For their study, the scientists observed the walking paths of a total of 573 people in various situations.Image: www.imago-images.de
Scientists from Spain, China and Japan have analyzed people’s walking behavior. They discovered a pattern that runs through all age groups and cultures.
July 26, 2026, 9:39 p.mJuly 26, 2026, 9:39 p.m
Jennifer Buchholz / t-online
Do you think you can walk strictly straight? That’s not entirely true, as a recent study by scientists from the universities of Madrid (Spain), Shanghai (China) and Waseda and Tokyo (Japan) shows. Accordingly, most people have a slight urge in a certain direction.
Walkways in open spaces analyzed
For their study, the scientists observed the walking paths of a total of 573 people in various situations. The participants walked across open spaces, wide areas or other areas. Drones that hovered over the protagonists recorded their routes.
The result: regardless of social background, age and ethnicity, people tended slightly to the left. The size of the crowd or whether the participants were left- or right-handed did not play a role. “Our results are very consistent,” the researchers wrote in the journal Nature Communications. Even when people walked alone, they drifted to the left.
The tendency was particularly pronounced among young children. Their walking direction tended most toward counterclockwise. The scientists conclude from this that the behavior is not learned over years, but rather manifests itself early in life.
“Temnothorax ants show a pronounced tendency to turn left when exploring. Budgies also prefer a certain side when choosing between equivalent passages on their flight route,” the researchers wrote.
New perspective on crowds
The findings were not just for curiosity. They are intended to help make public spaces such as airports and museums or large squares safer, more comfortable and more efficient. “By showing that individual preferences – rather than collective effects – drive the observed counterclockwise movement of pedestrians, our study deepens the understanding of the dynamics of pedestrian traffic and opens a new perspective for the study of crowd behavior,” they wrote.
Scientists have not yet been able to find out where the tendency to the left when walking comes from or what is behind it.
Supermarkets take advantage of Left Urge
By the way, supermarkets and other shops are also taking advantage of this left-wing drive. They design the interior of their store so that customers walk counterclockwise, i.e. left. However, they direct their attention outwards, i.e. to the shelves on the wall and not towards the shortcuts through the rows of shelves on their left side.
Sources used: