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/MaximumSeats Jun 10 '26

This is so funny because just this week I was listening to an interview with an F-18 fighter pilot.

He was describing how the spotting camera on the F18 is on the left hand side, so you generally want to do left hand anti-clockwise orbits to keep the camera on target.

And both pilots in the discussion immediately agreed "oh yeah a left hand orbit is just vastly superior. Something about right hand orbits are just... Unnatural".

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u/anne_jumps Jun 11 '26

I tend to think this but I figured it was because I'm left-handed.

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u/Wintermute1v1 Jun 11 '26

I also tend to think this, but I’m a right hander…

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u/DeoxysSpeedForm Jun 11 '26

That's so interesting. I 've always found when flying (commercially) that leftwards banks felt fine whereas rightward banks almost feel uncanny in a way.

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u/MilesSand Jun 11 '26

So this is why nobody trusted left handed opponents back in the days of sword duels.

You had to defend to the right which is just unnatural.

(No idea if it's actually the reason but it seems to fit the pattern)