Are Architects More Likely to Be Left-Handed Than Other People?
A study investigated whether left-handers are overrepresented among architects.
Updated December 28, 2025 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk
A common stereotype about left-handers is that they choose certain jobs more often than right-handers. These include, for example, jobs that require a lot of creativity , like an artist or musician, but also jobs that require good visual-spatial skills, like an architect. The reason for this assumption is linked to the fact that left-handedness is a form of brain asymmetry, representing a functional left-right difference in the brain.
In left-handers, the motor cortex in the right half of the brain is dominant for any sort of more complicated fine-motor skill, like writing with a pen. This is the case since the right half of the brain controls the left part of the body, including the left hand. Importantly, in most people, the right half of the brain is dominant for visuo-spatial skills, which are crucial for being a good architect, such as when creating highly complicated blueprints for a new skyscraper on a computer. Thus, the same half of the brain is dominant for visuo-spatial skills and hand use in most left-handers.
This led people to assume that left-handers may be better architects starting in the 1970s. However, hand use and visuospatial abilities are controlled by different networks within the brain, making the link somewhat questionable from a neuroscientific perspective. Moreover, previous studies on architecture students and professional architects have yielded somewhat mixed results, with some studies finding an overrepresentation of left-handers, while others did not.
A new study on the handedness of acclaimed architects
A new study, published in the scientific journal Laterality, focused on the question of whether there is an overrepresentation of left-handers among acclaimed architects ( Westerhausen, 2025 ). In the study, conducted by scientist René Westerhausen from the Department of Psychology at the University of Oslo in Norway, data were collected online. Overall, 515 famous architects were identified based on the winner lists of international architecture awards. Moreover, architects who were featured in articles in well-known publications on architecture were included as well. This way of data collection made sure that only very successful architects were included in the data set. For each of the 515 architects, the internet was searched for videos or pictures of that person writing or drawing, so that their dominant hand could be determined. For each architect, a maximum of five observations was considered to determine their handedness.
What did the data analysis show?
Out of the 515 investigated architects, 474 were right-handed (about 92 percent). Only 37 were left-handed (about 7 percent), and four were ambidextrous. As the rate of left-handers in the general population is 10.6 percent, the percentage of left-handed architects was actually lower than that of left-handers in general. Moreover, when architects born before the year 1950 and born after the year 1950 were analyzed separately, the rate of left-handedness was also below 10.6 percent in both groups.
The results of the study clearly show that architects are not more likely to be left-handed than the rest of the population. This suggests that the idea that left-handedness may lead to special talents needed for becoming an architect is likely another of the many urban myths about left-handedness.
Westerhausen R. (2025). Handedness of acclaimed architects: No indication for an over-proportional representation of non-right handers. Laterality , 1–15. Advance online publication.
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Sebastian Ocklenburg, Ph.D., is a professor for research methods in psychology at the Department of Psychology at MSH Medical School in Hamburg, Germany. His research focuses on left-handedness and brain asymmetries.
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