Here's Why People Prefer Super Mario To Run Left To Right

New findings published in the journal Perception show what may actually be a fundamental bias in the way people prefer to watch their video games. In other words, some like to see their favorite characters go from left to right, in the way that many languages are read. 

Psychologist Dr. Peter Walker of Lancaster University used widespread evidence to come to the conclude that this left-to-right bias could indicate a possible fundamental bias for visual motion, and even explain why all the main characters are used in the side-scrolling video games that were particularly popular in the 1980s and the 1990s (i.e. Super Mario)

"What artistic conventions are used to convey the motion of animate and inanimate items in still images, such as drawings and photographs? One graphic convention involves depicting items leaning forward into their movement, with greater leaning conveying greater speed," he said, in a news release. "Another convention, revealed in the present study, involves depicting items moving from left to right."

"Whereas a rightward bias is found for photographs of animate and inanimate items in motion (more so the faster is the motion being conveyed), either no bias or a leftward bias is found for the same items in static pose. This could indicate a fundamental left-to-right bias for visual motion."

But this is the only place where this left-to-right bias has been observed. It's also been seen where designers italicize text to convey notions to both motion and speed. In fact, it even applies to typography in Hebrew where the reader's eyes scan from right-to-left.

"It was the inspection of the availability of italic fonts in Hebrew that suggested an additional artistic convention for conveying motion, based on a fundamental bias, confirmed in the present study, for people to expect to see, or prefer to see, lateral movement (real or implied) in a left to right direction, rather than a right to left direction."