Left-handed people are more likely to like cats. Discuss

Is the percentage of cat lovers (ailurophiles) who are left handed higher than the percentage of left-handed people in the general population? In other words, are left-handed people predisposed to liking cats? This is something that Caroline, a regular visitor and left-handed military veteran, suggested. Caroline: are you a US military veteran? 😉 I think you are but I’d like you to put me straight if I am wrong.

Please note: In order to keep on the right side of VG – another regular visitor, scientist and friend – (do you get the pun?), I have to say that this article is a discussion topic, not hard science and is really a bit of fun for me. However, even hard science struggles with left-handedness and how it develops.

Both VG and Caroline are left-handed as far as I am aware. I think Marc, another regular, is too. Am I correct?

The suggestion is this: Highly sensitive people (called HSPs) are more likely to be left-handed and high sensitivity leads a person to being more alert to and aware of the needs of the vulnerable. Animals are vulnerable in a human world that is run on capitalism.

It is thought that left-handedness develops in the womb if the mother is stressed.

Dr. Norman Geschwind is said to have identified a link between maternal testosterone, left-handedness, and genetic diseases. You can read about this on this page – link has broken so removed, sorry.

A stressed mother produces more testosterone (women do produce testosterone but I guess men produce more!). The presence of testosterone in the mother’s blood causes the fetus to develop differently.

Not only is the fetus more likely to be left-handed, (s)he is also more likely to be sensitive or highly sensitive.

The big question is, “what does being sensitive mean?” It seems to be pretty subjective and open to all kinds of interpretations.

However, I feel (subjectively speaking!), as stated above, that a person who is more sensitive is more likely to be alert and empathetic to creatures, human or animal, that are in distress or, as an extension of that, more vulnerable. Cats are perpetually in a vulnerable position, living as they are in a human world, a land of giants.

OK, in a nutshell that is riddled with holes and defects, that is the argument. If you have a spare moment, please discuss it……