Nearly Everyone, Everywhere, Veers Left When Walking | Hacker News Reader

Nearly Everyone, Everywhere, Veers Left When Walking

nytimes.com

This was in enclosed spaces, so a better way to describe it would be that everyone veers right, hits a wall, then turns left.

I used to shop at a liquidator who's prices would drop daily, so at the beginning of the day a crowd would wait outside for the store to open, then it would flood the store with everyone looking for the most valuable products.

I found that if I went clockwise around the store, I could evaluate more products faster than if I went counterclockwise, because slightly more shoppers were going counterclockwise. This matches what the study found, but I'd describe it as most shoppers turning right, when given a choice to turn in either direction, then being forced to make only left turns, when running into corners.

I wonder if the clockwise to counterclockwise ratio differs in countries with left-hand drive. The study only mentions that the average is the same in any country.

I wonder if axial twist theory is playing a role:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_twist_theory

I was looking for an archive.org link but the one I found said

> You have been blocked from The New York Times because we suspect that you're a robot.

https://web.archive.org/web/20260611034941/https://www.nytim...

The nyt can go fudge themselves. My Students have been divided as a class into some that can use good sources like the nyt cause their parents pay and the poors who im not able to use archive for anymore. If i ever see another oped in their paper about how journalism is in danger because of xyz im going to throwup.

Gift link

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/10/science/humans-walking-ve...

It's well known that people veer when they walk. That's a reason why people die in the wilderness after they get lost, because they walk around in circles going no where

This is why, speaking as a Brit, that driving on the left makes sense. You can keep turning left without crossing the center of the road.

My left leg is shorter than my right. Can't speak for anyone else

Reminds me of Karel the robot.

Reminds me of Rammstein, who wrote an entire song about this effect ("links" -> "left" in German): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph-CA_tu5KA

This another indication that driving on the left side of the road feels more natural.

Paywalled? ("please wait while we verify access")

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