Overview
- The peer‑reviewed paper published June 10 in Nature Communications reports a robust tendency for people to turn counterclockwise when changing direction.
- The effect appeared in 32 of 33 experimental trials conducted in Spain and Japan and held whether people walked alone or in groups.
- Researchers tested and ruled out simple explanations such as eye dominance and say large‑scale forces like the Coriolis effect are unlikely to explain the bias.
- Age modulates the pattern, with children showing a stronger counterclockwise preference than adults, while handedness, gender and culture had little effect.
- The team will now run focused individual‑level experiments, including virtual reality and biomechanical tests, because the cause remains unknown and the finding could inform crowd modeling and space design.