Okay, interesting question (I hope):
Is the reaction of having to urinate upon hearing the sound of rushing water any kind of natural instinct, or is it a conditional Pavlovian-style reflex taught to people, especially when they are young?
My feeling is that the effect is not universal–not everyone runs to the bathroom after viewing a video of Niagara Falls. My suspicion is that the reflex is primarily instilled in youngsters by over-zealous mothers/fathers that run the faucet in the bathroom to get their toddlers to “pee-pee” out of both habit (their parents did it to them) and/or impatience.
Ideas?
Just a WAG, but here goes…
In recent years, I have come to the conclusion that a large part of bladder control is mental. I base this solely on my own personal experiences, with no shred of other evidence, so take it for what it’s worth.
Anyway, I’ve always suffered from a pretty weak bladder – when I have to go, I have to go NOW! I have a 45 minute commute home from work each day, and if I’ve drunk anything in the 1/2 hour before I leave for home, invariably the last 20 minutes is sheer agony as I desperately try to avoid peeing in my pants.
Still with me? Just checking.
And yet, every once in awhile, just as I exit the car and am preparing to make a mad dash into the house, something happens to distract me. Usually it’s a neighbor walking by and wanting to chat. And what’s amazing (at least to me), is that I usually end up utterly forgetting that I have to urinate while I’m chatting! Which, of course, leads me to believe that a lot of bladder control is mental, and I have had some success solving my weak bladder problem by simply concentrating hard on something else when I feel the urge to pee.
What does all this have to do with your question? Well, basically I think that we often need to pee but simply don’t feel the urge because we are distracted by other thoughts. Hearing water running water simply brings the sensation to the front of our minds.
Just a thought…
Barry
I vote for nurture versus nature. Until I was in my early 20’s I had never heard of running water triggering the urge to pee. As soon as I learned about it all I had to do was think about running water and I had to pee! Sometimes I can go 8 hours without peeing if I am preoccupied, like at work, or feel like I have to pee every 10 minutes when I have nothing to do but think about peeing. YMMV.