1 00:00:04,200 --> 00:00:06,360 Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and 2 00:00:06,400 --> 00:00:08,799 Speaker 1: there's Chuck and Jerry's here sitting in for Dave. So 3 00:00:08,840 --> 00:00:15,240 Speaker 1: with short stuff, it is short stuff. Why don't you 4 00:00:15,320 --> 00:00:22,680 Speaker 1: like short Stuff? You're bringing me down? Okay, I felt sure, 5 00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:25,599 Speaker 1: you're going Bill Murray there, I don't remember him saying 6 00:00:25,600 --> 00:00:28,000 Speaker 1: you're bringing me down? Yeah, I think that was what 7 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:30,160 Speaker 1: he's saying in the Star Wars when he sang the 8 00:00:30,560 --> 00:00:34,199 Speaker 1: words the Star Wars, you're bringing me down? Remember that 9 00:00:34,360 --> 00:00:37,959 Speaker 1: far Uh we are not talking about that though, we're 10 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:42,400 Speaker 1: talking about directional walking. And this is from our old 11 00:00:42,440 --> 00:00:45,680 Speaker 1: colleagues at house stuffworks dot com and uh not our 12 00:00:45,680 --> 00:00:48,480 Speaker 1: old colleagues, but we used to use cracked all the time. 13 00:00:49,440 --> 00:00:52,600 Speaker 1: I used to love that site. Second to Jack O'Brien days. Yeah, 14 00:00:52,720 --> 00:00:55,000 Speaker 1: I guess Jack O'Brien is now our colleague and has 15 00:00:55,040 --> 00:00:58,280 Speaker 1: been for a while, so we're one degree removed. Check 16 00:00:58,280 --> 00:01:01,520 Speaker 1: out the Daily Zeitgeist if you don't all ready great show. Yep, 17 00:01:01,800 --> 00:01:05,400 Speaker 1: Jack and Miles in the game. That's right. What else 18 00:01:05,480 --> 00:01:09,759 Speaker 1: you've been on that show? I haven't twice. They're gonna 19 00:01:09,760 --> 00:01:11,200 Speaker 1: ask you a third time before they asked me. I 20 00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:16,399 Speaker 1: would love that. I even had those guys a movie crush. 21 00:01:16,560 --> 00:01:22,480 Speaker 1: I know, right, that's okay, this will get back to 22 00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:26,160 Speaker 1: them somehow, somehow, some way. So Chuck that we're not 23 00:01:26,160 --> 00:01:30,759 Speaker 1: talking about daily zeitgeist today. We're not. We're talking about 24 00:01:30,760 --> 00:01:33,840 Speaker 1: something entirely different, which is the direction that people tend 25 00:01:33,880 --> 00:01:38,720 Speaker 1: to move in. That's right. And uh, generally if you 26 00:01:38,800 --> 00:01:42,320 Speaker 1: walk into like an amusement park or a store, and 27 00:01:42,360 --> 00:01:45,399 Speaker 1: we'll talk about shopping kind of towards the end. In general, 28 00:01:45,959 --> 00:01:49,080 Speaker 1: in the United States, people tend to go in and 29 00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:51,520 Speaker 1: move to the right to a place and are indeed 30 00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:55,960 Speaker 1: subtly or not so subtly steered to go to the right. Yeah, 31 00:01:56,000 --> 00:01:59,480 Speaker 1: but from what I understand, it's like a amplifying our 32 00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:02,240 Speaker 1: natural tendency to move to the right, at least in 33 00:02:02,240 --> 00:02:07,000 Speaker 1: the United States and in Great Britain Japan. Um, we 34 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:09,720 Speaker 1: need to hear from you because we are being told 35 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:13,240 Speaker 1: that you guys tend to move to the left. Like, say, 36 00:02:13,240 --> 00:02:15,800 Speaker 1: when you enter a grocery store, do you, guys, and 37 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:18,280 Speaker 1: this is a question to you in the UK and 38 00:02:18,280 --> 00:02:21,600 Speaker 1: in Japan, when you enter a grocery store, do you 39 00:02:21,639 --> 00:02:24,119 Speaker 1: move to the left or do you move to the right? Really, 40 00:02:24,120 --> 00:02:26,240 Speaker 1: stop and think about it and then email and let 41 00:02:26,360 --> 00:02:30,120 Speaker 1: us know. Okay, because supposedly you guys moved to the left, 42 00:02:30,320 --> 00:02:32,720 Speaker 1: we moved to the right. And there's some pretty interesting 43 00:02:32,760 --> 00:02:36,480 Speaker 1: explanations for why. Yeah. I mean, I can say anecdotally, 44 00:02:36,480 --> 00:02:38,280 Speaker 1: and I think you can agree with this. If you 45 00:02:38,320 --> 00:02:41,800 Speaker 1: go to London or something and you're from the United States, 46 00:02:42,160 --> 00:02:44,400 Speaker 1: you're gonna be bumping into people a lot because they 47 00:02:44,440 --> 00:02:47,720 Speaker 1: also tend, I think, to walk down the left side 48 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:50,200 Speaker 1: of like a hallway as opposed to the right side. 49 00:02:50,240 --> 00:02:54,960 Speaker 1: Isn't that correct, like maniacs? Yeah? Uh. And when you 50 00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:57,280 Speaker 1: look at sports fields, like the way you run bases 51 00:02:57,360 --> 00:03:00,240 Speaker 1: or race a car or a horse or a or 52 00:03:00,320 --> 00:03:04,560 Speaker 1: RaSE your legs, that is done in a you know, 53 00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:09,800 Speaker 1: human Yeah, I've just never uh, that is counterclockwise. And 54 00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:12,600 Speaker 1: they've you know, they found that when people walk up 55 00:03:12,639 --> 00:03:16,240 Speaker 1: to like a track to go running, they instinctively moved 56 00:03:16,280 --> 00:03:19,440 Speaker 1: to the right, which is counterclockwise and jibes with how 57 00:03:19,600 --> 00:03:24,359 Speaker 1: sports are done. Right. But then put differently, that's when 58 00:03:24,360 --> 00:03:28,119 Speaker 1: you're entering like a field of action from the outside. 59 00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:31,720 Speaker 1: If you imagine the field of action being bounded by 60 00:03:31,760 --> 00:03:34,800 Speaker 1: a circle. When you enter that field of action, you 61 00:03:34,920 --> 00:03:38,600 Speaker 1: enter the circle you move to the right, which takes 62 00:03:38,600 --> 00:03:43,240 Speaker 1: you counter clockwise. But if you're already in the circle 63 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:47,640 Speaker 1: and you decide to just start taking right turns, you're 64 00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:51,920 Speaker 1: actually moving clockwise, which is brain busting if you think 65 00:03:51,960 --> 00:03:55,600 Speaker 1: about it. Okay, I literally did not understand that until 66 00:03:55,640 --> 00:03:57,600 Speaker 1: you just said it that way. I I. That's because 67 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:00,680 Speaker 1: it was really poorly put. Yeah. I did not get 68 00:04:00,680 --> 00:04:02,720 Speaker 1: it at all, because I was like, doesn't matter like 69 00:04:02,720 --> 00:04:06,200 Speaker 1: which way you're facing to begin with, but if you 70 00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:10,120 Speaker 1: continue to take rights, is what the key? Because you know, 71 00:04:10,240 --> 00:04:13,440 Speaker 1: three wrongs don't make a right, but three rights make 72 00:04:13,480 --> 00:04:16,520 Speaker 1: a left. Is that how it goes, especially if you 73 00:04:16,520 --> 00:04:19,680 Speaker 1: say it like that. Uh. They've done some studies over 74 00:04:19,680 --> 00:04:22,279 Speaker 1: the years because they thought handedness might have something to 75 00:04:22,320 --> 00:04:25,279 Speaker 1: do with it, and this was in the Association of 76 00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:28,800 Speaker 1: for Psychological Science is where it was printed. It sounds, 77 00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:33,440 Speaker 1: but they it does. They did find though, that lefties 78 00:04:33,520 --> 00:04:35,960 Speaker 1: tend to prefer the left side and right he's like 79 00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:40,120 Speaker 1: the right. And they even studied stroke patients who lost 80 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:43,719 Speaker 1: use of their dominant hand and found that over time 81 00:04:43,839 --> 00:04:47,200 Speaker 1: they had to reverse a natural bias to favor what 82 00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:50,040 Speaker 1: was their original dominant hand, with with which way they 83 00:04:50,120 --> 00:04:54,000 Speaker 1: would go and these studies were very very important in 84 00:04:54,080 --> 00:04:57,200 Speaker 1: helping later determine how to best share a TwixT. Bar 85 00:04:58,440 --> 00:05:01,159 Speaker 1: I was wondered, what was going coming up there? Do 86 00:05:01,279 --> 00:05:04,280 Speaker 1: you you want to take a break real quick? Sure? Okay, 87 00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:07,120 Speaker 1: we're gonna come back and keep talking about the direction 88 00:05:07,160 --> 00:05:36,520 Speaker 1: people tend to move, All right, Chuck, So you kind 89 00:05:36,520 --> 00:05:38,479 Speaker 1: of said it. One thing that has been used to 90 00:05:38,520 --> 00:05:42,640 Speaker 1: explain why people move in certain directions UM has to 91 00:05:42,680 --> 00:05:45,479 Speaker 1: do with possibly has to do with the side of 92 00:05:45,520 --> 00:05:48,640 Speaker 1: the road that you drive on. And yes, anecdotally, if 93 00:05:48,680 --> 00:05:52,400 Speaker 1: you're in America and you're walking down the hallway, you're 94 00:05:52,440 --> 00:05:57,400 Speaker 1: probably walking on the right side, your right side, yes, 95 00:05:57,520 --> 00:06:00,200 Speaker 1: not your left side, because then you would probably bump 96 00:06:00,279 --> 00:06:02,680 Speaker 1: into a lot of people. That's just kind of how 97 00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:04,680 Speaker 1: things are laid out. So it does make sense that 98 00:06:04,720 --> 00:06:08,400 Speaker 1: we would kind of move to the right. Um. And 99 00:06:08,680 --> 00:06:11,880 Speaker 1: the reason why it would be significant if you know, 100 00:06:12,279 --> 00:06:16,320 Speaker 1: people in the UK um go to the left in 101 00:06:16,360 --> 00:06:18,480 Speaker 1: a store, where in America they moved to the right 102 00:06:18,760 --> 00:06:21,760 Speaker 1: is because humans are animals, And it turns out there 103 00:06:21,800 --> 00:06:26,960 Speaker 1: there aren't any geographical differences in migration direction among wild 104 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:30,760 Speaker 1: animals non human animals. UM, they tend to just go 105 00:06:30,920 --> 00:06:34,719 Speaker 1: the same way. Wherever every member of their species goes 106 00:06:34,760 --> 00:06:38,120 Speaker 1: anywhere in the world, that's the direction they'll go. It's 107 00:06:38,120 --> 00:06:41,240 Speaker 1: not like if one, one group of the species of 108 00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:44,279 Speaker 1: gophers lives in North America and they go to the 109 00:06:44,320 --> 00:06:47,320 Speaker 1: last and then the African family of gophers moved to 110 00:06:47,360 --> 00:06:49,800 Speaker 1: the right when they migrate, That's not how it goes. 111 00:06:49,839 --> 00:06:54,800 Speaker 1: They'll all all gophers move, say, clockwise instead right. And 112 00:06:54,839 --> 00:06:58,279 Speaker 1: these patterns that are generally based on aid from the 113 00:06:58,279 --> 00:07:00,760 Speaker 1: wind if you're a bird, any kind of uh weather 114 00:07:00,800 --> 00:07:04,600 Speaker 1: weather pattern like a solar pathway maybe. Um. The interesting 115 00:07:04,640 --> 00:07:08,560 Speaker 1: thing in that we uh as far as clockwise, Like 116 00:07:10,080 --> 00:07:12,360 Speaker 1: I've never really stopped to think why clockwise is clock 117 00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:15,320 Speaker 1: one o'clock didn't go the other way? But it's based 118 00:07:15,360 --> 00:07:18,760 Speaker 1: on the sun dial, And it's based on specifically a 119 00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:23,560 Speaker 1: northern hemispheric sun dial, because that's the way the sun 120 00:07:23,600 --> 00:07:26,239 Speaker 1: will cast in the northern hemisphere. If it was based 121 00:07:26,240 --> 00:07:28,800 Speaker 1: on a southern hemispheric sun dial, then the clock would 122 00:07:28,800 --> 00:07:31,040 Speaker 1: literally you know, the one and the two and the 123 00:07:31,040 --> 00:07:33,280 Speaker 1: three would be to the left of noon. Yeah, and 124 00:07:33,360 --> 00:07:36,200 Speaker 1: just calling it clockwise kind of begs the question, you know, 125 00:07:37,320 --> 00:07:42,160 Speaker 1: like it's a human constructed direction. But we it seems 126 00:07:42,200 --> 00:07:44,560 Speaker 1: like the most natural thing in the world because not 127 00:07:44,600 --> 00:07:48,160 Speaker 1: only is it called clockwise, it's counter clockwise, which makes 128 00:07:48,200 --> 00:07:51,559 Speaker 1: it seem radical and in opposition of the natural order 129 00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:55,760 Speaker 1: of things to move left word rather than right word right. 130 00:07:55,880 --> 00:07:58,800 Speaker 1: The only thing weirder than seeing a clock that would 131 00:07:58,800 --> 00:08:01,480 Speaker 1: be laid out in reverse would be to see a 132 00:08:01,520 --> 00:08:05,160 Speaker 1: base pop player hit a ball and run to third base. 133 00:08:06,480 --> 00:08:08,840 Speaker 1: That would be very, very strange to my brain, would 134 00:08:08,840 --> 00:08:11,400 Speaker 1: be especially if somebody was timing with the stopwatch that 135 00:08:11,440 --> 00:08:15,080 Speaker 1: was running counterclockwise. I wish Japan did that, because Japanese 136 00:08:15,120 --> 00:08:17,559 Speaker 1: baseball huge. That is huge. That would be so cool 137 00:08:18,080 --> 00:08:19,840 Speaker 1: is if they just ran in the opposite direction and 138 00:08:19,880 --> 00:08:22,080 Speaker 1: that was kind of like their thing they could. I mean, 139 00:08:22,440 --> 00:08:26,640 Speaker 1: intramural games between American MLB teams and Japanese teams would 140 00:08:26,640 --> 00:08:30,040 Speaker 1: be a total mess, but it'd be super entertaining to watch. 141 00:08:30,680 --> 00:08:32,079 Speaker 1: And then you've always got the one guy that just 142 00:08:32,160 --> 00:08:35,360 Speaker 1: runs straight past the picture towards second depending on I'm 143 00:08:35,360 --> 00:08:37,520 Speaker 1: just going there and depending on whose rules you were 144 00:08:37,520 --> 00:08:39,960 Speaker 1: playing like, that person would always be out because you 145 00:08:40,040 --> 00:08:42,199 Speaker 1: just have to throw the first base or third third base. 146 00:08:43,480 --> 00:08:47,959 Speaker 1: They'd also be a double specialist. I guess. Um. One 147 00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:50,520 Speaker 1: way this can come into play those in architecture, because 148 00:08:51,120 --> 00:08:54,439 Speaker 1: architects like to have fun, and that if they're designing 149 00:08:54,520 --> 00:08:58,920 Speaker 1: something that they want to make you feel sort of 150 00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:01,240 Speaker 1: either ill at e is or just sort of get 151 00:09:01,280 --> 00:09:04,480 Speaker 1: your neurons firing in a different way. They can sort 152 00:09:04,480 --> 00:09:06,880 Speaker 1: of drive you left in the United States out of 153 00:09:06,920 --> 00:09:09,560 Speaker 1: the bat and put things of more interest on the left. 154 00:09:10,080 --> 00:09:12,520 Speaker 1: Because and it's you know, it's pretty subtle. It's not 155 00:09:12,600 --> 00:09:15,480 Speaker 1: like some radical ship when you walk in you're like, 156 00:09:15,520 --> 00:09:18,240 Speaker 1: oh my god, what's happening. But you know, moving people 157 00:09:18,280 --> 00:09:20,400 Speaker 1: in a different direction counter to what they usually move 158 00:09:20,480 --> 00:09:23,160 Speaker 1: can can make your brain do different things. That's pretty neat. 159 00:09:23,240 --> 00:09:26,880 Speaker 1: I love that. Um. That's if you want to like 160 00:09:27,160 --> 00:09:30,120 Speaker 1: stimulate people in a weird way and make them slightly uncomfortable. 161 00:09:30,559 --> 00:09:33,080 Speaker 1: In grocery stores and retail stores where you want people 162 00:09:33,080 --> 00:09:35,720 Speaker 1: to feel totally comfortable so they want to stay long 163 00:09:35,840 --> 00:09:38,160 Speaker 1: and spend lots of money there, you want to do 164 00:09:38,200 --> 00:09:39,760 Speaker 1: the opposite. You want to kind of go with the 165 00:09:39,840 --> 00:09:44,000 Speaker 1: natural flow, and we've done We've talked about this extensively 166 00:09:44,040 --> 00:09:46,920 Speaker 1: in videos think other podcasts about how they lay out 167 00:09:46,960 --> 00:09:50,840 Speaker 1: grocery stores to basically I hate to use the word 168 00:09:50,840 --> 00:09:54,520 Speaker 1: manipulate you, but manipulate you into you know, shelling out 169 00:09:54,559 --> 00:09:57,000 Speaker 1: as much cash as possible. And a big part of 170 00:09:57,040 --> 00:09:59,760 Speaker 1: that is funneling you to the right and then placing 171 00:09:59,800 --> 00:10:04,160 Speaker 1: things strategically in that counterclockwise motion that they expect you 172 00:10:04,200 --> 00:10:08,280 Speaker 1: to move through the store in. Yeah, it's I'd never 173 00:10:08,360 --> 00:10:10,240 Speaker 1: think about it, even though we've talked about it a lot, 174 00:10:10,320 --> 00:10:12,960 Speaker 1: But I can't think of a single grocery store I 175 00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:17,360 Speaker 1: go to where the produce and stuff isn't on the right, 176 00:10:18,160 --> 00:10:20,600 Speaker 1: and eventually you wind your way around and on the 177 00:10:20,679 --> 00:10:24,720 Speaker 1: left are like the frozen foods and ice cream and 178 00:10:24,720 --> 00:10:28,040 Speaker 1: stuff like that. And the idea is that if you 179 00:10:28,120 --> 00:10:29,760 Speaker 1: go in and go to the right and there's all 180 00:10:29,800 --> 00:10:32,080 Speaker 1: the kind of junk food, you might just get that 181 00:10:32,120 --> 00:10:34,520 Speaker 1: and leave and not er go not spend as much money. 182 00:10:35,200 --> 00:10:38,679 Speaker 1: I probably choose airgo wrong. But uh, what they do 183 00:10:38,800 --> 00:10:41,200 Speaker 1: is they wind you around to the right, where you 184 00:10:41,240 --> 00:10:43,240 Speaker 1: buy like your produce and the things that you need, 185 00:10:43,800 --> 00:10:47,160 Speaker 1: and then on your way technically on your way out 186 00:10:47,559 --> 00:10:50,280 Speaker 1: of that counterclockwise circle. That's when you're gonna do the 187 00:10:50,320 --> 00:10:52,960 Speaker 1: impulse buys and say like, oh well, let me have 188 00:10:53,040 --> 00:10:55,920 Speaker 1: those those chips in that ice cream or that whatever, 189 00:10:56,040 --> 00:10:58,400 Speaker 1: that whip cream that it's cool whip that ate straight 190 00:10:58,440 --> 00:11:01,080 Speaker 1: out of the bucket. Well, it's just because it's so 191 00:11:01,080 --> 00:11:04,200 Speaker 1: so good, so good. Remember the peanut butter cool whip combo. 192 00:11:06,040 --> 00:11:07,720 Speaker 1: No oh yeah, yeah, I told you. I got on 193 00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:11,120 Speaker 1: that right after you told me it's so dangerous though. Well, 194 00:11:11,280 --> 00:11:12,720 Speaker 1: I mean, we can't keep cool ap in our house. 195 00:11:12,720 --> 00:11:14,600 Speaker 1: It's it's gone in a matter of a day and 196 00:11:14,600 --> 00:11:17,120 Speaker 1: a half. We just can't do it. Like we'll get 197 00:11:17,160 --> 00:11:20,800 Speaker 1: it for for Thanksgiving, for like pumpkin pie, and I 198 00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:22,880 Speaker 1: always get an extra because I know that the pumpkin 199 00:11:22,960 --> 00:11:25,880 Speaker 1: pot is not gonna have anything, because Emily and I 200 00:11:25,880 --> 00:11:27,839 Speaker 1: are just sneaking in there like a spoonful at a time. 201 00:11:28,679 --> 00:11:30,840 Speaker 1: And my daughter doesn't know yet. When she's introduced to that, 202 00:11:30,880 --> 00:11:33,960 Speaker 1: it's all over because the freezer is low enough, right, 203 00:11:34,520 --> 00:11:38,400 Speaker 1: and you have plenty of stools, handy yeah, and fingers 204 00:11:38,480 --> 00:11:41,319 Speaker 1: or spoons. So now that the way you just describe 205 00:11:41,360 --> 00:11:43,760 Speaker 1: the grocery store, now they think about it. Every grocery 206 00:11:43,800 --> 00:11:47,280 Speaker 1: store I've gone into. The pharmacy is the last thing 207 00:11:47,679 --> 00:11:51,079 Speaker 1: to your left when you go in, and there's basically 208 00:11:51,160 --> 00:11:53,800 Speaker 1: no way to get directly to it. You have to 209 00:11:53,840 --> 00:11:56,920 Speaker 1: go through other stuff and then they give you the 210 00:11:56,960 --> 00:11:59,959 Speaker 1: opposite At my public is that right, the pharmamer she is. 211 00:12:00,440 --> 00:12:02,160 Speaker 1: It's the first thing on the right when you walk in. 212 00:12:02,280 --> 00:12:04,640 Speaker 1: I'm thinking publics too. I guess I'm I'm in a 213 00:12:04,640 --> 00:12:07,160 Speaker 1: different design or a different dimension. Maybe there's a barren 214 00:12:07,200 --> 00:12:11,560 Speaker 1: sting effect going on. Weird. Yeah, so, um, you got 215 00:12:11,559 --> 00:12:15,440 Speaker 1: anything else about the way people move? No? I mean 216 00:12:15,440 --> 00:12:17,600 Speaker 1: this last thing is kind of funny. They did a 217 00:12:17,720 --> 00:12:20,439 Speaker 1: test in a store in Philadelphia where they tried to 218 00:12:20,480 --> 00:12:23,480 Speaker 1: funnel people to the left by putting up like palettes 219 00:12:23,520 --> 00:12:25,920 Speaker 1: and all these big things that block your way, and 220 00:12:25,960 --> 00:12:28,920 Speaker 1: people were like literally crawling over palets just so they 221 00:12:28,920 --> 00:12:32,959 Speaker 1: could go to the right. It's it's pretty funny. Philly Strong, 222 00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:36,920 Speaker 1: that's right. So since Chuck said Philly Strong, everybody, of course, 223 00:12:36,960 --> 00:12:43,440 Speaker 1: that means that short stuff is out. Stuff you should 224 00:12:43,480 --> 00:12:46,439 Speaker 1: know is a production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts 225 00:12:46,520 --> 00:12:49,920 Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 226 00:12:50,040 --> 00:12:51,840 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.