ASSOCIATED PRESS (2005) THE GAZETTE/9/22/8A

In a new study, nearly 9 out 10 people say they wash their hands after going to the bathroom. Unfortunately, they lie. For men it is around 75% and for women, it is the stated 90%. So men lie. That is some men lie.

Behavior was observed throughout the country in representative public bathrooms. They were observed at the wash basin by hidden camera.

In the early 70’s, we did a similar to study. We used one representative bathroom in a retail mall. The bathroom was centrally located. A research confederate acting as a janitor (what Erving Goffman calls a non-person) watched males only. We discovered that when the janitor was alone with a solo hand washer. This activity was much less likely then when there were 2 civilians in the bathroom. Thus, hand washing appears to be a social activity. If the males believed that no one was watching they were less likely to wash their hands. (See early 70’s in ABOUT JOEL SNELL.)