Ever wondered why people tend to unconsciously walk in circles when they’re lost?

I never realized, till reading this article, that actually yes I very nearly always do turn left to go all the way around the block when taking a walk. Turning right just feels–it feels ridiculous to type this out loud–wrong. So much so that in 39 years here I’ve done it probably twice, because I remembered it because it felt weird.

For those hitting a paywall: someone was doing a study and got distracted by the the unexpected and ran with that.

It turns out that no matter where you live, no matter your language, no matter your culture, given a random decision most people will walk heading left rather than to the right. Counterclockwise. Tell people to walk across a gym to the wall and then turn, whether it’s a crowd or an individual, whether they’re right handed or left handed, nearly everyone turns left.

They wondered if it might be conditioning. They went to where people drive on the other side of the road. Still to the left. They studied children running to music in their school’s play yard, with a drone overhead recording. Still to the left. All ages everywhere across the world.

The direction of the planets around the sun.

We are stardust.