The Sinister Left and the Dexter Right

A study published in a recent issue of the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science suggests a link between values and human dominant handedness and that Republicans and the Religious Right have an automatic advantage with most people that has nothing to do with politics or theology.

The paper, titled "Different Bodies, Different Minds: The Body Specificity of Language and Thought" was written by Daniel Casasanto, a psychology professor at New York's New School.

His theory is that our bodies affect our minds far more than we realize. He says that right-handers actually think differently than left-handers about more than which hand grabs a pen. And since most people are right-handed, this carries over into the world of values:

"This association is evident in positive and negative idioms like my right-hand man and two left feet, and in the meanings of English words derived from the Latin for ‘right' (dexter) and ‘left' (sinister)."

And "right" is correct, obviously. Except it's not so obvious to lefties:

"When asked to decide which of two products to buy, which of two job applicants to hire, or which of two alien creatures looks more trustworthy, right and left-handers respond differently. Right-handers tend to prefer the product, person, or creature presented on their right side but left-handers tend to prefer the one on their left."

Casasanto did explore one specifically political implication:

"In the final debates of the 2004 and 2008 U.S. presidential elections, positive speech was more strongly associated with right-hand gestures and negative speech with left-hand gestures in the two right-handed candidates (Bush, Kerry), but the opposite association was found in the two left-handed candidates (McCain, Obama)."

And here's his theory about why we associate a side of our bodies with values that have nothing obvious to do with dexterity:

"Most of us have a dominant side and a nondominant side and therefore interact with the physical environment more fluently on one side of space than on the other. As a consequence, right-handers, who interact with their environment more fluently on the right and more clumsily on the left, come to implicitly associate ‘good' with ‘right' and ‘bad' with ‘left,' whereas left-handers form the opposite association."

Maybe that helps explain the relative success of Judaism versus Christianity back in the day? Hebrew is written and read from right to left -- cognitively uphill. While Greek was among the first written languages to operate left to right -- the positive downhill direction for most readers.

In Orthodox Christian iconography, Jesus is always shown holding a bible in his left hand and gesturing with his right. Would left-handers respond better to a reversed icon?

And if you're handicapping the upcoming presidential contest by handedness, President Obama is sinister while all four remaining GOP candidates are dexter.

Lefties comprise between 10 and 20 percent of the population, depending on which surveys you prefer. Which means the right has some kind of modest advantage with 80 or 90 percent of people before a preacher opens a bible or a politician opens his mouth.

Which is a bit disheartening to those of us who would like to believe in free will.