Here's a weird study that sometimes gets a mention in ethical discussions about psychology, and it's not hard to see why. Middlemist, Knowles & Matter (1976) designed an experiment to test how the speed and flow of men's urination in a public lavatory was affected by invasions of personal space.
Piss pilot
To gather some preliminary data on men's toilet habits, a pilot study stationed an observer in a public toilet at a US university. He was instructed to look like he was grooming himself in the mirror, but was actually keeping a record of which urinals men stood at and their patterns of urination.
Timing them on his wristwatch, our intrepid toilet researcher measured the onset delay in micturation along with persistence of flow. If you're wondering how our correspondent measured these, it was by sound - which must have been no mean feat when there was multiple micturation in progress.
Sure enough the pilot study revealed men prefer not to stand next to each other in the urinals, and the closer other men are to each other, the longer it takes for them to begin urinating, and the shorter the persistence of their stream.
FULL STORY ON PSY BLOG
No comments:
Post a Comment