Overview
- Researchers first noticed the pattern while analyzing COVID-era social‑distancing videos and then ran controlled trials in Spain and Japan to follow up.
- The peer‑reviewed paper was published June 10, 2026, in Nature Communications and reports the effect in 32 of 33 experimental trials.
- The counterclockwise preference appeared when people walked alone as well as in groups, indicating it is an individual-level bias rather than a crowd emergent property.
- The effect held across cultures, genders, group sizes and handedness, with only age showing a modest change because children showed a stronger bias.
- Scientists do not yet know the cause, have ruled out simple visual explanations and large-scale forces, and say confirming a biomechanical origin could influence future design and crowd-management practices.