Why Do People Usually Walk In the Same Direction?

A number of theories address why these directional habits began, but its continuation has everything to do with predictability. People move in predictable patterns, and for the most part, this is a good thing. Take driving a car, for example. If automobile drivers didn’t move in a way that other drivers expected, chaos would erupt and many situations, including four-way stops, would become accident zones.

There’s also some speculation that the side of the road on which people customarily drive could impact the direction they opt to walk as pedestrians. According to this theory, people in the U.S. drive on the right side of the road, so they are more likely to turn right when taking a walk around the block, for instance, tracing a clockwise route.

But studies of retail shoppers in Great Britain, Australia and Japan, where people drive on the left side of the road, show they tend to turn left — counterclockwise — when navigating store aisles.

These geographical differences haven’t been observed in animal movement patterns, where herds tend to migrate the same direction generation after generation.