Consistent-handed individuals are more authoritarian

Abstract

Individuals differ in the consistency with which they use one hand over the other to perform everyday activities. Some individuals are very consistent, habitually using a single hand to perform most tasks. Others are relatively inconsistent, and hence make greater use of both hands. More- versus less-consistent individuals have been shown to differ in numerous aspects of personality and cognition. In several respects consistent-handed individuals resemble authoritarian individuals. For example, both consistent-handedness and authoritarianism have been linked to cognitive inflexibility. Therefore we hypothesised that consistent-handedness is an external marker for authoritarianism. Confirming our hypothesis, we found that consistent-handers scored higher than inconsistent-handers on a measure of submission to authority, were more likely to identify with a conservative political party (Republican), and expressed less-positive attitudes towards out-groups. We propose that authoritarianism may be influenced by the degree of interaction between the left and right brain hemispheres, which has been found to differ between consistent- and inconsistent-handed individuals.

Keywords:

• Authoritarianism
• Handedness
• Interhemispheric interaction

A portion of this research was presented at the 70th annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, 12–15 April 2012, Chicago, Illinois.

A portion of this research was presented at the 70th annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, 12–15 April 2012, Chicago, Illinois.

Notes

¹ Although we present Leung et al.'s (2011) findings in support of an embodied cognition account of our results, it bears noting that the findings could themselves be explained in terms of hemispheric activation or interhemispheric interaction. Physical movement can result in lateralised cortical activity. Extending the left arm during the second trial of Leung et al.'s procedure presumably would have induced greater right hemisphere activation than extending the right arm. Moreover, because participants who extended their left arm during the second trial had extended their right arm (with accompanying left hemisphere activation) during the first trial, interhemispheric interaction might have been affected in some way that it was not in the right-arm only condition. We thank Steve Christman for suggesting this possibility.