Which direction do you stir?

Brace yourself for one of the most random blog posts you’ll ever read from me!

I drink a fair amount of coffee each day and I always stir my coffee in a clockwise motion while making it. This got me thinking about whether or not stirring coffee in a clockwise motion is the norm for right-handed people.

It has been bugging me for about three days now so today I asked Gregor, Ian and Robin which direction they stir their coffee. The results were interesting.

Gregor is the only left-hander in our team and he stirs his coffee in a clockwise motion while Ian is right-handed and stirs counter clockwise. Like Ian, Robin is also right-handed and stirs counter clockwise.

This bugged me even more because as a right-hander myself I felt that I was now abnormal stirring my coffee clockwise. Did this mean that left-handers naturally stir clockwise while right-handers stir counter clockwise? I had to investigate further.

Within half an hour the four of us made some phone calls, posted to twitter and did a spot poll with anyone we could find in the office. All in all we ended up with a total of 35 people who responded to the question:- Which way do you stir your tea/coffee?

Of our 35 unsuspecting lab rats we had a total of 3 left-handers and 32 right-handers and you can see the results of each group below.

As you can see from the totals graph it is clear that stirring your coffee in a clockwise motion is the preferred and most natural way for most people.

I started this escapade to get a conclusive answer but now I have to admit I’m no clearer than I was before the experiment. Whether you’re left or right handed it seems that results will vary greatly and an individual’s stirring habits are simply down to personal preference.