# How Come I Have to Pee MORE When I Hear the Faucet?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-i-have-to-pee-more-when-i-hear-the-faucet/127368>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 7, 2002, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-i-have-to-pee-more-when-i-hear-the-faucet/127368 "2002-09-07T00:22:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Chastain86](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Chastain86](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chastain86)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-i-have-to-pee-more-when-i-hear-the-faucet/127368/1 "2002-09-07T00:22:20Z")

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Any ideas? 🙂

If this has been covered before, I apologize, but I searched for “peeing” and “urination” on the site beforehand and got nothin’.

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**Author:** ![Slugworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4bbf92/32.png) [@Slugworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slugworth)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-i-have-to-pee-more-when-i-hear-the-faucet/127368/2 "2002-09-07T00:38:30Z")

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Pavlovian response. You’ve come to associate running, splashing water with urination.

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**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-i-have-to-pee-more-when-i-hear-the-faucet/127368/3 "2002-09-07T01:14:43Z")

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Funny, when some guys hear another guy actually pissing\*, they suddenly _can’t_ piss.  
I don’t know about women  
\*Men don’t pee. Men piss. Women pee.  
🙂  
Peace,  
mangeorge

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**Author:** ![flyboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4da419/32.png) [@flyboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flyboy)\
**Post date:** [September 7, 2002, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-come-i-have-to-pee-more-when-i-hear-the-faucet/127368/4 "2002-09-07T12:25:01Z")

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This was actually covered in The Return of the Straight Dope, pps. 27-28. Cecil essentially has no solid answer, but points out the stimuli can be auditory or visual as well as tactile (putting the sleeping person’s hand in a pan of warm water), and admits he’s experienced it. His best guess as to why it happens is “the power of suggestion.”