Left-brained vs right-brained personalities
While certain cognitive functions are somewhat lateralized to one brain hemisphere, no evidence supports the idea that individuals are predominantly 'left-brained' (analytical) or 'right-brained' (creative) as a stable personality trait. A 2013 University of Utah study of over 1,000 brain scans found no such patterns.
What we know
The notion of left-brained versus right-brained personality types grew from genuine research by neuropsychologist Roger Sperry on patients who had undergone corpus callosotomy (severing the connection between hemispheres) to treat epilepsy. Sperry's work demonstrated that specific cognitive functions tend to be lateralized: language processing largely occurs in the left hemisphere, and spatial attention is more right-lateralized. This was real and important science.
However, the popular interpretation that individual people have a dominant hemisphere that determines personality type (analytical vs. creative, logical vs. artistic) is not supported by evidence. A landmark 2013 study from the University of Utah analyzed resting-state fMRI scans of 1,011 individuals aged 7 to 29 and found no evidence that people preferentially use one brain hemisphere more than the other. The study found no 'lateralized' whole-brain networks distinguishing individuals.
Harvard Health has noted that even complex tasks generally recruit both hemispheres, and that mathematically gifted individuals show better inter-hemispheric cooperation rather than exclusive left-brain dominance. The concept of left/right brain personality is more a figure of speech than an anatomically accurate description, according to the study's authors.
The myth has real-world effects: school curricula and workplace training programs have been designed around 'accommodating' left- or right-brained learners, despite no evidence that such categories reliably predict how individuals learn or perform.
Common claims
- Creative people are right-brained and analytical people are left-brainedNo neuroimaging evidence supports this
- You can determine your brain dominance through personality testsTests reflect preferences, not brain anatomy
- Artistic people use their right brain more than scientistsBoth groups use both hemispheres
- Roger Sperry's research proved brain hemisphere personality typesHis research was misinterpreted in popular culture