Is handedness related to anxiety? New answers to an old question

Abstract

Is handedness related to anxiety? Two separable dimensions of handedness have been considered in previous studies: Direction of the preferred hand (left or right) and the consistency with which the preferred hand is used over the nonpreferred hand (consistent or inconsistent). Findings have included (1) left-handedness being associated with greater anxiety than right-handedness, (2) consistent-handedness being associated with greater anxiety than inconsistent-handedness and (3) neither dimension being associated with anxiety. Here, we administered measures of trait anxiety, state anxiety and worry to individuals classified as consistent-left, inconsistent-left, inconsistent-right or consistent-right. Neither direction nor consistency had a main effect on any measure. However, there was a direction by consistency interaction in trait and state anxiety measured on the State/Trait Anxiety Inventory. Among right-handers, inconsistent individuals reported less anxiety than consistent individuals. Among left-handers, consistency was unrelated to anxiety. In consequence of this pattern, inconsistent right-handers were less anxious than inconsistent left-handers. Hence, supporting prior studies, left-handedness was associated with greater anxiety than right-handedness (but only among inconsistent individuals) and consistency was associated with greater anxiety than inconsistency (but only among right-handers). These findings advance our understanding of handedness consistency as an important individual difference factor in personality and cognition.

Keywords:

• Anxiety
• Handedness
• Individual differences

Notes

¹ Data on the unrelated task from some of the subjects were reported in Lyle and Martin (2010).

² To verify the appropriateness of using positive and negative PANAS scores as covariates in analyses of the effects of direction and consistency on anxiety, we submitted the two score types to separate 2 (direction: Left or right)×2 (consistency: Inconsistent or consistent)×2 (sex: Female or male) between-subjects ANOVAs. Neither positive nor negative scores were significantly affected by direction, consistency or their simple interaction (all ps ≥.093).