If you're left-handed, you're prone to schizophrenia.

[Toasty]

one, i am left handed...and while haveing a fair number of different facets to my personality im not schitsophrenic(no i cant spell sorry).
two, it seems from what the OP said about how this Watson guy decided lefty's are more likely to be schitz.......only 30% of schitzos are left-handed......i would say that the 'genetic' definition of being left-handed doesnt correlate enough with actually using your left hand most.

(ok, now iv just confused myself)

 

[malestrithe]

James Watson, the man who discovered the structure of DNA, hypothesized this and said that this was the best guess. In one of their experiments it showed that 30% of all schizophrenic people were left-handed but genetically 60% of people are left-handed but only half of them show.

What are your thoughts on this?

I'm left-handed

I really would not put too much weight into this argument. Pubmed has 115 articles discussing the possible link between handedness and schizophrenic behavior, but here are a few problems with them:

1. Handedness is not clearly or consistently defined. What one researcher defined as handedness is different than the next one.
2. The left handed people that tested as schizo are actually ambidextrousness.

And, personal gripe. Seriously being left handed causes schizophrenia? This is along the same lines of being left handed means you are possessed by the devil, witch, unclean, or any of the other things people used to say about left handers. Now because burning at the stake is out of fashion, they decided to dress up their ancient fear and paranoia in a labcoat and claim that it is genetic.

 

[Plurralbles]

Joan D'arc woudl make sense to be left handed. Maybe THATS' the real reason they burned her.

 

[Red Albatross]

I'm almost completely ambidextrous. I wonder what statistics say about my possibly personality disorders. Besides the fact that I'm weird.

 

[Cabisco]

Oooh, what a clever study!

Let's see how many white people have schizophrenia! Or how many of them are Arabic!

Let's count their hair, see what film genre they like the most and ask if they prefer cake over pie!

Then we can see if Pie-lovers have a bigger chance of being schizo than cake-lovers!!!!

[sub]In case you couldn't tell, I think this is fucking bullshit[/sub]

I completely agree, although i did admittedly ponder whether a pie lover or cake lover would be more of a schizo, thats something i would actually want to know.

For the most part, we should just not give a shit about any of these studies, once they start coming up with ways to cure diseases etc, then i might start giving them more credibilty. Rather than 'Left handed people have a 2% more chance of being a man than a women!'.

 

[Mr. GameBrain]

I'm a left handed eccentric!

But that has much to do with my upbringing as it has to do with my genetic composition!
(Both factors define who we are.)

 

[FoolKiller]

I am ambidextrous... ahh... what will this all mean to me???

 

[Vault boy Eddie]

Im left handed, and we're not schizos! *looks at the 3 foot tall cyclops midget on his bed*

 

[ImprovizoR]

I'm left handed but I don't think I am or that I will be schizophrenic.

 

[Xorghul]

I think that I don't believe it.
As far as I know, I am right handed, yet I still need to find out how to get rid of another personality...
Or maybe I am secretly left handed, but I pretend to be right handed... and kill people with my left hand... wait, what?

Considering your avatar, that is most likely the case.

 

[Archeangel2009]

Internets: We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious. They stole it from us. Sneaky little Escapist. Wicked, tricksy, false!
Matt: No. Not The Escapist!
Internets: Yes, precious, false! They will cheat you, hurt you, LIE.
Matt: The Escapist is our friend!
Internets: You don't have any friends; nobody likes you!
Matt: I'm not listening... I'm not listening...
Internets: You're a liar and a thief.
Matt: No!
Internets: *Murderer*.
Matt: Go away!
Internets: "Go away?"
[Internets laughs as Matt begins crying]
Matt: I hate you, I hate you.
Internets: Where would you be without me, gollum, gollum? I saved us! It was me! We survived because of me!
Matt: [stops crying] Not anymore.
Internets: What did you say?
Matt: The Escapist looks after us now. We don't need you anymore.
Internets: What?
Matt: Leave now, and never come back!
Internets: No!
Matt: Leave now, and never come back!
[Internets screams in frustration]
Matt: LEAVE! NOW! AND NEVER COME BACK!
[Internets is silent]
Matt: [looks around] We told him to go away... and away he goes, Precious! Gone, gone, gone! Matt is free!

 

[Lancer723]

Correlation does not equal causation.
Most important thing you learn in Statistics.
Coincidentally, also the only thing I learned.

 

[FoolKiller]

Correlation does not equal causation.
Most important thing you learn in Statistics.
Coincidentally, also the only thing I learned.

Excellent point. Did they give you the example of the bus stop as well?

For those who don't know:
When there are fewer people waiting at a bus stop, the bus tends to take longer to arrive. If there are many people waiting, then the bus comes sooner. This is a correlation. It does not mean that if a bus just picked up all the waiting people and you get 20 new people to go there that the time it takes for the next bus is reduced.

 

[DjDairy]

"it showed that 30% of all schizophrenic people were left-handed but genetically 60% of people are left-handed"

Aside from the obvious correlation does not equal causation response... I'm confused by the data, if 60% of all people are left handed but only 30% of schizophrenic people are does that not mean that more right-handed people are schizophrenic?

 

[Riobux]

Using that logic:

There's been a general increase in the sale of bananas as time has gone on, as well as a general increase in divorces as time has gone on.

There-fore, bananas cause divorce. Save a family, burn a banana tree.

 

[Captain Blackout]

The OP didn't claim causation, he claimed correlation. There's a lot of trolls in here reading what they want, not what's written.

And it's: If you're schizophrenic, your prone to have two hands, right????

 

[Riobux]

The OP didn't claim causation, he claimed correlation. There's a lot of trolls in here reading what they want, not what's written.

And it's: If you're schizophrenic, your prone to have two hands, right????

I'm sorry for jumping to conclusion, but the data the original poster posted has no source nor does it make much sense.

 

[Akai Shizuku]

My best friend is both. Hm, this is rather thought-provoking...

 

[Captain Blackout]

The OP didn't claim causation, he claimed correlation. There's a lot of trolls in here reading what they want, not what's written.

And it's: If you're schizophrenic, your prone to have two hands, right????

I'm sorry for jumping to conclusion, but the data the original poster posted has no source nor does it make much sense.

I sorta had a source. You could look up James Watson and see if he made any such comments. Yeah, that one sentence in the OP was reeeeally poorly written. What I'm talking about are the folks who are bitching that this doesn't show cause etc. etc. The original post isn't about cause. Left Handed is a trait, which means it denotes a genetic marker. It's a piece of info, and the OP is saying if you have this you might also have this, dunno why.

 

[Riobux]

The OP didn't claim causation, he claimed correlation. There's a lot of trolls in here reading what they want, not what's written.

And it's: If you're schizophrenic, your prone to have two hands, right????

I'm sorry for jumping to conclusion, but the data the original poster posted has no source nor does it make much sense.

It sorta had a source. You could look up James Watson and see if he made any such comments. Yeah, that one sentence was reeeeally poorly written. What I'm talking about are the folks who are bitching that this doesn't show cause etc. etc. The original post isn't about cause. Left Handed is a trait, which means it denotes a genetic marker. It's a piece of info, and the OP is saying if you have this you might also have this, dunno why.

Eh, I guess I would of preferred a link in the original post for the source of his information. It's also a bit weird telling people that because they are left handed that they may have schizophrenia considering that if you had schizophrenia, you likely would know about it after it goes back into recession and you've likely been diagnosed with it by now. It's not like autism where diagnosis is whishy-washy.

It's also a bit dangerous, personally, to release information like this to the general public. It only leads to hysteria and the placebo effect.