Sorry, Ned Flanders: Lefties Earn Less, Test Lower

Photo credit: The Simpsons.

Are you like proud-lefty Ned Flanders? Do you think left-handers are way better than righties in each and every way? (OK, maybe not cutting with right-handed scissors.)

Well, Harvard University public policy professor Joshua Goodman is here to tell you that you, and your ink-stained left hand, are wrong.

Goodman, an economist, recently published a paper in the Journal of Economic Perspectives that, for the first time, says lefties earn less, about 10-12 percent less, than their righty counterparts. In addition, in his research, Goodman found that lefties, who make up roughly 12 percent of the population:

• Score a tenth of a standard deviation lower on cognitive skill tests
• Have more emotional and behavioral problems
• Have more learning disabilities, such as dyslexia
• Complete less schooling
• And work in occupations requiring less cognitive skill

But four of the last seven U.S. presidents (Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama) have been left-handed you say? Not to mention Julius Caesar, Joan of Arc and Benjamin Franklin?

Statistically irrelevant, Goodman counters.

And as for the notion that lefties are more creative?

“The empirical evidence for greater creativity among the left-handed turns out to be fairly weak,” Goodman writes.

Translation for all you lefties out there, “Unh uh!”

All hope is not lost for you left-handers. Famous lefties also include: Jay Leno, Charlie Chaplin and Marilyn Monroe, musicians Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix and Paul Simon, as well as Kermit the Frog and his creator Jim Henson.

Plus, historically, lefties had it much worse.

“During the Middle Ages, left-handed writers were thought to be possessed by the Devil, generating the modern sense of the word sinister from sinistra, the Latin word for left” Goodman writes. “The English word left itself comes from the Old English lyft, meaning idle, weak, or useless.”

Editor’s note: The author of this post is a proud lefty.