Study finds that walking 'is a challenging task' for humans

(Image credit: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)

published 11 March 2016

It turns out humans aren't so great at doing that whole "walking" thing. According to researchers at Indiana's Purdue University, people are "surprisingly bad" at walking despite thousands of years of evolution and practice.

Researchers asked college students to record their falls over a 16-week period, with the majority of falls occurring while students were walking (58 percent) and most of those falls happening because of a slip (48 percent) or a trip (25 percent), The Telegraph reports. Because the study showed that not just old people are prone to falling, researchers deduced that the act of walking is "inherently difficult" for humans.

"The fact that the majority of falls occurred while walking supports the prevailing argument that bipeds [animals with two feet] are mechanically unstable and also demonstrates that walking is a challenging task," the study concluded.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.