Left-Handedness
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50 free Left-Handedness trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Left-handers have always been the minority, and the world shows it: tools, desks, sports rules and even everyday words were shaped by the right-handed majority. That makes left-handedness one of the richest small subjects in trivia, with science, language, history and sport all pulling in different directions. This quiz covers what researchers know about why people favour one hand, how lefties were treated in different cultures, the left-handers who became presidents, champions and rock stars, and the customs and quirks that put the left hand in the spotlight. It is written for lefties who want to test what they know about their own kind, for anyone marking International Left-Handers Day, and for quiz hosts after a round that right-handers can enjoy too. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which Old West outlaw was long thought left-handed because his famous ferrotype portrait showed him in reverse?
Billy the Kid
Billy the Kid wears his Colt on the left in the picture, but ferrotypes produce reversed images, and historians concluded in 1954 that he drew with his right.
Q 02Most Muppets are left-handed because the performer's right hand is busy operating which part?
The head
The head is worked by the performer's right hand in a typical Muppet, leaving the left to move the arm, a design quirk that turns most of the cast into lefties.
Q 03Which left-handed Renaissance artist filled his notebooks with mirror-image script running right to left?
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci wrote most of his private notes in mirror-image cursive, switching to standard script only when he meant other people to read them.
Q 04Which Australian marsupials were found to favour the left hand for everyday tasks such as feeding and grooming?
Kangaroos
Kangaroos surprised researchers, because marsupials lack the corpus callosum that links the two halves of the brain in placental mammals such as humans.
Q 05Which English word for evil or threatening comes from the Latin for 'left' or 'on the left side'?
Sinister
Sinister reached English in the 15th century through Old French, where the word could mean both 'unfavourable' and 'to the left'.
Q 06In many countries wedding rings go on the left hand because a vein there was once believed to run to which organ?
The heart
The heart was the supposed destination of the vena amoris, Latin for 'vein of love', said to start in the fourth finger of the left hand.
Q 07Which left-handed rock guitarist mainly played right-handed guitars that were turned upside down and restrung?
Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix was most prominently associated with the Fender Stratocaster, the model he played at Woodstock in 1969.
Q 08Which team sport's international rules forbid left-handed sticks, so every player uses a right-handed one?
Field hockey
Field hockey sticks have one flat playing face, always set on the natural side for a right-hander swinging at the ball from right to left.
Q 09In The Simpsons, which character leaves a pharmaceutical job to open the Leftorium, a shop for lefties?
Ned Flanders
Ned Flanders's store first appeared in the episode 'When Flanders Failed', inspired by a writer's friend whose real left-handed speciality shop had gone under.
Q 10Studies suggest roughly what share of people are left-handed, with men slightly more likely to be than women?
About 10%
About 10% of people are left-handed, and a review of 144 studies covering nearly 1.8 million people found men 23% more likely to be than women.
Q 11Because the brain's motor pathways cross over, which part of the brain controls movement of the left hand?
The right hemisphere
The right hemisphere controls the left hand, yet most left-handers still process language on the left side of the brain, just as right-handers do.
Q 12Which French word for 'left' entered English in the 1700s meaning socially awkward or tactless?
Gauche
Gauche began as a French word for awkward or awry and replaced the older 'senestre' as the everyday word for left in the 15th century.
Q 13Which Beatle struggled with guitar until a poster of left-handed Slim Whitman inspired him to reverse the strings?
Paul McCartney
Q 21Which British king, later treated for a stammer by Lionel Logue, was a natural lefty made to write right-handed?
George VI
George VI was forced to switch hands as a boy, which was common practice at the time, long before he unexpectedly took the throne in 1936.
Q 22In which country is the Cueva de las Manos, where hundreds of left-hand stencils suggest right-handed painters?
Argentina
Argentina's Patagonian cave holds 829 left hands to just 31 right, which suggests most painters held the bone spray pipe in the right hand.
Q 23Nearly all proteins in living things are built from the 'left-handed' form of which molecules?
Amino acids
Amino acids in proteins are left-handed in 19 of the 20 standard cases, the exception being symmetrical glycine, while the sugars of life are right-handed.
Paul McCartney mainly played a Höfner 500/1 bass in the band's early years, an instrument he was still using on stage in 2016.
Q 14Which golfer nicknamed 'Lefty' is naturally right-handed and learned his swing by mirroring his father?
Phil Mickelson
Phil Mickelson copied his right-handed father's swing as a mirror image, and at the 2021 PGA Championship he won a major at the age of 50 playing that way.
Q 15Which southpaw became the first boxer to win world titles in eight different weight divisions?
Manny Pacquiao
Manny Pacquiao, nicknamed 'PacMan', is also the only boxer to hold world championships in four different decades, from the 1990s to the 2020s.
Q 16Which footballer used his left hand to punch in the notorious 'Hand of God' goal against England in 1986?
Diego Maradona
Diego Maradona's goal stood because none of the match officials saw the handball, though a photograph later showed his raised left fist meeting the ball.
Q 17International Left-Handers Day, first observed in the 1970s, falls on the 13th of which month each year?
August
August 13 was first marked in 1976 by Dean R. Campbell, founder of a club for lefties, to highlight life in a world built for right-handers.
Q 18Which worldwide youth movement has its members greet one another with a left-handed handshake?
The Scouts
The Scouts trace the custom to a story about Ashanti warriors, who had to lower their shields to offer the left hand as a sign of trust.
Q 19Which English word for skill comes from a Latin word meaning 'on the right'?
Dexterity
Dexterity arrived in the 1520s from the Latin 'dexter', which meant both 'skilful' and 'right-hand', the mirror image of how words for left turned dark.
Q 20Which sport is widely credited with coining 'southpaw', supposedly from fields laid out to keep the sun off batters?
Baseball
Baseball diamonds are said to have been laid out with batters facing east, putting a left-handed pitcher's arm to the south, though boxing slang used 'south paw' for a left-hand blow by 1848.
Q 24Which keyboard layout lets typists spell thousands of English words with the left hand alone?
QWERTY
QWERTY puts the three most frequent English letters, E, T and A, under the left hand, which also makes more of the keystrokes overall.
Q 25A 2005 study found that which habit of babies in the womb was related to their handedness ten years later?
Thumb sucking
Thumb sucking with the right hand before birth was followed by right-handedness in all 60 children studied, while 10 of the 15 left suckers grew up as lefties.
Q 26Which infield position is the only one where MLB teams see left-handed throwers as having an advantage?
First base
First base suits lefties, who cover the gap toward second more easily and need no pivot before throwing the ball to another infielder.
Q 27Which left-handed judge in the Hebrew Bible hid a sword on his right thigh to kill King Eglon of Moab?
Ehud
Ehud strapped a double-edged shortsword about a cubit long where it was not expected, then told the king he carried a secret message.
Q 28Polo requires every player to hold the mallet in the right hand, a rule meant to prevent which danger?
Head-on collisions
Head-on collisions between galloping ponies are the worry, so even naturally left-handed riders have to learn to swing the mallet right-handed.
Q 29Which president, shot in 1881, is the only one known to have been left-handed before the 20th century?
James Garfield
James Garfield was ambidextrous rather than a pure lefty, and he held office for only a few months of 1881 before dying of his wounds that September.
Q 30Which 20th-century Republican president was a natural left-hander who nonetheless wrote with his right hand?
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan is counted among the White House's lefties for that reason, alongside Harry Truman, who also wrote with his right hand but used his left for most other things.