5 Studies Find Pedestrians Drift Counterclockwise From Individual Bias, Not Crowd Effects
Updated
Updated · Nature.com · Jun 10
5 Studies Find Pedestrians Drift Counterclockwise From Individual Bias, Not Crowd Effects
3 articles · Updated · Nature.com · Jun 10
Summary
Five experiments in Spain and Japan found roaming pedestrians consistently rotated counterclockwise, including when people walked alone, pointing to an individual locomotor bias rather than a crowd-driven effect.
More than 200 solo-walking trials reproduced the same asymmetry, and synthetic group averages built from individual trajectories matched real crowd patterns, with collective polarization peaking around 0.25 and tightening as group size increased.
The bias held across enclosed arenas, a 50-by-60-meter open schoolyard, Japanese groups that normally avoid others on the left, and nursery-school children, ruling out walls, collision-avoidance norms and most learned social conventions.
Tests on 156 individuals found no significant link between the counterclockwise tendency and handedness, footedness, eye dominance, sex or a right-eye patch, leaving the biological source unresolved.
The authors say the finding could reshape crowd models and eventually inform layouts in airports, stations, museums and other high-traffic spaces if the bias also persists in more complex real-world settings.