), but that's about it. Too bad not all researchers can be experts on Finnish!