Where I work, there is one male and one female toilet on each floor - if the male toilet is occupied, I need to walk either one flight down or up and hope that that one is free (fortunately the number of women in the organisation exceeds the number of men, so I seldom have to walk more than one floor, but anyway…)
The other day I noticed that I always walk up a floor rather than down - the distance is the same, and I have to walk down “afterwards”, so I started wondering why, and it reminded me of a similar situation at a previous workplace. The building was built on a hill and shaped like a “U” with two long wings pointing down the hill, and connected by a “crosspiece”. The floors on the two wings were on the same level as each other, but the floors on the “crosspiece” were set in between the wing’s floor levels (ground level being higher to start with) so that to go from the 2nd floor in wing A to the 2nd floor in wing B you would have to go up (or down) a flight of stairs, across the connecting floor in the crosspiece and then down (or up) on the other side (if you follow me…)
Again, I had noticed that I would always go up, across, and down, and then I discovered that one of my collegues would always go down, across and then up, which led to several awkward pauses if we were walking together from one wing to the other. Again, the number of stairs involved at each end was the same, so it wasn’t that I find walking upstairs easier to manage…
I guess this is a mixture of a GQ and IMHO post - has anyone experienced the same sort of problem? What sort of psycological process could be going on here? Am I just strange? (ok, don’t answer that last one…)
I’ve noticed this at my place of work and something similar on the Tube:
At one point in Waterloo station there is a T junction where you can go either way to get to overland trains.
90% of people automatically go left (Even though going right is actually quicker)
I’ve always thought that this is probably something to do with the way peoples minds work and i’m guessing that its the same with the up/down thing my WAGS are:
Left or Right? Left because we (in western societies) read from left to right, the people who don’t naturally do that still go left out of a herding instinct.
Up or Down In my place of work it tends to be (and this is possibly the most unscientific survey test ever ) that the taller someone is the more likely they are to go down, and shorter up.
So (extreme WAG coming) maybe its something to do with whether you spend your whole life looking down at things or looking up (if that makes sense!)
OK, let’s be rational here. Your purpose is to empty your bladder, or shudder your bowels. Ergo, on the journey towards the toilet, you weigh more than on the way back. Therefore, it is logical to walk down a floor rather than up. You’re obviously wasting energy by doing it the wrong way around, resulting in more food consumption, which in turn leads to more bowel movements.
You’re spiralling down, man. Get a hold of yourself! Walk DOWN instead of up!
[b[Coldie** - the problem is that I go upinstead of down - pay attention man!!!
Could it be that a certain footie fixture has occupied that part of your attention span that is normally reserved for thinking???
garius - I’m of average height (1.8something m) so I should go up and down with average frequency… (another WAG hits the dust…) - oh, and don’t pick on Coldfire, he’s a nazi!!
What I’m saying is that it would make more sense if you would walk down one floor towards the toilet, as this means you will be returning by walking up one floor, but with less weight, since you just evacuated your bowels. Since walking upstairs takes more energy than walking downstairs, it would make sense to walk upstairs after you take a dump, thus preserving vital energy.
Also, it makes sense to go down, since if you’re in a hurry, down’s probably easier. Further, if a miracle happens and you don’t have to go back to work, your second journey won’t happen.
Which stairs do you use more often for other reasons?
Well down takes me out of the building and going home, but there is only the ground floor below me, and that is the Library which I don’t go to all that often, and there are four floors above me, which I visit more often, so that could be the explanation - sheer force of habit?
Also, it occurs to me that once standing in front of the gent’s loo (pushing on the door for several seconds before I realise that it is not stuck, but locked…) the down stairs are 180º behind me while the up stairs are behind me as well, but about a meter to the right, on a bearing of 145º or so, which would imply that as I turn (to the right - there’s another question for you, do I always turn to the right?) around, the up staircase is the first one that I see, and therefore I am conserving effort by not turning any more than I have to before I start walking…
) that the taller someone is the more likely they are to go down, and shorter up.
