This former president of the United States was a Senator of Illinois, city organizer of Chicago, Civil Rights attorney, and academic before becoming a politician. Could this influential figure be left-handed?
Barack Obama is left-handed. Obama shows a natural preference for his left hand in writing left-handed and using it first while doing various activities. He also plays sports left-handed.
Read more below to find out about Obama’s preference for his left hand in his daily life and other world leaders who are left-handed, too.
Left-Handed Presidents
There have been quite a few left-handed presidents over the past hundred years, and Obama is one of them. Since only around ten percent of the world’s population is left-handed, it’s interesting that so many presidents have been left-handed.
Many people have tweeted about Obama showing off his athletic skills, throwing and batting lefty in this post, and shooting hoops left-handed in this post.
Obama is one of eight presidents to be left-handed out of the total 45 presidents that there have been. This is an abnormally high statistic; while only ten percent of the population is left-handed, nearly 20 percent of presidents have been left-handed.
The other left-handed presidents were Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Harry Truman, Herbert Hoover, and James Garfield. Starting with Ronald Reagan, the President of the United States was left-handed four elections in a row, ending with Barack Obama, and spanning 36 years of presidency.
While some speculate that this could be just a weird coincidence, there are many studies to find out why so many left-handed people are world leaders, recipients of awards like Nobel Prizes, and other major accomplishments when the large majority of people are right-handed. This could have helped lead people to the belief that left-handed people are more creative, intelligent, and athletic, than their right-handed counterparts.
A part of left-handed creativity is having to live in a world designed for right-handed people. Things like desks, scissors, all kinds of tools, and more are designed for anyone to use them with their right hand.
This requires left-handed people to be more creative in doing everyday tasks, which helps them think outside of the box in the long run. This is just a part of why lefties can be more creative than righties, as there are many ongoing studies where conclusions about right-handedness versus left-handedness have not been definite.
Watch the YouTube video below to find out more about why presidents are four times more likely to be left-handed, especially since the year 1923.
Lefty World Leaders
Left-handedness isn’t only a phenomenon in being very popular among the Presidents of the United States. Worldwide, many leaders are left-handed as well.
In the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill was a famous former Prime Minister during World War II. He was a left-handed leader known for his success as a politician, army officer, and writer, as well as his oratory skills.
Another former Prime Minister, David Cameron, was also left-handed. Cameron was Prime Minister from 2010 until his resignation in 2016, and was succeeded by Theresa May.
Prince William, the eldest son of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer is another left-handed world leader, this time one who was born into royalty and second in line for the throne. He served in the military for 13 years as a pilot.
The current President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, assumed office in 2013 and is another left-handed world leader. He is the fourth President of Kenya, and the son of the first President of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta, and his fourth wife, Ngina Kenyatta.
Another leftie world leader is Singapore’s Prime MinisterLee Hsien Loong, who assumed office in 2004. He is the third Prime Minister of Singapore, and the eldest child of Singapore’s first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, and his wife, Kwa Geok Choo.