Overview
- Psychologists at the University of Chieti-Pescara, reporting in Scientific Reports, analyzed about 1,100 questionnaires and found stronger left-hand lateralization associated with higher development-oriented competitiveness and hypercompetitiveness, and lower anxious avoidance.
- In a follow-up laboratory test with 48 participants using a pegboard task, the team found no significant dexterity differences between left- and right-handed individuals, suggesting competitiveness effects are not driven by motor skills.
- The study detected no meaningful differences between handedness groups on the Big Five personality traits, nor links between handedness and depression or anxiety within this non-clinical sample.
- Authors propose that left-handedness may persist because it can confer a frequency-dependent edge in one-on-one contests, where minority-handed strategies are less predictable.
- Sex-patterns observed included higher competitiveness scores among men and greater anxiety-driven avoidance among women, though researchers emphasized these findings are preliminary and warrant further study.