South-up map orientation

South-up map orientation is the orientation of a map with south up, at the top of the map, west on the right, amounting to a 180-degree rotation of the map from the standard convention of north-up. Maps in this orientation are sometimes called upside-down maps or reversed maps.

Psychological significance

Research suggests that north-south positions on maps have psychological consequences. In general, north is associated with richer people, more expensive real estate, and higher altitude, while south is associated with poorer people, cheaper prices, and lower altitude (the "north–south bias"). When participants were presented with south-up oriented maps, this north-south bias disappeared.

Researchers posit that the observed association between map-position and goodness/badness (north=good; south=bad) is caused by the combination of

the convention of consistently placing north at the top of maps, and

a much more general association between vertical position and goodness/badness (up=good, down=bad), which has been documented in numerous contexts (e.g. power/status, profits/prices, affect/emotion, and even the divine).

Common English idioms support the notion that many English speakers conflate or associate north with up and south with down (e.g. "heading up north", "down south", Down Under), a conflation that can only be understood as learned by repeated exposure to a particular map-orientation convention (i.e. north put at the top of maps).