Scientists have tried to explain the urge to turn left. Photograph: Dan Chung/The Guardian
Letters
Raphaël Dubois knew why we walk anticlockwise
Readers respond to a report on experiments that have shown a left-turn bias among humans
It is not quite true to say that no one knows why people prefer to turn left and walk anticlockwise (Report, 10 June). Research by the French professor of physiology Raphaël Dubois in the 19th century revealed the existence of a phenomenon in the natural world that he called the antikinetic gyratory movement, caused by the rotation of the Earth on its axis.
During the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris, he observed a tendency among visitors to walk anticlockwise. In the years leading up to the first world war, he applied his theory to explain migration (of humans and animals) and war. I documented the latter in an article in the journal Peace & Change in 1986.
Dr Peter van den Dungen, Lightcliffe, West Yorkshire
I have long come to terms with being a left-handed person in a right-handed world (scissors, can openers, fountain pens, cutlery placements, etc), but at least I can naturally go against the flow in crowds. In theme parks, supermarkets, museums and the like, I tend to walk clockwise. In crowded places it often avoids hold-ups, particularly if you are in the first wave of visitors who instinctively go the other way.
Ian Henderson, Nottingham
I wonder if any research on this phenomenon has been carried out south of the equator.
Patrick Billingham, Brighton
Come on, we’re all boomers here – they are heading for first class.
Gail Hebert, Tenterden, Kent
Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
Explore more on these topics: Human biology, Biology, Letters
