10 Science Myths You Probably Still Believe

5. There Are Left Or Right Brained People

Regardless of what that quiz on Facebook said, you're not actually left- or right-brained. The myth is that logical and analytical people have a dominant left side of their brain, and creative people have a dominant right side.

The myth probably arises from the idea of lateralization in neuroscience - that is, that the regions for certain functions are found in one side of the brain. The speech centres, for example, are usually contained in the left side of the brain for right-handed people.

That previous point also highlights another problem with the theory of left and right brainedness, and that is that the lateralisation of your brain often relates to the "dominant" side of your body as opposed to your arbitrarily perceived character traits. In fact, studies of over 1,000 brain scans have shown that there is no evidence that some people use one side of their brain more than the other, and that our personalities and abilities arise from using the brain as a whole.

The myth mostly just seems to serve the purpose of giving "creative types" something to feel smug about.