People have a biological bias to walk in counter-clockwise circles, study finds

When people walk freely in an open space, they often begin to move in a counter-clockwise circle. While scientists believed people were simply following those in front of them or reacting to boundaries, a new study in Nature Communications has found a biological bias to turn in that direction.

The researchers conducted experiments in Spain and Japan, observing groups of adults, teenagers, and nursery school children. They found that the tendency to move counter-clockwise exists even when a person is walking alone in an empty arena.

Social norms also didn’t change the pattern. Whether a country drives on the right or the left made no difference. The preference also didn’t depend on whether one was left- or right-handed and whether they had a ‘dominant’ eye.

The findings suggest the circling behavior is not learned from traffic rules, social cues, or handedness, but may stem from an underlying biological bias.