Turning left

[ladyofastolat]

I've just reading something about school library design, and have come across the sentence, "Market research shows that faced with no clear direction, most people in the UK turn left." There's no source given, and I can't find anything online, so I have no idea what the evidence for this is, of what "most people" means. However, thinking about, I think that I do indeed default to turning left.

Is this because English is written from left to right? If I entered a room at an exhibition that had information panels around the perimeter wall, I'd expect the panels - like the words upon them - to be read from left to right, so I'd turn left. Do people from countries where writing goes from right to left tend to turn right?

Or is it related to driving on the left? Is it because turning left feels unobstructive, while turning right, even when on foot, feels like cutting across the traffic? Are people in all those countries that drive on the right less likely than people in the UK to turn to the left?

Or is it because turning left when you enter a large room will take you clockwise around the room?

Comments

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

Hmmn, I *think* I generally turn right. I'm not a driver, of course, if that has anything to do with it (though I am a bike/trike road-user, so maybe not.) Mind you, it was always drummed into me from a very early age (visiting grandparents in the country) that as a pedestrian you should ALWAYS walk on the *right* side of an un-pavemented road, i.e. facing the oncoming traffic so you have plenty of time to see them and dodge out of the way, and it always irritates me when I see walkers failing to do that. I have no idea whether that might be a factor.

Anyway, it now seems I have an explanation as to why when visiting museums/displays etc I always seem to be reading the end of the story first, and have to stop and figure out where the first board is to start reading there...