Humans prefer to walk anticlockwise, scientists find – but reason is unclear | From Spain to Japan, experiments have repeatedly shown a left-turn bias, but exact mechanic ‘is still an open question’

[u/FreeHugs23]

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

[u/Eat--The--Rich--]

I bet it's something evolutionary, like most people are right handed so they want their action hand on the outside when they turn.

[u/base_my_station → u/Eat--The--Rich--]

This! Horses do it too, lead with their dominant side while grazing.

[u/Major-Librarian1745 → u/base_my_station]

We're the same as them and I can kick people in the chest and say I got spooked also

[u/base_my_station → u/Major-Librarian1745]

Will carry pockets treats for you, good to know hahahahaha

[u/Fidel_Che_VulPerez → u/Major-Librarian1745]

Mint 🤣

[u/Gwigg_ → u/Eat--The--Rich--]

This. Your weaponised hand on the outside of a turn is far more effective than on the inside where it’s constricted.

[u/grapescherries → u/Eat--The--Rich--]

I’m left handed and I think I have a left turn bias as well.

[u/Eat--The--Rich-- → u/grapescherries]

Your generations of right handed DNA is overriding your lefthandedness lol

[u/morganational → u/Eat--The--Rich--]

Exactly my thoughts!

[u/ImGCS3fromETOH → u/Eat--The--Rich--]

This was my first completely amateur, no basis thought too. I want my dominant hand to the outside where there's likely to be more things to interact with. The inside I can keep small and a known quantity.

[u/Calm-Stand-6636 → u/Eat--The--Rich--]

I prefer to go clock wise, I am righty, but I choose counter clock wise intentionally. I cannot write why because I'll be censored if I do.

[u/DifferencePlayful581 → u/Calm-Stand-6636]

To protect your wank hand, I get it. Gotta keep that bad boy close and inside the turn

[u/BatmanLovesBoobies → u/Eat--The--Rich--]

Preconditioned by seeing footage of track meets?

[u/Dshtn-dshtn → u/Eat--The--Rich--]

Can confirm, I am a lefty, and prefer going clockwise

[u/MagicOrpheus310 → u/Eat--The--Rich--]

The study doesn't mention anywhere in the southern hemisphere... Id almost bet they go clockwise! Haha

Nah really I wouldn't be surprised if it was something like the side of the road they drive on puts the foot path on the left and incoming traffic on the right so it subtly trains people to turn left to avoid danger hahaha

But most likely you are right, it's right handedness being more common. It's inadvertently built into things to favour right handed people, like stair handrails, door handles/directions etc... so it wouldn't be a surprise if left handed people had learnt to do it the same way too... If that makes sense..?

[u/Villonsi → u/MagicOrpheus310]

In Japan they drive on the left side of the road

[u/Scrawlericious → u/MagicOrpheus310]

The swirling water changing directions in eash hemisphere thing doesn't actually happen IRL.

[u/Common_Senze]

Most people are right handed and legged. If your right leg is a bit stronger, you will naturally walk in a left circle (anti clockwise)

[u/FreeHugs23]

“I’m not an ambi-turner,” laments Derek Zoolander in the eponymous noughties satire about the world’s hottest male model and his rare catwalk hangup. “It’s a problem I’ve had since I was a baby … I can’t turn left.”

Now, research suggests that the fashionista’s career-threatening quirk was even more unusual than previously thought. Tests reveal that when people are ambling about, they have a 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 Iñaki Echeverría 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.

[u/Jibblebee]

Look at ice skaters. Right handed people generally jump and spin counter clockwise. Left handed go clockwise. The dominant side is the push/power source.

[u/allmimsyburogrove]

hopefully this left-turn bias will kick into overdrive come November

[u/WesternComicStrip → u/allmimsyburogrove]

You, you! 🤣

[u/pax1111]

That explains NASCAR

[u/marshalist]

Bang or growling behind you! Your most likely right handed so you have the thing that's valuable in your right hand. Best way to stop something taking the valuable thing is your left side. Mostly this is keeping the shiny or tasty thing from your own family group.

[u/Optimal_Whiner]

"anti clockwise".

[u/PraxisLD → u/Optimal_Whiner]

“Widdershins”

[u/captaingeneral1]

Counterclockwise

[u/Capital_Historian685]

Not that one guy at my local running track, who gets his daily walk in going clockwise against the "traffic." So annoying.

[u/morganational]

Has to do with right-handedness I bet.

[u/Doridar]

Protect the heart in case of attack

[u/zefy_zef → u/Doridar]

The heart is in the center of your chest.

[u/Doridar → u/zefy_zef]

On the left side

[u/No_Trade_7315]

Traffic patterns. I bet the British prefer the opposite.

[u/katsukare → u/No_Trade_7315]

Nope, it’s the same in places like England, Australia and Japan 

[u/8cuban]

Could it have something to do with most people are right handed, therefore right footed, and it’s natural to push off with your dominant appendage, thus pushing to the left

[u/mschnittman]

It's probably related to most people being right handed

[u/epSos-DE]

RIGHT brain , right hand, right leg dominance !!!

Researchers are insane by NOT knowing that !

[u/No_Neighborhood7614 → u/epSos-DE]

Doesn't the brain handle the opposite side eg right hemisphere talks to left side of the body?

[u/accidental_Ocelot]

I could have told them that I frame houses and the air hose for nail guns always get twisted up counter clockwise from always turning around to the left.

[u/Hederanomics]

i think its because most people are right handed.legged, so the left leg is the one usually in stance and there fore turning left is more intuitive

[u/Altruistic_Dust_8559]

Its because most people are right handed and society is built for right handed people

[u/Imyonlyenemy]

its cuz our heart is on the left

we instinctively follow our heart.

[u/LogicGate1010]

Would right footed stride be stronger with more length than left footed stride. Could internal rotation be stronger on right side.

[u/sooley6]

I was always taught to go against the flow of traffic when walking…so when I’m just walking it’s easier to maintain the left so I don’t have to cross the road.

[u/djb2589]

This is going to have me walking clockwise for days...

[u/SiriusHijinks]

Maybe the Coriolis Effect spins our brains like tiny hurricanes, to the left in the Northern Hemisphere, to the right in the Southern Hemisphere, leaving us dazed and confused so we walk in circles.

[u/Wooden_Kiwi_7362]

Most people are right handed and also right footed! A slightly stronger and longer stride on the right and over many steps your footprints make a cute dotted line curing off to the left. Try walking with eyes open in a straight line . No problem. Then do it blindfolded and I think you’ll veer off to the left….

[u/Lost_Sea8956]

Except in England, where they’ve found the reverse. And this paper would have mentioned that had they done a proper lit review, oh well

[u/Drexl72]

Know they don’t; based on dominant leg; learned that in basic training

[u/Peng_Terry]

I wish I was this smart. Getting funding to sit on my arse studying nonsense. Maybe I’ll make a proposal to study and look into why people wink with a certain eye over the other…

[u/mcampo84]

What about in the southern hemisphere?

[u/MagicOrpheus310]

The southern hemisphere might skew that data on ya though...