囧調查 62%美國人在淋浴時小便大綱

A YouGov Omnibus survey in July posed the question, “In which of the following places, if any, have you ever urinated?” Sixty-two percent of people checked the box that said “in the shower.” What’s more, this appears to be a national phenomenon: The fraction of people who say they urinate in the shower is pretty consistent whether you’re looking at U.S. regions, or age, income, sex, race, education or marital status.

網站YouGov在7月的一項精選調查貼出了這樣一個問題，“如果有的話，你曾在以下哪些地方小便？”62%的人勾選了“淋浴間”這個選項。而且，這似乎是一個全國性的現象，不管你按照什麼標準劃分人羣，美國的各個地區或是年齡、收入、性別、種族、教育程度或婚姻狀況，在淋浴時小便的人數比總是一致的。

But before you get too excited and start brandishing labels like “freak, ” you should take a closer look at the numbers on shower-peeing frequency. It turns out that 47 percent of people who said they had relieved themselves in the shower also added that they did so “not regularly at all — I have only done this once or twice.” As an “almost every morning” sort of girl, Allie, I’m afraid you’re in the minority — 14 percent of respondents said they do it “most of the time.” And remember, that’s 14 percent of the 62 percent who say they’ve ever peed in shower. So really, barely 9 percent of Americans share your bathroom behavior.

但先別興奮或是急於給人貼上“怪胎”的標籤，你應該再仔細瞧一瞧人們在淋浴時小便的頻率。數據顯示，其中47%的人指出他們“並不經常這麼做，我只這麼幹過一次或兩次。”不過，像愛麗這樣“幾乎每天早晨”都這樣做的女孩來說，我想你們只能算是少數，因爲只有14%的受訪者表示他們“經常這樣做”。請記住，是62%的人中14%說他們經常這麼做。所以實際上只有大概9%美國人會有這樣的習慣。

Solace can be found in the possibility that some people, including those two friends of yours, are fibbing. Of course, the desire to appear “socially acceptable” is an issue with all self-reported surveys. But the fact that 42 percent of respondents in another YouGov survey (conducted just four months before this one) said shower urination was “unacceptable” could explain the large gap between people who say they have peed in the shower (62 percent) and those who say they do it every day (7 percent). If I thought my behavior was unacceptable, I might admit to having done it, but I’d also be keen to downplay how often.

一些人有可能在撒謊，你的兩個朋友可能是他們其中之一，這麼一來你也許會好受一點。當然，人們會有表現出“社會可接受性”的願望，這個問題在所有的自測調查中都存在。但實際上，YouGov上另一項調查(於本調查4個月前進行)中42%的受訪者說“不能接受”在淋浴時小便，這能夠解釋爲什麼曾在淋浴間小便的人數(62%)比每天在淋浴時小便的人數(7%)之間存在這麼大的差距。如果我認爲我的行爲時不可被接受的，那麼我可能會承認我做過，但會對頻率做一些弱化。

One last thing: You say “as a female I find it liberating to pee at will.” I imagine that sense of liberation comes from the fact that non-toilet urination isn’t always so easy for women. The data shows clear differences between where men and women choose to pee — men are more likely to pee in public.

最後一點：你說“我作爲一個女性認爲這樣小便是一種解放”。我猜之所以有這種解放的感覺是因爲女性想要在沒有廁所的情況下小便通常不大容易。數據顯示，男性與女性在選擇小便地點時產生了明顯的差別，男性更喜歡在公衆場所小便。

Women in the survey were half as likely as men to have peed in a bush and five times less likely to have peed on a residential street. The gender gap closes, though, in places like baths and showers, where more discretion is available.

調查中，女性曾在灌木叢中小便的比例比男性小一半，在住宅區街道小便的比例更是隻有男性的五分之一。當遇到浴室和淋浴間時，這種性別帶來的差異就縮小了，人們在這些地方可以自己做出更多的判斷。