OnePoll conducted a study for MiraLAX that looked into how Americans felt about public restrooms. The poll of 2000 Americans found that 7 in 10 respondents held it in to avoid public restrooms. Another 69% would hold it until they were home.
The researchers also found that men (74%) were more likely than women (65%) to hold it in. Moreover, the average respondent would hold the urge to use the bathroom for two and a half hours. Men were also willing to wait three hours, while most women would only go for two hours.
Reasons Americans avoided public restrooms
The researchers also asked why respondents were reluctant to use the public restroom. They found that 65% would avoid it when they wanted to go for a long call. Another 46% said they don’t want to be heard while in the bathroom.
About 44% of the participants admitted they weren’t willing to go for a long call in an unfamiliar environment. Another 3 in 10 states they had difficulty going to the bathroom around other people.
The respondents also believed in having bathroom etiquette in the public bathroom. About 48% considered peeping a violation.
Americans are nervous about workplace bathrooms
The researchers compared the opinions on using public bathrooms to those at the workplace. They found that 1 in 5 respondents felt nervous about going back to an office setting as they would have to use the bathrooms.
The respondents had previously found ways to adapt to the office bathroom, with 71% using a particular bathroom when they needed to go for a long call. However, not all of them had found ways to adjust, with 66% holding it in the whole day. For this reason, about 64% were usually constipated.
The researchers looked into why participants prefer not to use the workplace bathroom. The most common were the odours and bad tissue paper. Others complained that some colleagues wouldn’t wash their hands after using the bathroom (31%), and other co-workers would initiate conversation from the stalls.
About 50% of the respondents feared using the bathrooms longer than their colleagues resulting in poor judgment from their co-workers.
