1. • Handedness, Sexual Orientation and Gender-Related Personality Traits in Men and Women
• Journal article by Richard A. Lippa; Archives of Sexual Behavior, Vol. 32, 2003
Handedness, sexual orientation, and
gender-related personality traits in men
and women.
by Richard A. Lippa
INTRODUCTION
In a recent meta-analysis, Lalumiere, Blanchard, and Zucker (2000) compiled
evidence on associations between handedness and sexual orientation in men and
women. Data from 6,182 homosexual and 14,808 heterosexual men showed that
homosexual men had 34% greater odds of being non--right-handed than heterosexual
men, and data from 805 homosexual and 1,615 heterosexual women showed that
homosexual women had 91% greater odds of being non--right-handed than
heterosexual women. Both of these differences were statistically significant. A number
of recent studies have also indicated that gender identity disorder is associated with
non-right-handedness (see Green and Young, 2001, and Zucker, Beaulieu, Bradley,
Grimshaw, and Wilcox, 2001, for reviews and new data).
Although there is now considerable evidence for an association between non-right-
handedness and certain kinds of strong gender-atypicality (e.g., homosexuality, gender
identity disorder), the evidence is weaker for associations between handedness and
other kinds of gender-related individual differences. Perhaps the best-documented
finding is that there are slightly higher rates of left-handedness in males than females.
In an international survey of over 11,000 participants, for example, Perelle and
Ehrmaa (1994) reported that 10.6% of male participants and 8.5% of female
participants reported writing with their left hands, and in a compilation of data from
over 12,000 children, Zucker et al. (2001) reported that 11.8% of boys and 9.0% of
girls were left-handed. Finally, a meta-analysis by Seddon and McManus (1991)
compiled results from 88 studies with more than a quarter of a million participants and
found that 8.5% of men and 6.7% of women were left-handed, with men's incidence of
left-handedness 27% higher than women's. Although a number of theories have
attempted to explain the small but reliable sex differences typically found in
handedness, these differences remain poorly understood.
A few studies have examined associations between handedness and gender-related
personality traits within each sex. For example, Nicholls and Forbes (1996) reported
mat 40 U left-handed women scored higher On instrumentality (i.e., dominance) and
lower on expressiveness (i.e., nurturance) than did 40 right-handed women. In a study
of 340 college women, Casey and Nuttall (1990) reported a number of significant
associations between "anomalous dominance" (being non-right-handed or having
non--right-handed first-degree relatives) and instrumentality and expressiveness as
assessed by the Bem Sex-Role Inventory and masculinity as assessed by a tomboy
scale. In general, women with "anomalous dominance" showed more male-typical
traits than purely right-handed women. Santhakumari, Kurian, and Rao (1994)
reported that, among 124 Indian women, non-right-handedness was associated with