Humans Prefer To Walk Anticlockwise, Scientists Find (theguardian.com)
- Reference: 0183741714
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/06/10/2040212/humans-prefer-to-walk-anticlockwise-scientists-find
- Source link: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jun/10/humans-prefer-to-walk-anticlockwise-scientists-find-reason-unclear
> Tests reveal that when people are ambling about, they have a [2]natural tendency to turn to the left and walk in an anticlockwise direction . "If you simply ask someone to start walking, whether they are wandering around a museum, a supermarket, or even an empty room, it is surprisingly likely that they will drift counterclockwise," said Dr Inaki Echeverria Huarte at University of Navarra in Spain.
>
> As with many critical discoveries in science, the revelation owes a debt to serendipity. During the pandemic, the researchers ran experiments to see how many people could share a space while keeping a safe distance. On reviewing the video, they noticed that crowds overwhelmingly walked in an anticlockwise direction. The surprise set in motion an entire research project. The scientists conducted a series of experiments in which individual pedestrians or small crowds roamed around enclosed spaces. Time and again, the researchers observed the tendency to walk in an anticlockwise direction.
>
> Suspecting that cultural norms might play a role, the team joined forces with Dr Claudio Feliciani at the University of Tokyo. He found the same results in Japan. The finding held when the researchers accounted for people being right-handed, right-footed and right-eye dominant, and was seen in both male and female walkers. The only difference they spotted was a more pronounced bias in children. "Each of us carries a small personal bias to turn slightly to one side, and when many people share a space, those tiny biases add up into a net counterclockwise rotation," said Echeverria Huarte.
Researchers think the tendency may be tied to biomechanics: people are not perfectly symmetrical, and the way the brain processes sensory information and coordinates muscles may gently tip walkers toward one side. Right-side dominance may also play a role, especially in running, where anticlockwise movement puts more internal force on the right side of the body and may feel more natural to right-leg-dominant athletes.
"We have tested several ideas and the bias stubbornly keeps showing up, so the exact mechanism is still an open question," said Echeverria Huarte.
The findings have been [3]published in Nature Communications .
[1] https://slashdot.org/~fjo3
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jun/10/humans-prefer-to-walk-anticlockwise-scientists-find-reason-unclear
[3] https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-73713-w
pretty interesting (Score:3)
I was often assuming that people generally prefer to go to the right, so I usually turn left first if I have the choice (e.g. exploring something in a game). Guess I was wrong. otoh, I noticed that on pop-concerts if the entrance is equally far apart from the left or right to the stage, people actually seem to prefer the left.
Re: (Score:3)
No, you may actually be correct. If there was a bias for people to be like you they would predominantly assume that people generally prefer to go to the right so they usually turn to the left. Which is the observed phenomena.
So the question is what do people do on their own. Do they explore an empty room clockwise or anticlockwise?
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know about empty rooms, but it's very normal in Britain, if you're walking through a field, to turn left and walk clockwise around the edge of the field. But the problem there is potential for bias because of the area.
Re: (Score:2)
It's well documented that on entering a theme park most people turn right, but that is consistent with this research: turning right on entering a room means that you walk anticlockwise around it.
Re: (Score:2)
Hmm thinking about it I would have thought turning left ( al least for right handed people) would be better as having your dominant hand towards the room ready to respond to whatever happens rather yhan having it rowards the wall. No I'm not paranoid I think...
That explains why the enlightened (Score:2)
Drive on the left hand side of the road and the dullard drive on the right
Re: (Score:2)
Drive on the left hand side of the road, but go round roundabouts clockwise. so it's 50-50.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, the enlightened don't refer to left as "left hand" because they can tell left from right without looking at their hands.
Maybe it's something to do with self-defense? (Score:3)
I think we instinctively turn our dominant side towards the side we think represents a greater security threat. If you're walking alongside a wall, for instance, you will usually feel safer with your left side facing the wall and your right side facing open space. If you're walking in a circle and you think there are more threats from outside the circle than from inside the circle, you'll want to walk counterclockwise so you dominant arm is sticking out of the circle. (Assuming here that the crowd is mostly right-handed).
I don't know if their data supports that idea, but it's a testable idea.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd totally vote on this being it.
On a related note - castles (Score:3)
Most (not all) spiral staircases in medieval castles spiral clockwise so attackers coming up the stairs can't use their sword arm - which is normally the right arm - to attack the defenders. Meanwhile defenders coming down the other can use their right arm swing. Of course this may have just made left handed swordsmen rather valuable when storming a castle, who knows.
Did they test for the southern hemisphere? (Score:2)
Maybe humans are like cyclones and hurricanes. Spinning differently based on the hemisphere they're in?
Only in the north hemisphere though (Score:3)
In Australia researchers found a clockwise preference.
Re: (Score:2)
And on the equator, they only walk in straight lines.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, on the equator there's no point in wandering around so they just sit down and eat a banana.
Re: (Score:2)
And, right on the equator, they just bob up and down.
It depends (Score:2)
I noticed that I prefer to walk / ambulate in clockwise circles in really small, confined spaces. In larger open spaces, I prefer indeed to walk in an anti-clockwise manner.
as an athlete, I've wondered about track races (Score:1)
They also are run anticlockwise. It feels strange whenever I try running clockwise.
That might just be my habit, of course, having spent so much time running on tracks.
Left vs right hand (Score:2)
I recall that this was discovered a long time ago when sales and marketing people realised that people would tend to turn right after they enter a store. I also seem to recall that this didn't hold true for left-handed people.
It would be interesting to see data from countries that are left-hand traffic. Streams of people in left-hand traffic countries tend to walk on the left side, and tend to move to the left if someone is walking towards them - which tends to be fun when walking about a right-hand traffic
Left leg is marginally smaller in most people (Score:1)
The Left leg (and arm) is marginally smaller in most people, tiny bit and slightly weaker than right.
So they drift off to make a large anti clockwise circle when in unrecognizable terrain.
If they are truly panicking and not thinking they will turn the steering wheel to the right as that's the stronger arm.
That's why countries switched to RHD (right hand drive) instead of the original British way of LHD
Not that any of this matters at all.
Interesting. (Score:2)
When rambling through the British countryside, the standard protocol is to turn left immediately on entry but then walk clockwise around the field. So turning left seems to be fixed, but the direction of preference is determined by when.
Would same hold true when steering vehicles? (Score:2)
I've always found I felt more comfortably in control drifting a bike through a turn, or a car, when turning left. Same for turning on skis or skates. I could never explain why. I thought for a car it might be because the steering wheel is on the left where I drive and I somehow like being in the inside of the turn, but tried it once with RHD car, same left turn preference held. I can turn in either direction, but one just seems more comfortable.
Left or right handed? (Score:2)
I catch myself fitting this study absolutely perfectly, but I am wondering if this is also somehow affected by being dominant left or right handed? Or your dominant eye?
Australis (Score:2)
They should check Australia and Brazil.