Menschen neigen von Natur aus dazu, sich nach links zu drehen und gegen den Uhrzeigersinn zu gehen, eine Tendenz, die in allen Ländern, Altersgruppen und Geschlechtern zu beobachten ist, deren Ursache jedoch unklar ist
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jun/10/humans-prefer-to-walk-anticlockwise-scientists-find-reason-unclear
38 Kommentare
>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.
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>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.
>The scientists are not sure where the bias comes from, but have performed further experiments in virtual reality, and others in which people pretended one leg was broken, in the hope of making headway. Wags on the team joked that the opposite trend might be seen in Australia and that the Coriolis effect, in which Earth’s rotation deflects the direction of the wind, was at work.
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>“We don’t know why it happens, but we think that by understanding the reasons, we could better understand how we perceive the world,” Feliciani said. “It can help us make other discoveries which may be more important than this one.”
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>Humans are not the only species to show such preference. Researchers in Bristol have shown that rock ants have a left-turn bias when exploring unknown nests.
> Understanding the bias could make crowd and evacuation simulations more realistic, and help to design the spaces we move through every day, from museums to supermarkets to train stations, Echeverría Huarte said.
[Individual locomotor bias drives counterclockwise motion in pedestrian crowds | Nature Communications](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-73713-w)
I remember this fact from my childhood, it’s one of those weirdly vivid memories you get of something random. A survival show, making the point to never leave your car if you’d broken down in a desert because – without landmarks to orient – you’d naturally walk in a circle and it doesn’t do anything but exhaust you.
Back then the explanation always seemed to be dominant-foot related, mainly that many slightly-longer steps on one side will eventually add up. Fascinating that the study controlled for this and still found the effect present though, makes you wonder what the driver really is.
Would it be clockwise down under?
Maybe the people that don’t have this bias all died stuck in a labyrinth
… my run this morning went counterclockwise. I figured that was due to the structure of my neighborhood but…
Could it be related to having the dominant hand/side unobstructed? If you’re turning left, presumably you’re turning left around/past obstacles as well.
It is just the undeniable truth that NASCAR is in all of us!
@nascar Go fast turn left!
I wonder if it’s brain hemisphere related.
One explanation is that it was advantageous for humans or ancestral species to have a bias that resulted in returning to point of origin. Maybe those without a bias or a right turn bias ended up too far from the community or they were harder to find due to everyone else having a left turn bias. Some sort of bias was advantageous and really it can only be left or right so whatever evolution selected for became self reinforcing. Could easily be any number of other explanations though. Interesting topic.
Is it also why all the races in track and field or speed skating etc. are also counter-clockwise?
The comments on this post demonstrate that people have a natural tendency to stop at a headline and leap to their own hypothesis without bothering to read the article, but the reason is unclear.
Is that the reason why supermarket entrances are mostly on the right side of the sales floor? So the customer is relaxed and doesn‘t have to move against their intuition?
Is it also true in the southern hemisphere?
Seems a sensible evolutionary trait.
Neolithic kids who wandered out of camp at night but kept walking in a circle were found again in the morning.
The ones who just kept walking in a more or less straight line died before they could be rescued.
Homo Sapiens evolved throughout Africa, almost entirely South of the equator. The sun would then move from Northeast to Northwest, causing flora and fauna to slowly move counter clockwise (see sunflowers, etc). Over millennia, this behavior becomes genetic.
When I’m playing a video game and enter a new area or room I always go left. Don’t mean to, it just happens.
Derek Zoolander would be crushed to learn this…
Except for Derek Zoolander
Reasons include Nascar
Thats how the vast majority of grocery stores I’ve been to have been laid out.
I actually throw axes and when returning to the throwing spot after retrieving the axe, I realized I ALWAYS turn to the right and soon clockwise. So, the weirdo I am, decided I would deliberately think about it and change the direction now and again to mix it up.
I’m left handed, not sure if that has anything to do with my tendency to turn right.
That seems to (not) explain why i much prefer to fly left curves for landing my helicopter in games compared to flying right curves to do the same. And i thought i was weird (i probably am anyways).
for protection from predators or enemy tribes. most people are right-eyed as well as right-handed. circling left leaves your right side closer to potential danger outside the circle. that’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.
Just another thing I have in common with Zoolander.
Possibly because that is the quickest action you can take to shield your heart and it is an engrained survival instinct?
As a left handed person… yes
> Wags on the team joked that the opposite trend might be seen in Australia and that the Coriolis effect, in which Earth’s rotation deflects the direction of the wind, was at work.
That’s where my mind went when I read the headline.
Did they check the difference between a right handed or left handed person?
Doesn’t different halves of the brain control different things, is this left thing not related to that?
In video games, I always explore a room or area anti-clockwise. I’m 43 and noticed it some time ago. But, this is a definite pattern.
Have they tested this on left vs right handed (legged) people? A stronger or dominant right side will likely bias your walk to the left.
The headline is wrong, surely you cant turn left to move anti clockwise
Old news, we even knew in the early 90’s when going to a theme park first hit the longest line rides, then go clockwise to beat the crowds.
Left for loot. Right is for the main quest.
In the first sentence the author refers to the 00’s as the noughties and as a 35 year old man I feel like I need a safe adult after reading that
Every ice and roller skating rink I’ve ever been to has people going in circles counterclockwise.
Even in Australia?
(Some may get this)
How does what side of the road you drive on play into this? My US husband and l, Australian born, argue all the time about what way to go around a supermarket.