Toilet paper orientation
Encyclopedia
Toilet paper
when used with toilet roll holder
with a horizontal axle
parallel
to the wall has two possible orientations: the toilet paper
may hang over (in front) or under (behind) the roll. The choice is largely a matter of personal preference, dictated by habit
. In surveys of American
consumers and of bath and kitchen specialists, 60–70% of respondents prefer over.
Despite its being a trivial topic, people often hold strong opinions on the matter. Advice columnist Ann Landers said that the subject was the most controversial issue in her column's history. Defenders of either position cite advantages ranging from aesthetics, hospitality, and cleanliness to paper conservation and the ease of detaching individual squares. Celebrities and experts are found on both sides. The reasons behind each person's choice have been analyzed by several studies with theories ranging from age, sex, socioeconomic status to political philosophy. It has also been suggested that preference for under may correlate with ownership of a recreational vehicle
or a cat
.
Solutions range from compromise, to using separate dispensers or separate bathrooms entirely. One man advocates a plan under which his country will standardize on a single forced orientation, and at least one inventor hopes to popularize a new kind of toilet roll holder which swivels from one orientation to the other.
sociology
professor Edgar Alan Burns describes some reasons why toilet paper politics is worthy of examination. On the first day of Burns' introductory course in sociology, he asks his students, "Which way do you think a roll of toilet paper should hang?" In the following fifty minutes, the students examine why they picked their answers, exploring the social construction of "rules and practices which they have never consciously thought about before". They make connections to larger themes of sociology, including gender role
s, the public
and private sphere
s, race and ethnicity, social class
, and age. Moreover, Burns argues that there is an additional lesson:
Burns' activity has been adopted by a social psychology
course at the University of Notre Dame
, where it is used to illustrate the principles of Berger
and Luckmann
's 1966 classic The Social Construction of Reality
. Similar everyday topics that have been used to awaken the sociological imagination
include games of tic-tac-toe
, violations of personal space
, the rules of walking, and the etiquette by which men choose urinals in public restrooms.
Christopher Peterson, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan
, classifies the choice of toilet paper orientation under "tastes, preferences, and interests" as opposed to either values
or "attitudes, traits, norms, and needs". Other personal interests include one's favorite cola or baseball team. Interests are an important part of identity
; one expects and prefers that different people have different interests, which serves one's "sense of uniqueness". Differences in interests usually lead at most to teasing and gentle chiding. For most people, interests don't cause the serious divisions caused by conflicts of values; a possible exception is what Peterson calls "the 'get a life' folks among us" who elevate interests into moral issues.
Morton Ann Gernsbacher
, a professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
, compares the orientation of toilet paper to the orientation of cutlery in a dishwasher, the choice of which drawer in a chest of drawers
to place one's socks, and the order of shampooing one's hair and lathering one's body in the shower. In each choice, there is a prototypical solution chosen by the majority, and it is tempting to offer simplistic explanations of how the minority must be different. She warns that neuroimaging
experiments—which as of 2007 were beginning to probe behaviors from mental rotation
and facial expression
s to grocery shopping and tickling
—must strive to avoid such cultural bias
and stereotype
s.
In his book Conversational Capital
, Bertrand Cesvet gives toilet paper placement as an example of ritual
ized behavior—one of the ways designers and marketers can create a memorable experience around a product that leads to word-of-mouth momentum. Cesvet's other examples include shaking a box of Tic Tacs and dissecting Oreo
cookies.
Sometimes toilet paper is simply entertaining. In between songs at a concert, John Hiatt
will sometimes tell the tale of his wife switching her preference. Broadcaster Jim Bohannon
, who once spent an hour on toilet paper orientation, explains that such issues are good for talk radio
: "It is an interactive medium, a certain kind of clash, it doesn't have to be a violent clash, but at least a disagreement would certainly be at the top of the list. It has to be something that's of general interest."
There is a difficulty in the medium of television: on the major American networks
NBC
and CBS
, as of 1987, toilet paper was not allowed to be shown hanging next to the toilet. The 1970s sitcom All in the Family
was the first show to include a discussion of toilet paper, when Archie
yelled at Meathead
for hanging the paper under. In a 1995 episode of The Simpsons
, "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily
", the children are confiscated by Child Protective Services
, who hand Marge
a note citing her home as a "squalid hellhole" where the toilet paper is "hung in improper overhand fashion".
and Ian Ayres
write that the debate over toilet paper is a debate about symmetry
. (They also write that too much paper has been wasted on the issue, and that they prefer over.) By taking an approximately symmetric situation and flipping it around, one can sometimes arrive at a new solution to a problem with its own surprising advantages. Other physical examples include peeling a banana from the apex rather than the pedicel
, or steering a car from the rear rather than the front.
There is a reflection symmetry
between the left and right sides of the roll, so whether it rotates clockwise or counterclockwise
is ambiguous; it depends on one's point of view. The up/down and front/back
symmetries are broken by the force of gravity and the locations of the wall and the user, so one can distinguish between two orientations:
This nomenclature can also be read ambiguously. In 1991, a customer wrote to Herb Kelleher
, chairman of Southwest Airlines
, with an unusual complaint: "Dear Herb: ... Last week in my journey to SFO someone put the toilet paper in wrong. Any damn fool knows the papers come out the bottom of the roll and not over the top. I couldn't figure out how to correct the error ..." Kelleher replied, copying
his senior management
committee, general counsel
, and customer relations manager: "Dear Jim: What the hell were you doing upside down in our lavatory?" Kevin and Jackie Freiberg cite this episode in their book Nuts! as an example of Southwest's unconventional approach to customer service.
There are other everyday objects that dispense a sheet of material from a roll: fax machines, cash register
s, plastic wrap
, aluminum foil, and parchment paper
. One columnist who believes in the importance of toilet paper orientation writes, "all have to exit in the correct direction or it doesn't work, or you cut yourself, or both."
Partisans have claimed that each method makes it easier to tear the toilet paper on a perforated sheet boundary, depending on the direction of pulling and the use of a second hand to stabilize the roll. (A traveller from the U.S. to China in 1991 noted a different setup: non-perforated paper with a metal cutter above the roll, which obligates the over direction.)
It is unclear if one orientation is more economical than the other. The Centralian Advocate attributes a claim that over saves on paper usage to Planet Green. A reader of The Orange County Register
found a "six-month study" by a "university in the U.S." that came to the same conclusion. But a reader of the Cape Argus
wrote that a "British loo paper manufacturer" came to the opposite conclusion. In his humor compilation How Hemlines Predict the Economy, Peter FitzSimons
writes that placing the hanging flap against the wall "is generally twice as economical".
In the academic field of evaluation
, Michael Scriven
writes that the question of the correct way to insert toilet paper is a "one-item aptitude test" for measuring one's evaluation skills. These skills include the evaluative attitude, practical logical analysis, empathy, teaching, and being a quick study. To prove one's competence, one may either derive the "one right answer" or prove that the test is or is not culturally biased.
tastes-great/less-filling commercial."
In Bernice Kanner's 1995 book Are You Normal?, 53% of survey respondents prefer over, while "a fourth" prefer under and 8% don't know or care.
Sitting Pretty: The History of the Toilet, a travelling exhibition
that tours Canadian
museums, asks visitors to register their preferred roll direction. When the exhibition reached Huntsville, Ontario
, in June 2001, 13,000 visitors had taken the survey, with 67% preferring over. At the Saint Boniface Museum in Winnipeg
in February 2005, a voting machine registered 5,831 over versus 5,679 under, or 51% over. Saint Boniface's director noted, "I think there's been some cheating, though."
Georgia-Pacific
commissioned a survey of Americans' bathroom habits in 1993 to launch its new Quilted Northern brand, and more surveys followed:
In 1993, American Standard Brands
conducted a poll of "designers, contractors, dealers, distributors and other bath and kitchen reps" at the Kitchen/Bath Industry Show & Conference
in Atlanta, Georgia
. The question: "What is the correct and only way to hang the toilet paper – under or over?" Over won 59% of the vote, 1,826 to 1,256. American Standard spokeswoman Nora Monroe observed, "The bathroom is a territorial place. You'd be surprised how many people have definite opinions on this issue." In 2008, American Standard commissioned the 2008 Bathroom Habits Survey, a more traditional format conducted by Opinion Research Corporation
with 1,001 respondents. This time, "three-quarters" answered over.
In 1995, a survey by Scott Paper Company
's "Cottonelle College of Freshness Knowledge" had "most Americans over 50" preferring over. In another Cottonelle
survey in 1999, 68% of respondents preferred over to 25% under. Columnist Bonnie Henry hypothesizes of the others: "Meanwhile, 7 percent – no doubt bored beyond belief at this point by the inane questioning – had slipped into a deep, irreversible coma."
On January 27, 2010, the 100th anniversary of Thomas Crapper
's death, Cottonelle launched a "Great Debate" advertising campaign, inviting American consumers to vote their preference at a Kimberly-Clark website. The result was announced during the 82nd Academy Awards
: 72% had voted over. In a more traditional preliminary survey of 1,000 Americans, Cottonelle found that "overs" are more likely than "unders" to notice a roll's direction (74%), to be annoyed when the direction is incorrect (24%), and to have flipped the direction at a friend's home (27%).
Besides orientation, toilet paper manufacturers and survey authors have studied other private practices around toilet paper: how much is used; whether it is torn off with one hand or two; whether it is torn off right-to-left or left-to-right; and whether it is crumpled or folded before use.
The book does not note the number of respondents in each segment, so it is difficult to say whether any of the deviations are statistically significant, but there does not seem to be a difference between men's and women's preferences. Nonetheless, such a difference has been claimed by other authors, in both directions. The American Standard conference poll concluded: "Many men voted for over, saying it made the paper easier to reach." Inventor Curtis Batts arrives at a different conclusion from his personal experience: "Women like it over, and men like it under. I think it bugs women when it touches the wall." Advice columnist Ms Maud of The Press
asserts that women prefer over because they are "logical thinkers".
A Cottonelle survey indicated that men were more likely than women to notice, and become annoyed with, a toilet roll hung against their preference.
A popular-culture occurrence of a gender theory is found in the Weekly World News
, a supermarket tabloid that runs outlandish stories for comedic effect. In the 2003 story North Korea Shocker!, the WWN claims that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il
is secretly female
. As supporting evidence, Kim supposedly watches the Home Shopping Network
, is a member of Oprah's Book Club
, and "Yells at staffers who leave the toilet seat up and hang toilet paper rolls outward instead of inward."
According to W. C. Privy's Original Bathroom Companion, Number 2, "By more than 4 to 1, older folks prefer to have their toilet paper dispense over the front." The same claim is made by James Buckley's The Bathroom Companion for people older than 50.
In one local election
in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, new voting machine
s were given a trial run by asking the question, "Are you in favor of toilet paper in all public washrooms being installed with the loose end coming up and over the front of the roll?" The answer was yes: 768 to 196, or 80% over. It was thought to be a question "which carried no political association". Yet one teenager's science project
at the Southern Appalachian Science and Engineering Fair, and a favorite of the fair's coordinator, was a survey concluding that liberals
roll over while conservatives
roll under.
s evolving from Carl Jung
's work: Socializer, Director, Thinker, and Relater. Breithaupt writes that toilet paper management is an important detail for Thinkers, while Directors don't care so long as the paper is available. In her 2001 book Three Keys to Self-Understanding, Pat Wyman locates having an opinion on toilet paper hanging on the Enneagram of Personality
, which classifies people as Ones, Twos, Threes, and so on: "Ones know the answer to such dilemmas."
Gilda Carle, a therapist and Cottonelle consultant, offers her theories on character traits:
David Grimes, a columnist, takes a more sarcastic attitude towards bathroom-informed personality test
s:
A reporter for the trade journal
Fund Action relays a story of a mutual fund
firm that profiled job candidates with questions that would be analyzed by a psychologist
. One of the questions was "Which way do you hang toilet paper? So it unrolls from the front or the back?". The story does not reveal the name of the firm or its preferred answer.
Even at the Amundsen–Scott Research Station at the South Pole
, complaints have been raised over which way to install toilet paper. During the six-month-long polar night
, a few dozen residents are stuck living together, and while many of the headaches of modern life are far away, food and hygiene are not. Despite the challenges posed by the hostile Antarctic climate, "It is in the more mundane trials of everyday life that personality clashes are revealed."
Batts explains that his parents argued over toilet paper placement "all the time", as do he and his wife; the device's motto is "Let Tilt-A-Roll save your marriage!" The Tilt-A-Roll has been featured on a variety of newspapers, magazines, radio interviews, and TV shows, including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
. Batts entered the Tilt-A-Roll at the 1999 INPEX invention show, the world's largest invention show with 800 inventions, and it won third place "for its appeal and simplicity".
Batts started out constructing the devices in a workshop in his garage. He explains, "I've had a few sleepless nights where I went 24 hours making these things. I've got to find a manufacturer for it. I can't keep up with the volume." As of 2000, Batts was still "in the process of selecting a distributor"; he has tried The Home Depot
and QVC
. As of 2008, the Tilt-A-Roll is on sale at Batt's website.
An inventor named Rocky Hutson demonstrated a similar device he called the T.P. Swivel to the producers of the television program PitchMen
in late 2009. Of 173 entrants gathered at Ybor City, Tampa, Florida
, Hutson was one of the 20 chosen to pitch their products to Anthony Sullivan. For his part, Hutson pulls his paper from the top of the roll.
Another solution: install two toilet paper dispensers, as is more common in public restrooms and hotels. A reader of the Annie's Mailbox column recommends using a holder large enough to fit two rolls, noting that the roll mounted over is more popular. Another reader sidesteps the issue by foregoing the holder, instead piling five or six rolls in a big wicker basket. Even using separate bathrooms can help. Other solutions include vertical holders, or simply not using a toilet roll holder at all.
, toilet paper enthusiast named Bill Jarrett argues that previous polls have been too small. He wants a national referendum
with a least one million votes, with the result to decide a "national toilet paper hanging way" to be enforced by "the toilet paper police". Jarrett refuses to reveal his own preference; he even removed the toilet paper from his house's bathrooms before inviting in an AP
reporter for an interview. "I'm not saying because I don't want to influence the vote." Voting requires the purchase of a $5 debate kit. His value proposition to the nation: assuming that one can spend half an hour per year searching for the end of the toilet paper, the United States should save 90 million hours at home per year—and $300 million at the workplace.
Toilet paper orientation has been used rhetorically as the ultimate issue that government has no business dictating, in letters to the editor protesting the regulation of noise pollution
and stricter requirements to get a divorce
. In 2006, protesting New Hampshire
's ban on smoking in restaurants and bars, representative Ralph Boehm (R
-Litchfield
) asked "Will we soon be told which direction the toilet paper must hang from the roll?"
In a column in the Houston Chronicle
, Jack Brewer observes that it only takes five seconds to turn the roll "the right way" around (over), which is much less than the time it takes to "start a fuss" with his wife.
In a column in The Grand Rapids Press, Karin Orr relates her chance discovery that her husband and sister both turn the toilet paper around in others' houses—and in opposite directions. Orr writes, "You just can never really know another person."
David O'Connor's 2005 book Henderson's House Rules: The Official Guide to Replacing the Toilet Paper and Other Domestic Topics of Great Dispute aims to solve disagreements with a minimum of debate or compromise by offering authoritative, reasonable rules. The "House Rule" for toilet paper is over and out, and a full page is dedicated to a diagram of this orientation. But O'Connor writes that "if a female household member has a strong preference for the toilet paper to hang over and in, against the wall, that preference prevails. It is admittedly an odd preference, but women use toilet paper far more often than men—hence the rule."
) was once asked which way toilet paper should hang. She answered under, prompting thousands of letters in protest; she then recommended over, prompting thousands more. She reflected that the 15,000 letters made toilet paper the most controversial issue in her column's 31-year history, wondering, "With so many problems in the world, why were thousands of people making an issue of tissue?"
In November 1986, Landers told the Canadian Commercial Travellers Association that "Fine-quality toilet paper has designs that are right side up" in the over position. In 1996, she explained the issue on The Oprah Winfrey Show
, where 68% of the studio audience
favored over; Oprah
suggested that under uses more paper. In 1998, she wrote that the issue "seems destined to go on forever", insisting, "In spite of the fact that an overwhelming number of people prefer the roll hung so that the paper comes over the top, I still prefer to have the paper hanging close to the wall." On the day of her last column in 2002, Landers wrote, "P.S. The toilet paper hangs over the top." Her commentary on the issue has even continued after her death. 2005 saw the premiere of a one-woman play written by David Rambo
: a character study of Ann Landers titled The Lady with All the Answers. Toilet paper comes up once again, and the actress surveys the audience for their opinions.
In his article in Teaching Sociology, Burns writes that the toilet paper hanging exercise is valuable in part because "[the] subject matter is familiar to everybody; everyone is an expert, and everyone has an opinion." The media have published the opinions of entertainers, advice columnists, and businesspeople, including the following:
Over
Indifferent
Under
Toilet paper
Toilet paper is a soft paper product used to maintain personal hygiene after human defecation or urination. However, it can also be used for other purposes such as blowing one's nose when one has a cold or absorbing common spills around the house, although paper towels are more used for the latter...
when used with toilet roll holder
Toilet roll holder
A toilet roll holder, also known as a toilet paper dispenser, is an item that holds a roll of toilet paper. There are at least five types of holders:# A horizontal piece of wire mounted on a hinge, hanging from a door or wall....
with a horizontal axle
Axle
An axle is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to its surroundings, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, bearings or bushings are provided at the mounting points where the axle...
parallel
Parallel (geometry)
Parallelism is a term in geometry and in everyday life that refers to a property in Euclidean space of two or more lines or planes, or a combination of these. The assumed existence and properties of parallel lines are the basis of Euclid's parallel postulate. Two lines in a plane that do not...
to the wall has two possible orientations: the toilet paper
Toilet paper
Toilet paper is a soft paper product used to maintain personal hygiene after human defecation or urination. However, it can also be used for other purposes such as blowing one's nose when one has a cold or absorbing common spills around the house, although paper towels are more used for the latter...
may hang over (in front) or under (behind) the roll. The choice is largely a matter of personal preference, dictated by habit
Habit (psychology)
Habits are routines of behavior that are repeated regularly and tend to occur subconsciously. Habitual behavior often goes unnoticed in persons exhibiting it, because a person does not need to engage in self-analysis when undertaking routine tasks...
. In surveys of American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
consumers and of bath and kitchen specialists, 60–70% of respondents prefer over.
Despite its being a trivial topic, people often hold strong opinions on the matter. Advice columnist Ann Landers said that the subject was the most controversial issue in her column's history. Defenders of either position cite advantages ranging from aesthetics, hospitality, and cleanliness to paper conservation and the ease of detaching individual squares. Celebrities and experts are found on both sides. The reasons behind each person's choice have been analyzed by several studies with theories ranging from age, sex, socioeconomic status to political philosophy. It has also been suggested that preference for under may correlate with ownership of a recreational vehicle
Recreational vehicle
Recreational vehicle or RV is, in North America, the usual term for a Motor vehicle or trailer equipped with living space and amenities found in a home.-Features:...
or a cat
Cat
The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
.
Solutions range from compromise, to using separate dispensers or separate bathrooms entirely. One man advocates a plan under which his country will standardize on a single forced orientation, and at least one inventor hopes to popularize a new kind of toilet roll holder which swivels from one orientation to the other.
Context and relevance
In the article "Bathroom Politics: Introducing Students to Sociological Thinking from the Bottom Up", Eastern Institute of TechnologyEastern Institute of Technology
The Eastern Institute of Technology is a public Tertiary Education Institution in the Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand.It is also referred to as EIT Hawke's Bay or simply EIT. EIT serves as the main regional higher education centre for Hawke's Bay...
sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
professor Edgar Alan Burns describes some reasons why toilet paper politics is worthy of examination. On the first day of Burns' introductory course in sociology, he asks his students, "Which way do you think a roll of toilet paper should hang?" In the following fifty minutes, the students examine why they picked their answers, exploring the social construction of "rules and practices which they have never consciously thought about before". They make connections to larger themes of sociology, including gender role
Gender role
Gender roles refer to the set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture, which differ widely between cultures and over time...
s, the public
Public sphere
The public sphere is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action...
and private sphere
Private sphere
The private sphere is the complement or opposite to the public sphere. The private sphere is a certain sector of societal life in which an individual enjoys a degree of authority, unhampered by interventions from governmental or other institutions. Examples of the private sphere are family and home...
s, race and ethnicity, social class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
, and age. Moreover, Burns argues that there is an additional lesson:
Burns' activity has been adopted by a social psychology
Social psychology
Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. By this definition, scientific refers to the empirical method of investigation. The terms thoughts, feelings, and behaviors include all...
course at the University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
, where it is used to illustrate the principles of Berger
Peter L. Berger
Peter Ludwig Berger is an Austrian-born American sociologist well known for his work, co-authored with Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge .-Biography:...
and Luckmann
Thomas Luckmann
Thomas Luckmann is a German sociologist of Slovene origin. His main areas of research are the sociology of communication, Sociology of knowledge, sociology of religion, and the philosophy of science.- Biography :...
's 1966 classic The Social Construction of Reality
The Social Construction of Reality
The Social Construction of Reality is a book about the sociology of knowledge written by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann and published in 1966....
. Similar everyday topics that have been used to awaken the sociological imagination
Sociological imagination
The term sociological imagination was coined by the American sociologist C. Wright Mills in 1959, to describe the type of insight offered by the discipline of sociology...
include games of tic-tac-toe
Tic-tac-toe
Tic-tac-toe, also called wick wack woe and noughts and crosses , is a pencil-and-paper game for two players, X and O, who take turns marking the spaces in a 3×3 grid. The X player usually goes first...
, violations of personal space
Personal space
Personal space is the region surrounding a person which they regard as psychologically theirs. Most people value their personal space and feel discomfort, anger, or anxiety when their personal space is encroached. Permitting a person to enter personal space and entering somebody else's personal...
, the rules of walking, and the etiquette by which men choose urinals in public restrooms.
Christopher Peterson, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
, classifies the choice of toilet paper orientation under "tastes, preferences, and interests" as opposed to either values
Value (personal and cultural)
A personal or cultural value is an absolute or relative ethical value, the assumption of which can be the basis for ethical action. A value system is a set of consistent values and measures. A principle value is a foundation upon which other values and measures of integrity are based...
or "attitudes, traits, norms, and needs". Other personal interests include one's favorite cola or baseball team. Interests are an important part of identity
Identity (social science)
Identity is a term used to describe a person's conception and expression of their individuality or group affiliations . The term is used more specifically in psychology and sociology, and is given a great deal of attention in social psychology...
; one expects and prefers that different people have different interests, which serves one's "sense of uniqueness". Differences in interests usually lead at most to teasing and gentle chiding. For most people, interests don't cause the serious divisions caused by conflicts of values; a possible exception is what Peterson calls "the 'get a life' folks among us" who elevate interests into moral issues.
Morton Ann Gernsbacher
Morton Ann Gernsbacher
Morton Ann Gernsbacher is Vilas Research Professor and Sir Frederic Bartlett Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is a specialist in autism and psycholinguistics and has written and edited professional and lay books and over 100 peer-reviewed articles and book...
, a professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
, compares the orientation of toilet paper to the orientation of cutlery in a dishwasher, the choice of which drawer in a chest of drawers
Chest of drawers
A chest of drawers, also called a dresser or a bureau, is a piece of furniture that has multiple parallel, horizontal drawers stacked one above another...
to place one's socks, and the order of shampooing one's hair and lathering one's body in the shower. In each choice, there is a prototypical solution chosen by the majority, and it is tempting to offer simplistic explanations of how the minority must be different. She warns that neuroimaging
Neuroimaging
Neuroimaging includes the use of various techniques to either directly or indirectly image the structure, function/pharmacology of the brain...
experiments—which as of 2007 were beginning to probe behaviors from mental rotation
Mental rotation
Mental rotation is the ability to rotate mental representations of two-dimensional and three-dimensional objects.-Introduction:Mental rotation is somewhat localized to the right cerebral hemisphere. It is thought to take place largely in the same areas as perception...
and facial expression
Facial expression
A facial expression one or more motions or positions of the muscles in the skin. These movements convey the emotional state of the individual to observers. Facial expressions are a form of nonverbal communication. They are a primary means of conveying social information among humans, but also occur...
s to grocery shopping and tickling
Tickling
Tickling is the act of touching a part of the body so as to cause involuntary twitching movements and/or laughter. The word evolved from the Middle English tikelen, perhaps frequentative of ticken, to touch lightly. The idiom tickled pink means to be pleased or delighted.In 1897, psychologists G...
—must strive to avoid such cultural bias
Cultural bias
Cultural bias is the phenomenon of interpreting and judging phenomena by standards inherent to one's own culture. The phenomenon is sometimes considered a problem central to social and human sciences, such as economics, psychology, anthropology, and sociology...
and stereotype
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
s.
In his book Conversational Capital
Conversational Capital
Conversational Capital: How to Create Stuff People Love to Talk About is a book about engineering word-of-mouth into brand experiences. Contrary to the conventional theories of mass marketing literature, which teach that one must scream something ten times to be heard once, the authors teach that...
, Bertrand Cesvet gives toilet paper placement as an example of ritual
Ritual
A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers....
ized behavior—one of the ways designers and marketers can create a memorable experience around a product that leads to word-of-mouth momentum. Cesvet's other examples include shaking a box of Tic Tacs and dissecting Oreo
Oreo
Oreo is a trademark for a popular sandwich cookie by the Nabisco Division of Kraft Foods. The current design consists of a sweet, white filling commonly referred to as 'cream' or 'creme', sandwiched between two circular chocolate or golden cookie pieces....
cookies.
Sometimes toilet paper is simply entertaining. In between songs at a concert, John Hiatt
John Hiatt
John Hiatt is an American rock guitarist, pianist, singer, and songwriter. He has played a variety of musical styles on his albums, including New Wave, blues and country. Hiatt has been nominated for several Grammy Awards - although he has never won- and has been awarded a variety of other...
will sometimes tell the tale of his wife switching her preference. Broadcaster Jim Bohannon
Jim Bohannon
James E. "Jim" Bohannon is an American broadcaster who has worked in both television and radio.During the 1980s he was a fill-in for Larry King when King had his popular nighttime national radio program. He also does much work with the Smithsonian Associates...
, who once spent an hour on toilet paper orientation, explains that such issues are good for talk radio
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
: "It is an interactive medium, a certain kind of clash, it doesn't have to be a violent clash, but at least a disagreement would certainly be at the top of the list. It has to be something that's of general interest."
There is a difficulty in the medium of television: on the major American networks
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
and CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, as of 1987, toilet paper was not allowed to be shown hanging next to the toilet. The 1970s sitcom All in the Family
All in the Family
All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...
was the first show to include a discussion of toilet paper, when Archie
Archie Bunker
Archibald "Archie" Bunker is a fictional New Yorker in the 1970s top-rated American television sitcom All in the Family and its spin-off Archie Bunker's Place, played to acclaim by Carroll O'Connor. Bunker is a veteran of World War II, reactionary, bigoted, conservative, blue-collar worker, and...
yelled at Meathead
Michael Stivic
Michael Casimir Stivic is a fictional character on the long running American television sitcom of the 1970s, All in the Family. He was the live-in son-in-law of the series's lead character, the bigoted and undereducated Archie Bunker, who frequently called him "Meathead". Michael was the husband...
for hanging the paper under. In a 1995 episode of The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily
Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily
"Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily" is the third episode of The Simpsons seventh season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 1, 1995. In the episode, the Simpson children are put in the custody of Ned and Maude Flanders after a series of misadventures. Homer and...
", the children are confiscated by Child Protective Services
Child Protective Services
Child Protective Services is the name of a governmental agency in many states of the United States that responds to reports of child abuse or neglect. Some states use other names, often attempting to reflect more family-centered practices, such as "Department of Children & Family Services"...
, who hand Marge
Marge Simpson
Marjorie "Marge" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the eponymous family. She is voiced by actress Julie Kavner and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
a note citing her home as a "squalid hellhole" where the toilet paper is "hung in improper overhand fashion".
Preliminaries
In their 2006 book Why Not?, Barry NalebuffBarry Nalebuff
Barry Nalebuff is Milton Steinbach Professor of Management at Yale School of Management. He is an expert in business strategy and game theory, as well as many other topics.-Education:Graduated Highschool at Belmont Hill School...
and Ian Ayres
Ian Ayres
Ian Ayres is an American academic who is the William K. Townsend Professor at the Yale Law School and a Professor at the Yale School of Management.-Biography:...
write that the debate over toilet paper is a debate about symmetry
Symmetry
Symmetry generally conveys two primary meanings. The first is an imprecise sense of harmonious or aesthetically pleasing proportionality and balance; such that it reflects beauty or perfection...
. (They also write that too much paper has been wasted on the issue, and that they prefer over.) By taking an approximately symmetric situation and flipping it around, one can sometimes arrive at a new solution to a problem with its own surprising advantages. Other physical examples include peeling a banana from the apex rather than the pedicel
Pedicel (botany)
A pedicel is a stem that attaches single flowers to the main stem of the inflorescence. It is the branches or stalks that hold each flower in an inflorescence that contains more than one flower....
, or steering a car from the rear rather than the front.
There is a reflection symmetry
Reflection symmetry
Reflection symmetry, reflectional symmetry, line symmetry, mirror symmetry, mirror-image symmetry, or bilateral symmetry is symmetry with respect to reflection. That is, a figure which does not change upon undergoing a reflection has reflectional symmetry.In 2D there is a line of symmetry, in 3D a...
between the left and right sides of the roll, so whether it rotates clockwise or counterclockwise
Clockwise
Circular motion can occur in two possible directions. A clockwise motion is one that proceeds in the same direction as a clock's hands: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back to the top...
is ambiguous; it depends on one's point of view. The up/down and front/back
Relative direction
The most common relative directions are left, right, forward, backward, up, and down. No absolute direction corresponds to any of the relative directions. This is a consequence of the translational invariance of the laws of physics: nature, loosely speaking, behaves the same no matter what...
symmetries are broken by the force of gravity and the locations of the wall and the user, so one can distinguish between two orientations:
- Over: the end hangs away from the wall and dispenses over the top of the roll when pulled.
- Under: the end hangs next to the wall and dispenses under the bottom of the roll.
This nomenclature can also be read ambiguously. In 1991, a customer wrote to Herb Kelleher
Herb Kelleher
Herbert D. Kelleher is the co-founder, Chairman Emeritus, and former CEO of Southwest Airlines .-Life and career:...
, chairman of Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines Co. is an American low-cost airline based in Dallas, Texas. Southwest is the largest airline in the United States, based upon domestic passengers carried,...
, with an unusual complaint: "Dear Herb: ... Last week in my journey to SFO someone put the toilet paper in wrong. Any damn fool knows the papers come out the bottom of the roll and not over the top. I couldn't figure out how to correct the error ..." Kelleher replied, copying
Carbon copy
Carbon copying, abbreviated cc or c.c., is the technique of using carbon paper to produce one or more copies simultaneously during the creation of paper documents...
his senior management
Senior management
Senior management, executive management, or management team is generally a team of individuals at the highest level of organizational management who have the day-to-day responsibilities of managing a company or corporation, they hold specific executive powers conferred onto them with and by...
committee, general counsel
General Counsel
A general counsel is the chief lawyer of a legal department, usually in a corporation or government department. The term is most used in the United States...
, and customer relations manager: "Dear Jim: What the hell were you doing upside down in our lavatory?" Kevin and Jackie Freiberg cite this episode in their book Nuts! as an example of Southwest's unconventional approach to customer service.
There are other everyday objects that dispense a sheet of material from a roll: fax machines, cash register
Cash register
A cash register or till is a mechanical or electronic device for calculating and recording sales transactions, and an attached cash drawer for storing cash...
s, plastic wrap
Plastic wrap
Plastic wrap, cling film , cling wrap or food wrap, is a thin plastic film typically used for sealing food items in containers to keep them fresh over a longer period of time...
, aluminum foil, and parchment paper
Parchment paper (baking)
Parchment paper and bakery release paper are cellulose-based papers that are used in baking as a disposable non-stick surface. Both are also called bakery paper.-Parchment paper:...
. One columnist who believes in the importance of toilet paper orientation writes, "all have to exit in the correct direction or it doesn't work, or you cut yourself, or both."
Arguments
The main reasons given by people to explain why they hang their toilet paper a given way are ease of grabbing and habit. Some particular advantages cited for each orientation include:- Over reduces the risk of accidentally brushing the wall or cabinet with one's knuckles, potentially transferring grime and germs.
- Over makes it easier to visually locate and to grasp the loose end.
- Over gives hotels, cruise ships, office buildings, public places and homeowners with guest bathrooms the option to fold over the last sheet to show that the room has been cleaned. See hotel toilet paper folding.
- Over is generally the intended direction of viewing for the manufacturer's branding, so patterned toilet paper looks better this way.
- Under provides a tidier appearance, in that the loose end can be more hidden from view.
- Under reduces the risk that a toddler or a house pet, such as a dog or cat, will completely unroll the toilet paper when batting at the roll.
- Under in a recreational vehicleRecreational vehicleRecreational vehicle or RV is, in North America, the usual term for a Motor vehicle or trailer equipped with living space and amenities found in a home.-Features:...
may reduce unrolling during driving.
Partisans have claimed that each method makes it easier to tear the toilet paper on a perforated sheet boundary, depending on the direction of pulling and the use of a second hand to stabilize the roll. (A traveller from the U.S. to China in 1991 noted a different setup: non-perforated paper with a metal cutter above the roll, which obligates the over direction.)
It is unclear if one orientation is more economical than the other. The Centralian Advocate attributes a claim that over saves on paper usage to Planet Green. A reader of The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register
The Orange County Register is a daily newspaper published in Santa Ana, California. The Register is the flagship publication of Freedom Communications, Inc., which publishes 28 daily newspapers, 23 weekly newspapers, Coast magazine, and several related Internet sites.The Register is notable for its...
found a "six-month study" by a "university in the U.S." that came to the same conclusion. But a reader of the Cape Argus
Cape Argus
Founded in 1857 by Saul Solomon, the Cape Argus is a daily newspaper published by Independent News & Media in Cape Town, South Africa. It is commonly referred to simply as "The Argus"....
wrote that a "British loo paper manufacturer" came to the opposite conclusion. In his humor compilation How Hemlines Predict the Economy, Peter FitzSimons
Peter FitzSimons
Peter John FitzSimons AM is an Australian journalist and author, based in Sydney. He is a former radio presenter and national representative rugby union player.-Early life:...
writes that placing the hanging flap against the wall "is generally twice as economical".
In the academic field of evaluation
Evaluation
Evaluation is systematic determination of merit, worth, and significance of something or someone using criteria against a set of standards.Evaluation often is used to characterize and appraise subjects of interest in a wide range of human enterprises, including the arts, criminal justice,...
, Michael Scriven
Michael Scriven
Michael Scriven is a British-born academic, with a first degree in mathematics and a doctorate in philosophy. He has made significant contributions in the fields of philosophy, psychology, critical thinking, and, most notably, evaluation .He has produced over 400 scholarly publications and has...
writes that the question of the correct way to insert toilet paper is a "one-item aptitude test" for measuring one's evaluation skills. These skills include the evaluative attitude, practical logical analysis, empathy, teaching, and being a quick study. To prove one's competence, one may either derive the "one right answer" or prove that the test is or is not culturally biased.
Survey results
The question "Do you prefer that your toilet tissue unwinds over or under the spool?" is featured on the cover of Barry Sinrod and Mel Poretz's 1989 book The First Really Important Survey of American Habits. The overall result: 68% chose over. Sinrod explained, "To me, the essence of the book is the toilet paper question ... Either people don't care, or they care so much that they practically cause bodily injury to one another." Poretz observed, "The toilet-paper question galvanizes people almost like the Miller LiteMiller Lite
Miller Lite is a 4.2% abv pale lager brand sold by MillerCoors of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Sibling beers include Miller Genuine Draft and Miller High Life.-History:...
tastes-great/less-filling commercial."
In Bernice Kanner's 1995 book Are You Normal?, 53% of survey respondents prefer over, while "a fourth" prefer under and 8% don't know or care.
Sitting Pretty: The History of the Toilet, a travelling exhibition
Travelling exhibition
A travelling exhibition, also referred to as a "travelling exhibit" or a "touring exhibition", is a type of exhibition that is available for circulation to one or more venues in addition to the premises of the organiser....
that tours Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
museums, asks visitors to register their preferred roll direction. When the exhibition reached Huntsville, Ontario
Huntsville, Ontario
Huntsville is a town in the Muskoka Region of Ontario, Canada. It is located north of Toronto and south of North Bay....
, in June 2001, 13,000 visitors had taken the survey, with 67% preferring over. At the Saint Boniface Museum in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
in February 2005, a voting machine registered 5,831 over versus 5,679 under, or 51% over. Saint Boniface's director noted, "I think there's been some cheating, though."
Georgia-Pacific
Georgia-Pacific
Georgia-Pacific LLC is an American pulp and paper company based in Atlanta, Georgia, and is one of the world's leading manufacturers and distributors of tissue, pulp, paper, packaging, building products and related chemicals. As of Fall 2010, the company employed more than 40,000 people at more...
commissioned a survey of Americans' bathroom habits in 1993 to launch its new Quilted Northern brand, and more surveys followed:
- 1993 Practices and Preferences of Toilet Paper Users: 73% over out of 1,200 respondents. The press release claims, "A first-of-its-kind survey has settled, once and for all, the great toilet paper debate."
- 1994 Toilet Paper Report: 59% over, out of 1,000 respondents; conducted by KRC Research and Consulting
- 1995 Bathroom Tissue Report: 59% over versus 29% under, out of 1,000 respondents; conducted by KRC Research and Consulting
- 2001 Bathroom Confidential: 63% over out of 1,001 respondents; conducted by Impulse Research
- 2004 Bathroom Confidential: 72% over
In 1993, American Standard Brands
American Standard Brands
American Standard Brands is a closely held manufacturer of plumbing fixtures, sold under the American Standard, Crane, Fiat, Sanymetal, Showerite and Eljer brand names, based in Piscataway Township, New Jersey, United States. It is principally owned by Sun Capital Partners with Bain Capital...
conducted a poll of "designers, contractors, dealers, distributors and other bath and kitchen reps" at the Kitchen/Bath Industry Show & Conference
Kitchen/Bath Industry Show & Conference
The Kitchen & Bath Industry Show & Conference or ' is owned by the National Kitchen & Bath Association ; sponsored by Kitchen & Bath Business Magazine; and produced by Nielsen Expositions. KBIS is the world's largest international trade event dedicated to the kitchen and bath industry...
in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
. The question: "What is the correct and only way to hang the toilet paper – under or over?" Over won 59% of the vote, 1,826 to 1,256. American Standard spokeswoman Nora Monroe observed, "The bathroom is a territorial place. You'd be surprised how many people have definite opinions on this issue." In 2008, American Standard commissioned the 2008 Bathroom Habits Survey, a more traditional format conducted by Opinion Research Corporation
Opinion Research Corporation
Opinion Research Corporation, based in Princeton, New Jersey, is a demographic, health, and market research company. It was founded in 1938 by Claude Robinson and George Gallup, although Gallup quickly left the firm in 1939....
with 1,001 respondents. This time, "three-quarters" answered over.
In 1995, a survey by Scott Paper Company
Scott Paper Company
The Scott Paper Company is a USA-based corporation which manufactures mostly paper based consumer products.Scott Paper was founded in 1879 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by brothers E. Irvin and Clarence Scott, and is often credited as being the first to market toilet paper sold on a roll...
's "Cottonelle College of Freshness Knowledge" had "most Americans over 50" preferring over. In another Cottonelle
Cottonelle
Cottonelle is a toilet paper brand produced by Kimberly Clark. The company has made several different toilet paper types such as regular, Cottonelle Double, Cottonelle Ultra, Cottonelle Aloe & E, Cottonelle Kids, and Cottonelle Extra Strength....
survey in 1999, 68% of respondents preferred over to 25% under. Columnist Bonnie Henry hypothesizes of the others: "Meanwhile, 7 percent – no doubt bored beyond belief at this point by the inane questioning – had slipped into a deep, irreversible coma."
On January 27, 2010, the 100th anniversary of Thomas Crapper
Thomas Crapper
Thomas Crapper was a plumber who founded Thomas Crapper & Co. in London. Contrary to widespread misconceptions, Crapper did not invent the flush toilet. He did, however, do much to increase the popularity of the toilet, and developed some important related inventions, such as the ballcock...
's death, Cottonelle launched a "Great Debate" advertising campaign, inviting American consumers to vote their preference at a Kimberly-Clark website. The result was announced during the 82nd Academy Awards
82nd Academy Awards
The 82nd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , honored the best films of 2009 and took place March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. The ceremony was scheduled well after...
: 72% had voted over. In a more traditional preliminary survey of 1,000 Americans, Cottonelle found that "overs" are more likely than "unders" to notice a roll's direction (74%), to be annoyed when the direction is incorrect (24%), and to have flipped the direction at a friend's home (27%).
Besides orientation, toilet paper manufacturers and survey authors have studied other private practices around toilet paper: how much is used; whether it is torn off with one hand or two; whether it is torn off right-to-left or left-to-right; and whether it is crumpled or folded before use.
Sex and age
Poretz and Sinrod break down the results of their 1989 survey by sex and age. These are the percentages of respondents who roll their paper over:| | 21–34 | | 35–44 | | 45–54 | | 55 + | | Total | Grand total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 71% | 81% | 60% | 63% | 69% | |
| Female | 81% | 65% | 62% | 83% | 67% | |
The book does not note the number of respondents in each segment, so it is difficult to say whether any of the deviations are statistically significant, but there does not seem to be a difference between men's and women's preferences. Nonetheless, such a difference has been claimed by other authors, in both directions. The American Standard conference poll concluded: "Many men voted for over, saying it made the paper easier to reach." Inventor Curtis Batts arrives at a different conclusion from his personal experience: "Women like it over, and men like it under. I think it bugs women when it touches the wall." Advice columnist Ms Maud of The Press
The Press
The Press is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is owned by Fairfax Media.- History :The Press was first published on 25 May 1861 from a small cottage in Montreal Street, making it the oldest surviving newspaper in the South Island of New Zealand. The first...
asserts that women prefer over because they are "logical thinkers".
A Cottonelle survey indicated that men were more likely than women to notice, and become annoyed with, a toilet roll hung against their preference.
A popular-culture occurrence of a gender theory is found in the Weekly World News
Weekly World News
The Weekly World News was a supermarket tabloid published in the United States from 1979 to 2007, renowned for its outlandish cover stories often based on supernatural or paranormal themes and an approach to news that verged on the satirical. Its characteristic black-and-white covers have become...
, a supermarket tabloid that runs outlandish stories for comedic effect. In the 2003 story North Korea Shocker!, the WWN claims that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il
Kim Jong-il
Kim Jong-il, also written as Kim Jong Il, birth name Yuri Irsenovich Kim born 16 February 1941 or 16 February 1942 , is the Supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea...
is secretly female
Passing (gender)
Passing refers to a person's ability to be regarded as a member of the sex or gender with which they physically present. Typically, passing involves a mixture of physical gender cues as well as certain behavioral attributes that tend to be culturally associated with a particular gender...
. As supporting evidence, Kim supposedly watches the Home Shopping Network
Home Shopping Network
Home Shopping Network or HSN began in 1977 as a 24-hour/7 day a week home shopping television network televised via cable, satellite, and some terrestrial channels in the Philippines. HSN can also be shopped online at hsn.com...
, is a member of Oprah's Book Club
Oprah's Book Club
Oprah's Book Club was a book discussion club segment of the American talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show, highlighting books chosen by host Oprah Winfrey. Winfrey started the book club in 1996, selecting a new novel for viewers to read and discuss each month. The Club ended its 15-year run, along with...
, and "Yells at staffers who leave the toilet seat up and hang toilet paper rolls outward instead of inward."
According to W. C. Privy's Original Bathroom Companion, Number 2, "By more than 4 to 1, older folks prefer to have their toilet paper dispense over the front." The same claim is made by James Buckley's The Bathroom Companion for people older than 50.
Class and politics
Sinrod observed of his survey, "60 percent of those who earn $50,000 or more prefer it to be over and 73 percent of those who earn less than $20,000 prefer under". On what that proves: "I don't know, but it's sure interesting."In one local election
Local election
Local elections vary widely across jurisdictions. In electoral systems that roughly follow the Westminster model, a terminology has evolved with roles such as Mayor or Warden to describe the executive of a city, town or region, although the actual means of elections vary...
in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, new voting machine
Voting machine
Voting machines are the total combination of mechanical, electromechanical, or electronic equipment , that is used to define ballots; to cast and count votes; to report or display election results; and to maintain and produce any audit trail information...
s were given a trial run by asking the question, "Are you in favor of toilet paper in all public washrooms being installed with the loose end coming up and over the front of the roll?" The answer was yes: 768 to 196, or 80% over. It was thought to be a question "which carried no political association". Yet one teenager's science project
Science project
A science project is an educational activity for students involving experiments or construction of models in one of the science disciplines. Students may present their science project at a science fair, so they may also call it a science fair project. Science projects may be classified into four...
at the Southern Appalachian Science and Engineering Fair, and a favorite of the fair's coordinator, was a survey concluding that liberals
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
roll over while conservatives
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
roll under.
Character
In his 2003 book 10 Steps to Sales Success, Tim Breithaupt proposes a set of four personality typePersonality type
Personality type refers to the psychological classification of different types of individuals. Personality types are sometimes distinguished from personality traits, with the latter embodying a smaller grouping of behavioral tendencies. Types are sometimes said to involve qualitative differences...
s evolving from Carl Jung
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and...
's work: Socializer, Director, Thinker, and Relater. Breithaupt writes that toilet paper management is an important detail for Thinkers, while Directors don't care so long as the paper is available. In her 2001 book Three Keys to Self-Understanding, Pat Wyman locates having an opinion on toilet paper hanging on the Enneagram of Personality
Enneagram of Personality
The Enneagram of Personality is a model of human personality which is principally used as a typology. Principally developed by Oscar Ichazo and Claudio Naranjo, it is also partly based on earlier teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff...
, which classifies people as Ones, Twos, Threes, and so on: "Ones know the answer to such dilemmas."
Gilda Carle, a therapist and Cottonelle consultant, offers her theories on character traits:
David Grimes, a columnist, takes a more sarcastic attitude towards bathroom-informed personality test
Personality test
-Overview:There are many different types of personality tests. The most common type, the self-report inventory, involves the administration of many questions, or "items", to test-takers who respond by rating the degree to which each item reflects their behavior...
s:
A reporter for the trade journal
Trade journal
A trade magazine, also called a professional magazine, is a magazine published with the intention of target marketing to a specific industry or type of trade. The collective term for this area of publishing is the trade press....
Fund Action relays a story of a mutual fund
Mutual fund
A mutual fund is a professionally managed type of collective investment scheme that pools money from many investors to buy stocks, bonds, short-term money market instruments, and/or other securities.- Overview :...
firm that profiled job candidates with questions that would be analyzed by a psychologist
Psychologist
Psychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...
. One of the questions was "Which way do you hang toilet paper? So it unrolls from the front or the back?". The story does not reveal the name of the firm or its preferred answer.
Consequences
Toilet paper orientation is often mentioned as a hurdle for married couples. The issue may also arise in businesses and public places.Even at the Amundsen–Scott Research Station at the South Pole
South Pole
The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is one of the two points where the Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on the surface of the Earth and lies on the opposite side of the Earth from the North Pole...
, complaints have been raised over which way to install toilet paper. During the six-month-long polar night
Polar night
The polar night occurs when the night lasts for more than 24 hours. This occurs only inside the polar circles. The opposite phenomenon, the polar day, or midnight sun, occurs when the sun stays above the horizon for more than 24 hours.-Description:...
, a few dozen residents are stuck living together, and while many of the headaches of modern life are far away, food and hygiene are not. Despite the challenges posed by the hostile Antarctic climate, "It is in the more mundane trials of everyday life that personality clashes are revealed."
Similar controversies
Domestic strife can arise from many other situations where a household item, such as a tube of toothpaste, is left in the wrong state. Some closely related examples:- Which way should a paper towelPaper towelA paper towel is an absorbent textile made from paper instead of cloth. Unlike cloth towels, paper towels are disposable and intended to be used only once. Paper towels soak up water because they are loosely woven which enables water to travel between them, even against gravity...
hang in the kitchen? When Ann Landers was asked this question in 1997, she replied, "I'm still trying to recover from the flak ... I'm not giving any more advice on how to hang anything." - Should a toilet seat be left up or down? This debate involves a stronger asymmetry between the sexes, as women rarely want the seat up.
- Should a twist tieTwist tie-Overview:A twist tie is a metal wire that is encased in a thin strip of paper or plastic and is used to tie the openings of bags, such as garbage bags or bread bags. A twist tie is used by wrapping it around the item to be fastened, then twisting the ends together...
be tightened clockwise or counter-clockwise? Since some store-bought products are pre-tied by machine, this question also pits consumer against engineer. - For a public restroom stall with a dispenser holding two rolls of paper, Donald KnuthDonald KnuthDonald Ervin Knuth is a computer scientist and Professor Emeritus at Stanford University.He is the author of the seminal multi-volume work The Art of Computer Programming. Knuth has been called the "father" of the analysis of algorithms...
proposes classifying users into big-choosers (those who take paper from the roll that is currently larger) and little-choosers (those who do the opposite). Letting
denote the probability that a random user is a big-chooser and 
that of a little-chooser, Knuth uses contour integration and generating functions to find the expected number of sheets left on the larger roll when the smaller one runs out. He shows (Theorem 1) that if 
is of order at least 
, then
- where
is an arbitrary parameter larger than 4pq and n is the number of sheets in a roll. He also separately analyzes the case where p=q.
Solutions
Some of the proposed solutions to this problem involve more or better technology, while others concentrate on human behavior.Mechanical
The Tilt-A-Roll is a swiveling toilet paper dispenser invented by Curtis Batts, a Dallas-native industrial engineer. His patents on the invention published in 1996 and 1997, and , summarize its design:Batts explains that his parents argued over toilet paper placement "all the time", as do he and his wife; the device's motto is "Let Tilt-A-Roll save your marriage!" The Tilt-A-Roll has been featured on a variety of newspapers, magazines, radio interviews, and TV shows, including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jay Leno that initially aired from May 25, 1992 to May 29, 2009, and resumed production on March 1, 2010. The fourth incarnation of the Tonight Show franchise made its debut on May 25, 1992, three days following Johnny...
. Batts entered the Tilt-A-Roll at the 1999 INPEX invention show, the world's largest invention show with 800 inventions, and it won third place "for its appeal and simplicity".
Batts started out constructing the devices in a workshop in his garage. He explains, "I've had a few sleepless nights where I went 24 hours making these things. I've got to find a manufacturer for it. I can't keep up with the volume." As of 2000, Batts was still "in the process of selecting a distributor"; he has tried The Home Depot
The Home Depot
The Home Depot is an American retailer of home improvement and construction products and services.The Home Depot operates 2,248 big-box format stores across the United States , Canada , Mexico and China, with a 12-store chain...
and QVC
QVC
QVC is a multinational corporation specializing in televised home shopping. Founded in 1986 by Joseph Segel in West Goshen Township, Pennsylvania, United States, QVC broadcasts in five countries as QVC US, QVC UK, QVC Germany, QVC Japan and – QVC Italy to 200 million households...
. As of 2008, the Tilt-A-Roll is on sale at Batt's website.
An inventor named Rocky Hutson demonstrated a similar device he called the T.P. Swivel to the producers of the television program PitchMen
PitchMen
PitchMen is a docudrama television program produced for the Discovery Channel in the United States. The show followed infomercial producers and talent Billy Mays and Anthony "Sully" Sullivan as they attempted to sell various inventions through direct-response marketing. The series was narrated by...
in late 2009. Of 173 entrants gathered at Ybor City, Tampa, Florida
Ybor City, Tampa, Florida
Ybor City is a historic neighborhood in Tampa, Florida located just northeast of downtown. It was founded in the 1880s by cigar manufacturers and was populated by thousands of immigrants, mainly from Spain, Cuba, and Italy...
, Hutson was one of the 20 chosen to pitch their products to Anthony Sullivan. For his part, Hutson pulls his paper from the top of the roll.
Another solution: install two toilet paper dispensers, as is more common in public restrooms and hotels. A reader of the Annie's Mailbox column recommends using a holder large enough to fit two rolls, noting that the roll mounted over is more popular. Another reader sidesteps the issue by foregoing the holder, instead piling five or six rolls in a big wicker basket. Even using separate bathrooms can help. Other solutions include vertical holders, or simply not using a toilet roll holder at all.
Behavioral
A Grand Rapids, MichiganGrand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...
, toilet paper enthusiast named Bill Jarrett argues that previous polls have been too small. He wants a national referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
with a least one million votes, with the result to decide a "national toilet paper hanging way" to be enforced by "the toilet paper police". Jarrett refuses to reveal his own preference; he even removed the toilet paper from his house's bathrooms before inviting in an AP
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
reporter for an interview. "I'm not saying because I don't want to influence the vote." Voting requires the purchase of a $5 debate kit. His value proposition to the nation: assuming that one can spend half an hour per year searching for the end of the toilet paper, the United States should save 90 million hours at home per year—and $300 million at the workplace.
Toilet paper orientation has been used rhetorically as the ultimate issue that government has no business dictating, in letters to the editor protesting the regulation of noise pollution
Noise pollution
Noise pollution is excessive, displeasing human, animal or machine-created environmental noise that disrupts the activity or balance of human or animal life...
and stricter requirements to get a divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
. In 2006, protesting New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
's ban on smoking in restaurants and bars, representative Ralph Boehm (R
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
-Litchfield
Litchfield, New Hampshire
- Demographics :As of the census of 2000, there were 7,360 people, 2,357 households, and 2,031 families residing in the town. The population density was 487.5 people per square mile . There were 2,389 housing units at an average density of 158.3 per square mile...
) asked "Will we soon be told which direction the toilet paper must hang from the roll?"
In a column in the Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
, Jack Brewer observes that it only takes five seconds to turn the roll "the right way" around (over), which is much less than the time it takes to "start a fuss" with his wife.
In a column in The Grand Rapids Press, Karin Orr relates her chance discovery that her husband and sister both turn the toilet paper around in others' houses—and in opposite directions. Orr writes, "You just can never really know another person."
David O'Connor's 2005 book Henderson's House Rules: The Official Guide to Replacing the Toilet Paper and Other Domestic Topics of Great Dispute aims to solve disagreements with a minimum of debate or compromise by offering authoritative, reasonable rules. The "House Rule" for toilet paper is over and out, and a full page is dedicated to a diagram of this orientation. But O'Connor writes that "if a female household member has a strong preference for the toilet paper to hang over and in, against the wall, that preference prevails. It is admittedly an odd preference, but women use toilet paper far more often than men—hence the rule."
Noted preferences
Advice columnist Ann Landers (Eppie LedererEppie Lederer
Esther Pauline "Eppie" Lederer , better known by the pseudonym Ann Landers, was an American advice columnist and eventually a nationwide media celebrity who began her career writing the 'Ask Ann Landers' column in 1955, soon after the death of its creator, Ruth Crowley...
) was once asked which way toilet paper should hang. She answered under, prompting thousands of letters in protest; she then recommended over, prompting thousands more. She reflected that the 15,000 letters made toilet paper the most controversial issue in her column's 31-year history, wondering, "With so many problems in the world, why were thousands of people making an issue of tissue?"
In November 1986, Landers told the Canadian Commercial Travellers Association that "Fine-quality toilet paper has designs that are right side up" in the over position. In 1996, she explained the issue on The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
, where 68% of the studio audience
Studio audience
A studio audience is an audience present for the taping of all or part of a television program. The primary purpose of the studio audience is to provide applause and/or laughter to the program's soundtrack . A studio audience can also provide volunteers, a visual backdrop and discussion participants...
favored over; Oprah
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
suggested that under uses more paper. In 1998, she wrote that the issue "seems destined to go on forever", insisting, "In spite of the fact that an overwhelming number of people prefer the roll hung so that the paper comes over the top, I still prefer to have the paper hanging close to the wall." On the day of her last column in 2002, Landers wrote, "P.S. The toilet paper hangs over the top." Her commentary on the issue has even continued after her death. 2005 saw the premiere of a one-woman play written by David Rambo
David Rambo
David Rambo is a writer, actor and producer.He grew up in Spring City, Pennsylvania. His grandmother and mother were librarians which helped develop his lifelong interest in literature and art....
: a character study of Ann Landers titled The Lady with All the Answers. Toilet paper comes up once again, and the actress surveys the audience for their opinions.
In his article in Teaching Sociology, Burns writes that the toilet paper hanging exercise is valuable in part because "[the] subject matter is familiar to everybody; everyone is an expert, and everyone has an opinion." The media have published the opinions of entertainers, advice columnists, and businesspeople, including the following:
Over
- Paul BurrellPaul BurrellPaul Burrell, RVM is a former servant of the British Royal Household. He was a footman for Queen Elizabeth II and later butler to Diana, Princess of Wales...
, butler to Diana, Princess of WalesDiana, Princess of WalesDiana, Princess of Wales was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century...
: "Of course it should be over. If it were down, it would unravel all over the floor. Royals don't have that problem, because they have sheets of tissue which are fanned out into an attractive display and sit in a box." - Hilarie BurtonHilarie BurtonHilarie Ross Burton is an American actress. A former host of MTV's Total Request Live, she portrayed Peyton Sawyer on The CW drama One Tree Hill for six seasons...
, actress: "Over! I hate the under. Why reach further for it than you have to?" - Lincoln Cheng, owner of ZoukZouk (club)Zouk is one of the oldest and most popular nightclubs in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. The club is named after the French Creole word for 'party'. It has won the Singapore Tourism Board's "Best Nightspot Experience" award 6 times, between 1996 to 2007...
: "... so it does not touch the wall and possibly pick up germs." - Paige DavisPaige DavisMindy Paige Davis , billed as Paige Davis, is an American actress best known as a host of the reality television series Trading Spaces.-Early life and career:...
, television host, Trading SpacesTrading SpacesTrading Spaces is an hour-long American television reality program that aired from 2000 to 2008 on the cable channels TLC and Discovery Home. The format of the show was based on the BBC TV series Changing Rooms. The show ran for eight seasons.... - Karen DuffyKaren DuffyKaren Duffy is an American model, television personality, and actress.-Early life:Duffy was born in New York City, the daughter of Carol, a homemaker, and Phil Duffy, a developer. She attended Park Ridge High School in Park Ridge, New Jersey, graduating in 1979...
, actress - Carson Elliott, advice columnist: "This way makes grasping the paper much easier than if it comes from underneath the roll."
- Answer Fella of EsquireEsquire (magazine)Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
and Kenn Fischburg, president of toiletpaperworld.com: "... experts consulted by AF's ass-crack research squadron say TP is properly hung over the top, not underneath. 'I prefer it to be as close to me as possible. - Rae Hill, engineer and manager of Kimberly-Clark's Owensboro, KentuckyOwensboro, KentuckyOwensboro is the fourth largest city by population in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It is the county seat of Daviess County. It is located on U.S. Route 60 about southeast of Evansville, Indiana, and is the principal city of the Owensboro, Kentucky, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's...
tissue mill: "over the top" - Narendra Jaggi, rocket scientist: "Definitely top. You can rip it very easily. You use the other hand to hold like this and rip."
- Daren KagasoffDaren KagasoffDaren Maxwell Kagasoff is an American actor. He currently stars as Ricky Underwood on the ABC Family teen soap, The Secret Life of the American Teenager.-Early life:...
, actor - Ann Landers, advice columnist, who wrote on the day of her last column in 2002, "P.S. The toilet paper hangs over the top."
- Jay LenoJay LenoJames Douglas Muir "Jay" Leno is an American stand-up comedian and television host.From 1992 to 2009, Leno was the host of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Beginning in September 2009, Leno started a primetime talk show, titled The Jay Leno Show, which aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ,...
, comedian. Leno "... will even change the paper at others' houses, saying if people don't have it right, they obviously don't know which way it's supposed to go." - Debi MazarDebi MazarDeborah "Debi" Mazar is an American actress, perhaps best known for her Jersey Girl-type roles; as sharp-tongued women in independent films; and for her recurring role as press agent Shauna Roberts on the HBO series Entourage.-Early life:...
, actress - Ty PenningtonTy PenningtonTygert Bruton "Ty" Pennington is an American television host, model, philanthropist and carpenter. He is most notable for being the host of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition which currently airs on ABC in the US and Ty's Great British Adventure, which airs on UKTV home in the UK and TV LAND...
, television host, Extreme Makeover: Home EditionExtreme Makeover: Home EditionExtreme Makeover: Home Edition is a reality television series providing home renovations for less fortunate families and community schools etc... - Samantha RonsonSamantha RonsonSamantha Judith Ronson is an English singer-songwriter and disc jockey who lives in Los Angeles, California.-Biography:Ronson was born in London and raised in St John's Wood...
, singer-songwriter: "Over! It has to be over. I am maniacally obsessed with that." - The San Francisco State UniversitySan Francisco State UniversitySan Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
faculty club: "Put the roll on 'under,' and the swans would be seen swimming upside down. And, of course, faced with this final crushing blow, the opposition crumbled." - Tori SpellingTori SpellingVictoria Davey "Tori" Spelling is an American actress. Spelling became known in the early 1990s for her role as Donna Martin on Beverly Hills, 90210. Spelling then had roles in a string of made-for-television films, such as A Friend to Die For and Mother, May I Sleep with Danger?...
, actress: "Over is just more chic." - Matt WertzMatt WertzMatt Wertz is a singer/songwriter. Originally from LaVale, MD he now calls Nashville, Tennessee, home. Wertz's interest in music started when he was young, but it was his interest in visual art that led him to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he graduated with a degree in...
, singer-songwriter: "Over the front. It's the only way."
Indifferent
- Annie's Mailbox, advice column by Kathy Mitchell and Marcy Sugar: "If the toilet paper has a pattern, it should roll from the top over. Otherwise, it doesn't matter. Really. However you like it is just fine with us."
- HeloiseHeloise (columnist)Heloise is an American writer, author, and speaker specializing in lifestyle hints, including consumer issues, pets, travel, food, home improvement, and health...
, advice columnist: "Both ways. I try not to get obsessed about these things." - Erik Seidel, brand director for Kimberly-ClarkKimberly-ClarkKimberly-Clark Corporation is an American corporation that produces mostly paper-based consumer products. Kimberly-Clark brand name products include "Kleenex" facial tissue, "Kotex" feminine hygiene products, "Cottonelle", Scott and Andrex toilet paper, Wypall utility wipes, "KimWipes"...
's ScottScott Paper CompanyThe Scott Paper Company is a USA-based corporation which manufactures mostly paper based consumer products.Scott Paper was founded in 1879 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by brothers E. Irvin and Clarence Scott, and is often credited as being the first to market toilet paper sold on a roll...
portfolio: "That's a key debate in my house. The 'under' looks cleaner and neater because you don't see it. The 'over' is more convenient."
Under
- Ann Landers, advice columnist: "I'm very compulsive about it. The toilet paper needs to be hung down along the wall. I'll actually rearrange it myself if I'm over at someone's home and I see it hung over the top."
- Dean McDermottDean McDermottDean McDermott is a Canadian-American actor best known in the United States for having married Victoria Davey "Tori" Spelling, with whom he appeared in the observational documentary shows Tori & Dean: Inn Love and Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood, and for having acted out the role of Constable...
, actor: "Under just says Zen to me. When it rolls over, the toilet paper seems so aggressive. Calmly rolled under, it's symmetrical and orderly and there when I need it." - Mel Poretz, author and marketing executive: "I'm an 'under' and thought we were in the majority by far. I never thought there were civilized people who put toilet paper over the top." "... I married an under-the-roll girl. If not, we'd probably be divorced."
- Gerhard RichterGerhard RichterGerhard Richter is a German visual artist. Richter has simultaneously produced abstract and photorealistic painted works, as well as photographs and glass pieces, thus undermining the concept of the artist’s obligation to maintain a single cohesive style.- Biography :Gerhard Richter was born in...
's 1965 oil painting Klorolle depicts a roll hung under, as a comment on Marcel DuchampMarcel DuchampMarcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...
's FountainFountain (Duchamp)Fountain is a 1917 work by Marcel Duchamp. It is one of the pieces which he called readymades. In such pieces he made use of an already existing object. In this case Duchamp used a urinal, which he titled Fountain and signed "R. Mutt". Readymades also go by the term Found object...
. Unusually, the source material is a photograph he took himself. The third version of the work (CRCatalogue raisonnéThe typical catalogue raisonné is a monograph giving a comprehensive catalogue of artworks by an artist.The essential elements of a catalogue raisonné are that it purports to be an exhaustive list of works for a defined subject matter describing the works in a way so that they may be reliably...
75-3) has been exhibited in six museums, and in 1995, it sold at Sotheby'sSotheby'sSotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...
for £120,000. - Barry Sinrod, author and marketing executive: "I'm an under person, I don't know why."
- Gene WeingartenGene WeingartenGene Weingarten is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist known for both his serious and humorous work...
, journalist: "The main reason is aesthetic. It looks better. I will warrant that 80 to 85 percent of artists, architects and interior decorators have it spool out from below, with the overage hanging against the wall, not flappying down from the top into the middle of the room. I am so right. I am inarguably correct. I cannot even believe we are having this discussion."
Further reading
}}-
- References "a Reader's Digest poll". Primary source unclear.}}
- References a poll by Ric Hanson featured in USA Today.
- Mentions Bob Palmer of Denver's KCNC-TV doing a show on this topic.
- Presents a statistical test to determine gender differences in toilet paper orientation.
External links
- Chris Rugen of CurrentConfig.com offers diagrammed arguments for over and an Overhanging Public Service Hanger Brochure