FactCheck: Does the human brain really lean left or right?

There’s no denying that categorization systems compel us all in some way. This is evident when we take the Myers-Briggs test, the newest and most popular personality test, or even when we find out your astrological sign. Our fixation with classification is a reflection of our need to comprehend ourselves better. Many people think that an individual’s characteristics must be determined by which side of the brain predominates—the left brain is analytical, and the right is creative. But when we analyse it, how true is this idea really? Perhaps, like our hands, feet, or eyes, it is almost natural to think of our brains as predominately preferring one side. Is it real, though?

It is indeed not a fact.

It’s a fallacy that there are only people who are left-brained or right-brained.

Such a notion has its roots in a 1960s study led by Roger Sperry, who won the Nobel Prize.

His studies focused on people with epilepsy who had the left and right hemispheres of their brains surgically divided for therapeutic reasons.

The research never said that the left hemisphere is exclusively in charge of logical thought and the right hemisphere is only in charge of emotions, even if the results did demonstrate that separate regions of the brain are in charge of diverse functions.

A separate study including more than a thousand adults and children found no indications of general brain connections favouring either the left or right hemisphere.

Although the left and right hemispheres of the brain perform different functions, they cooperate to facilitate the general functioning of the body.

Similarly, those who encounter more challenging situations or subjects do not do so because one hemisphere is weaker; rather, it frequently denotes differences in usual brain development.

No matter how much we would like to believe that we are more left or right brained, personality qualities should not be inferred from the dominance of one side of the brain.