Toilet psychology: Why do men wash their hands less than women?

Posted on June 24, 2014

The spread of super-resistant bacteria means the science of hand-washing behaviour has become a serious business. Psychologists have stepped up to the plate. Bowl, I should say. By hiding in toilet cubicles for a new study, they've observed how long people spend using the loo, and how long they wash their hands for afterwards. That men usually wash their hands less conscientiously than women is a well-established finding. Thomas Berry and his colleagues wanted to find out more about the reasons for this gender difference.

For one day, between 10am and 4pm, a male researcher secreted himself inside one of three cubicles in a gents toilet facility at a US University. For optimal observational purposes he chose the cubicle adjacent to a row of three urinals. Nearby, in a similarly designed female toilet facility, a single female researcher positioned herself in one of the three cubicles available. Don't worry, both researchers were provided with a "customised wooden bench" for comfort.

The psychologists managed to observe the toilet behaviour of 34 women using cubicles; 32 men who used a cubicle to defecate; 40 men who had no choice but to use the cubicles for urinating (because of the out-of-order signs); and 64 men who used a urinal. The bare statistics show that the hand-washing rates for these four groups were 91 per cent, 87.5 per cent, 75 per cent and 59.4 per cent, respectively.

The difference in hand washing rates between women using a cubicle and men using a cubicle (for defecating) was not statistically significant. In contrast, both women using a cubicle, and men using a cubicle (for defecating), showed significantly higher hand-washing rates than men who used a urinal.

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Source material from British Psychological Society