Going to The Right

Humans have a tendency to go to the right when they are under pressure according to new research done by psychologists at the University of Amsterdam, who published their report in the journal Psychological Science. I am actually not talking about politics. No, people do not put all their confidence in Sarah Palin when they feel a level of high pressure. Instead, its actually most common in soccer goalies. The researchers watched film of every men's World Cup championship since 1982 and found 204 penalty shootouts. (For those who aren't soccer fanatics, a penalty shootout is soccer's form of an overtime, and it is sudden death competition. The goalie essentially can only guess what direction the ball will be going in and  do his or her best effort to stop it. Here's a humorous example.) They noted that when teams are tied, goal keepers dived to the left and right equally. But when the goal keepers team was down, they dive to the right twice as often. Apparently dogs also are predisposition to wag their tails to the right as well.

The scientific explanation for this has nothing to with being left or right handed, but more that individuals unconsciously move to the right when they approach something they really want. One of the researchers, Shaul Shalvi hypothesizes that there is an evolutionary advantage for many members of a given species to favor one direction over the other. Explaining the soccer example he said that goal keepers dive right "especially when their team is behind and their likelihood to be heroes is the greatest." While the researchers note that while people are predisposed to tend to the right, its not a guarantee. 


Hope Solo, the beloved U.S. goalkeeper went right all four times during the recent US-Japan championship match, which only adds to the research.  


You can find the article on NPR in its entirety here (click here)