Curiosity about the handedness of politicians in the United States is not new. Left-handers frequently comment on the left-handedness of a recent president of the United States, Barack Obama. Researchers have looked for links between handedness and elected position, political party, and political orientation. I have two previous blog posts on this topic written during the 2016 ¹and the 2020 ² United States presidential election seasons.
A recent study explored the handedness characteristics of United States senators. ³ The researchers took advantage of a naturally occurring situation to conduct their investigation. On January 16, 2020, each United States senator signed an oath to act impartially during the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. This event was televised nationally and allowed the study’s authors to observe the writing hand of each senator as he/she signed this oath. The hand used to write is considered the signature handedness behavior and is often used by researchers as a measure of overall handedness.
At the time of the study, the United States Senate included 74 males and 26 females. Two of the 26 female senators (7.7%) were left-handed as compared to 11 of the 74 male senators (14.9%). These results demonstrated the frequent finding that left-handedness is more prevalent among males than females although this percent difference was not statistically significant because of the small sample sizes. The overall rate of left-handedness among United States Senators when males and females were combined was 11.3%. This value does not differ from estimates of left-handedness among the general population that range from 9.3% to 18.1% depending on the geographical region. Left-handedness among United States senators occurs at the same rate as found in the general population.
There was no difference in rates of left-handedness when the senators were divided along party lines. Thirteen percent (13%) of the Democrat and 13% of the Republican Senators were classified as left-handed. Political orientation (right- versus left-wing) was not associated with handedness type. Left-handers were not more likely to be left-wing than right-handers, however, female and Democrat Senators were more likely to lean left than Republican and male Senators. The authors concluded that studying handedness in select occupational groups, such as United States senators, is worthwhile although they acknowledged that statistical comparisons were hampered by the small sample size.
¹ USA presidential campaigns: A place for left-handers? In Your Hands, October 13, 2016.
² A hand in the election. In Your Hands, October 11, 2020.
³ Segal, N.L., & Niculae, F.J. (2022). Senatorial signatures: Absence of male-female differences in left-handedness. Politics and the Life Sciences, 41, 38-44. doi: 10.1017/pls.2021.9
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