The Relationship between Hemispheric Asymmetry and Personality

A special issue of Behavioral Sciences (ISSN 2076-328X). This special issue belongs to the section "Cognition".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2025 | Viewed by 74

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of Arkansas at Monticello, Monticello, AR 71656, USA
Interests: handedness; personality psychology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The intersection of personality theory and neuropsychology represents one of the frontiers of contemporary psychology. It deals with questions of nature versus nurture and the relationship between the brain and behavior. One method of exploring this frontier has been exploring the relationship between hemispheric asymmetries and personality.

One approach is to study behavioral correlates of brain lateralization, such as handedness. Researchers have found reliable links between the consistency of one’s hand preference and a variety of cognitive and personality variables (for brief literature reviews, see Prichard, Clarkson, Christman, 2024, and Prichard, Propper, Christman, 2013). Other approaches, such as lesion studies, investigate how personality changes when one hemisphere or the other is damaged (e.g., Morris, 2009). EEG studies have found correlations between increased functional hemispheric asymmetry in the prefrontal cortex and depressive symptoms as measured by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (Biondi et al., 1993). Recent theoretical works, such as McGilchrist’s The Master and His Emissary (2019), investigate the sometimes very different ways in which the two hemispheres view the world and how the interplay between the “personalities” of the hemispheres is reflected in human behavior and culture.

We invite authors with an interest in personality, hemispheric asymmetry, and cognition to help us further explore this scientific frontier, as we seek to understand the interplay between personality and the brain. We are looking for results that replicate and extend previous research and results that offer new insights. We are open to exploratory and correlational research (as long as it is labeled as such) and hypothesis-driven and experimental research. We are open to contrary views that challenge our methods and hypothesis and theoretical and methodological papers that promise to enhance our field. We are willing to consider studies that incorporate diverse methods, such as using human handedness as a proxy for asymmetry, lesion studies, and imaging studies, as well as theoretical papers that integrate research across the field.

For anyone new to this topic and interested, we recommend starting with the readings below as you formulate your topic and proposal. We look forward to making 2024-2025 a year in which exciting new data offer new insights into the relationship between handedness and personality theory.

Suggested Readings:

Biondi, M., Parise, P., Venturi, P., Riccio, L., Brunetti, G., & Pancheri, P. (1993). Frontal hemisphere lateralization and depressive personality traits. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 77(3), 1035-1042.

Christman, S. (2022). The right hemisphere and ambiguity. Rorschachiana. https://doi.org/10.1027/1192-5604/a000152

Lyle, K. B., & Grillo, M. C. (2014). Consistent-handed individuals are more authoritarian. Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition, 19(2), 146-163.

McGilchrist, I. (2019). The master and his emissary: The divided brain and the making of the Western world: New expanded edition (2nd ed.). Yale University Press.

Morris, J. (2009). Effects of right hemisphere strokes on personality functioning. Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation16(6), 425-430.

Prichard, E. C., Clarkson, E. M., & Christman, S. D. (2024). Differences Between Consistent and Inconsistent Handedness Remain Consistently Interesting: Ten Years of Research on the Consistency of Handedness with the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory. Perceptual and Motor Skills131(1), 5-16.

Prichard, E., Propper, R. E., & Christman, S. D. (2013). Degree of handedness, but not direction, is a systematic predictor of cognitive performance. Frontiers in Psychology4, 9.

Pullman, L. E., Refaie, N., Lalumière, M. L., & Krupp, D. B. (2021). Is psychopathy a mental disorder or an adaptation? Evidence from a meta-analysis of the association between psychopathy and handedness. Evolutionary Psychology19(4), 14747049211040447.

Dr. Eric Prichard
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • handedness
  • personality
  • hemispheric activation
  • dark triad
  • corpus collosum
  • psychology of belief

Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission.
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