You walk into an art gallery, museum, or shopping centre – which way do you turn?

According to a new study, the answer is probably left.

Scientists have discovered that humans generally prefer to walk anticlockwise – although they have no idea why. 

In their study, researchers from the University of Tokyo observed pedestrians in various environments. 

Their results revealed that, regardless of their culture or gender, the participants generally moved in an anticlockwise direction.  

'In 32 out of 33 experimental trials, as people moved and turned, they noticeably preferred to turn counterclockwise,' said study author Professor Claudio Feliciani.

'This was completely unexpected as, at least instinctively, when people walk around randomly, you imagine people turn as their needs suit them with little sign of an overall preference. 

'But there was a definite, measurable tendency for people to turn counterclockwise over clockwise, all things being equal.'

For the study, the team set up experiments to observe pedestrian test subjects in different open and constrained environments. 

To see how far–reaching the effect is, they conducted tests in Spain and Japan, as well as with different group sizes, genders, ages, and handedness. 

Amazingly, across almost all the experiments, they found that the vast majority of people have a preference for anticlockwise turning. 

The only factor found to impact turning direction was age. 

'Kids tend to have a stronger bias for the counterclockwise direction, so probably age plays a role in making the effect weaker or stronger,' said Professor Feliciani. 

'Our results may appear as a minor insignificant discovery, but in nature, most phenomena related to locomotion show that animals mostly walk without directional preference. 

'The strong bias found in people hints to some asymmetry at the biomechanical level.' 

The reason for this anticlockwise bias remains unclear. 

However, the researchers are already planning further studies to get to the bottom of it.  

Professor Feliciani added: 'It likely does not come from the eyes, because we tried to patch people's left or the right eyes and the bias was still there. 

'And some people asked us if it might be large–scale phenomena like the Coriolis force or Earth's magnetic field, but this seems unlikely given what we have managed to point to so far.

'There are some interesting parallels to certain sports. 

'Some running and driving competitions are always, but inexplicably, taken on courses that run counterclockwise. But that's an investigation for another time.'