Left-handed people have an unorthodox way of looking at the world. Studies have shown this. So has my personal experience.

While most people, i.e. right-handers, are encouraged and sometimes struggle with "thinking outside of the box," it seems to come naturally to we left-handers. The trouble left-handers have with seeing the world differently is not realizing that most people do not see the world the same way we do.

While outside-of-the-box thinking might be viewed as a benefit of left-handedness, at times we must bear with infinite tolerance the confused expressions of righties when we vocalize our "outside-the-box" observations about life, liberty and the pursuit of happy left-handedness.

For example, lefties occasionally forget that the rest of the world cannot easily read backward and forward with equal aplomb, so we ask questions like: "Why do they bother reversing the word emblazoned on the front of EMS vehicles?" ("ECNALUBMA"). Of course, any righties within earshot just assume the inquirer is an idiot, not realizing the profundity of the question.

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The perks of left-handedness are not limited to the way we think.

A study for the National Institute of Sports and Physical Education in Paris found that left-handers have faster eye-hand coordination with their right hand than even right-handers do.

A driving-school-commissioned study suggests that "left-handers have a natural advantage" when they get behind the wheel. The findings show that 57 percent of left-handers pass their driving tests on their first attempts, 10 percent more than right-handers.

Recent research has also found that left-handed people often perform better than right-handers at fast or difficult tasks involving lots of information or stimuli. According to these studies, port-siders show superiority in playing fast computer games, talking while driving in heavy traffic and flying jet fighters, activities that require both hemispheres of the brain to speedily process information.

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Before I understood that I was different, to say nothing of how or why, I simply assumed everyone had the same perceptions and understanding of the world that I had. Over the years, more and more of these differences have emerged and I find them endlessly fascinating. Of course, it's not always obvious when I should attribute my unique perspective to my left-handedness or simply to poor judgment.

For this reason, I have gone through life second-guessing my own conclusions, particularly when it comes to detecting when others are lying.

There have been countless times when a nagging feeling somewhere deep in my cranium seemed to be telling me, "She's not being truthful," or "I don't believe what he is telling me."

On other occasions, a similar feeling will seem to tell me, "He's not as sure about what he's saying as he claims to be," or "she's holding back, she's not telling the whole story."

I have also found that I am particularly sensitive to false personas when it comes to sales people and politicians, even when it's subtle.

Whenever I express these suspicions to right-handers after the fact, there is often much disagreement about my observations.

"Didn't you get the feeling that he wasn't being straight with us?" I will ask. Or I'll say, "It seemed to me that she was hiding something. Did you get that feeling as well?"

I will get a response similar to, "Oh, not at all. She seemed very genuine and honest to me," or, more often than not: "Why are you so paranoid?"

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The effect these life-long observations have had upon me is three-fold: an ever-growing and overall cynicism about people, a skepticism regarding others' judgments on truthfulness and a constant evaluation and re-evaluation of my own perceptions as to whether they can be trusted.

That's quite a burden, right? Not to worry; we lefties are experts at multi-tasking, multi-attentional situations.

If you're left-handed, perhaps you can relate to what I'm talking about. If you're not, try to imagine what this does to one's personal relationships.

I can't begin to count how many times I thought somebody -- someone I care about or am related to -- was being less than truthful with me, but because of my fondness for or relation to them, I didn't say anything. Or I pretended to believe what they were saying, only to find out later that my hunch was correct.

It can be very unsettling to stop and take stock of how often people (myself included) lie, stretch the truth, omit the truth or put on a mask, even people I've met for the first time.

Lest this all be seen as purely anecdotal, consider a study by Canadian scholars that found that southpaws are "substantially better at detecting deception than were right-handers."

Imagine my relief, after a life heretofore riddled with wondering whether I'm gifted with insight or just paranoid, to find that there's a scientifically supported reason for the way I feel when my "Spidey senses" are tingling.

Despite the difficulties and confusion this "gift" has afforded me these past 40-plus years, I do think the benefits have outweighed the burden.

I've learned that everyone deceives (myself included), but most people are not malicious about it. This has taught me patience and compassion.

The skill also comes in handy when I have to deal with arrogant, zealous sales people or strangers whose raison d'etre is to manipulate and take advantage of others.

And it's a big time-saver when it comes to evaluating the truthfulness of political candidates.

Sadly, I'm too often left with not wanting to vote for anyone on the ballot. Or am I just being paranoid?

First Published: January 2, 2010, 5:00 a.m.