Left-handedness is associated with many traits-some good, some not so good. About 10 percent of left-handers suffer from language disorders and reading disabilities, while only 1 percent of right-handers do. Left-handers are more likely to suffer severe migraine headaches, birth complications (Van Strien et al., 1987), alcoholism (London, 1986), and certain disorders of the body's disease-fighting system (autoimmune disorders) (Garmon, 1985).
However, more than twice as many artists, musicians, mathematicians, and engineers are left-handed as would be expected by chance (Annett & Kil shaw, 1982; Kilshaw & Annett, 1983). For example, two of the greatest artists who ever lived-Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci-were left-handed. And if you are looking for someone with precocious mathematical ability you may very well find that person with a pencil in his or her left hand (Benbow, 1987).