Talents and disorders: relationships among handedness, sex, and college major.

One-hundred and nine consistent left- and right-handers participated in an experiment investigating the role of Handedness, Sex, and College Major in predicting spatial talents, verbal problems, immune disorders, allergies, and myopia. Left-handers had poor verbal ability. Males in spatial majors (requiring extensive math) had high spatial ability and poor verbal ability. Left-handed males in spatial majors had high spatial ability, poor verbal ability, an elevated incidence of asthma, and a marginally higher incidence of myopia. No trade-off between spatial and verbal ability was found. Results provide qualified support for Geschwind and Galaburda's (1987) hypothesis of the "Pathology of Superiority."