A sample of healthy18 undergraduate college women (9 left-handers and 9 right-handers) without any learningdisabilities enrolled at a regional southwestern university in the United States signed an informed consent form, andwere administered a general information questionnaire and the Artistic Abilities subscale of “Competencies”subsection of the Holland’s Self-Directed Search, Form R. They also signed an informed consent form. Because ofthe conflicting findings in research on handedness and on artistic abilities, the variable of sex was held constant inthis study. Thus, left- and right-handed women were compared on the following variables: prevalence of lefthandednessin the family, academic performance, and artistic abilities. Significant differences were found betweenleft- and right- handers on all variables except academic performance. Following conclusions were made on thebasis of the results of this preliminary study: (1) left-handers tend to be more artistic than the right-handers and (2)heredity is one of the several determinants of handedness. Expectancy effect, brain lateralization, and functionaltheory were suggested as possible explanations for the link between left-handedness and artistic abilities.
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