Science Daily reveals the unbalancing news that if you’re worried, you’re more likely to veer leftward while walking:
New research led by Dr Mario Weick of the School of Psychology at the University of Kent has for the first time linked the activation of the brain’s two hemispheres with lateral shifts in people’s walking trajectories.
In a study aimed at establishing why individuals display a tendency to allocate attention unequally across space, people were blindfolded and asked to walk in a straight line across a room towards a previously seen target.
The researchers found evidence that blindfolded individuals who displayed inhibition or anxiety were prone to walk to the left, indicating greater activation in the right hemisphere of the brain.
The research indicates that the brain’s two hemispheres are associated with different motivational systems.