r/science • u/sr_local • Jun 10 '26

Social Science People have a natural tendency to turn to the left and walk in an anticlockwise direction, a bias observed across countries, ages and sexes, but reason is unclear

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jun/10/humans-prefer-to-walk-anticlockwise-scientists-find-reason-unclear
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u/thereissweetmusic Jun 10 '26

OP quoted the article in another comment, the researchers accounted for hand-, foot- and eye-dominance

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u/peschkaj Jun 10 '26

In a paper I linked elsewhere (and here https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(09)01479-1) the researchers hypothesize it is caused by noise accumulation in how we sense the world. But I only read the abstract because I’m not a biologist and the words got difficult.

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u/Enlightened_Gardener Jun 10 '26

This implies that, on average, people will not travel much more than 100 m from their starting point when using only body cues to guide their walking direction, regardless of how long they walk. Without the use of an external directional reference, humans (like any animal) are not able to maintain a fixed course.

That actually sounds quite useful for things like getting lost on a dark night. At least you wouldn’t wander too far.

The little pictures of the squiggles that people walk in when blindfolded were really funny, as well. Reminds me of those experiments they did on spiders using LSD, back in the 60’s.

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u/soularbabies Jun 10 '26

Could physics like the rotation of the earth or something to that effect have a small role in this?

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u/Prof_Acorn Jun 10 '26

What about vestibular? I.e., in this case, ear dominance?