Left-handed people more fearful, study says

London: Left-handed people are more affected by fear than their right-handed counterparts, a study says.

Psychologists found that people who watched an eight minute clip from a scary movie suffered more symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress if they were left-handed.

When asked to recall events from the film clip, taken from near the tense climax of thriller 'Silence of the Lambs', left-handed volunteers gave more fragmented accounts filled with more repetition, the Telegraph reports.

This effect is common in people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The scientists now believe their results could provide new insights into how people develop post traumatic stress and the way the brain deals with fear.

Carolyn Choudhary, who led the research at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, said: "The prevalence of post traumatic stress disorder is almost double in left-handers compared to right-handers.

"We used a portion of film from 'Silence of the Lambs' that we know elicits fear, so we could check the recalled account against the film. People who were left-handed showed significantly more fragmentation in their memories and more repetition.

"It seems that after experiencing a fearful event, even on film, people who are left-handed had subtle behaviours that were like people suffering from post traumatic stress disorder."

"Silence of the Lambs", starring Anthony Hopkins as serial killer Hannibal Lector and Jodie Foster as a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent Clarice Starling, is widely regarded as one of the most tense thrillers ever made.