But behind closed doors, the gloves come off, and we engage in an array of “taboo” behavior that we’re embarrassed to admit. Ironically, statistics show that the majority of us are doing these things, making them perfectly normal behaviors.
While many would deny, here are our most gross private behaviors:
Everybody's Doin' It, Doin' It
Nose picking is often depicted as a habit for the socially-inept or mentally-challenged. In fact, it’s an almost universal habit - surveys have shown, according to BBC that between 70 and 90 percent of adults have picked their noses at least once (which, of course, means more than once), and the average adult picks his or her nose about four times a day. On the extreme end, about one in 500 people have ‘fessed up to spending up to half of the day picking their noses.
Studies have shown that this habit has health benefits, and that the old wives’ tales about the dangers of nose-picking, from damaging the nerves in the nose to getting sick, are greatly exaggerated.
In fact, eating your boogers can actually boost your immune system, and research has shown that this habit may be an evolutionary way of boosting immunity (that’s right, our primate brothers, monkeys, have been caught picking their noses, as well).
That's Zit!
Pimple popping may seem like a disgusting topic of conversation, but for many of us, there is little more gratifying than eliminating a pimple that has taken root in our faces, on our bodies, or on a spouse or partner’s back. There is a strange sense of accomplishment in defeating our pimples, whether it’s squeezing a blackhead out of a clogged pore or popping a painful whitehead.
Unlike nose picking, pimple popping is a widespread habit that does come with its share of risks. For one, you leave yourself vulnerable to scarring when you pop pimples on your face, which is just unsightly. Secondly, and more seriously, you expose yourself to the risk of a bacterial infection.
Our fingers, perhaps more so than any other body part, come in contact with a vast array of bacteria every single day as we touch everything from the counters at Starbucks to the subway stair rails. And when we poke around in our skin, especially engaging in an activity like pimple popping that involves breaking the skin, we are introducing foreign bacteria into a wound, giving it a perfect environment to grow and thrive.
With an ever-increasing prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections, problems that result from zapping those zits may end up requiring a hospitalization or other drastic measures.
Hungry? Give It a Rest... Room
There are many, varied reasons why people have admitted to setting up shop for lunch (or another meal) in the bathroom - ranging from hiding the food that we’re eating to social anxiety that keeps us from being comfortable eating at a table with others. And it’s not just a few outcasts who are eating in the lav.
According to a 2014 study by SCA, a Swedish hygiene company, more than 8 percent of the more than 1,000 American survey participants admit to eating in the restroom.
In addition to the lack of suitable surfaces for placing food and the fact that the bathroom is one of the most germ-infested rooms in the house (then again, so is the kitchen, and that is where our food is prepared, presumably), the study also revealed that ten percent of Americans only “sometimes” wash hands after using the restroom, while one percent say they never do.
Whether these people are the same ones who eat in the restroom is unclear.
Licking Your Wounds
Another one that ratchets up the ick factor is our habit of wound licking, which may seem to rank up there with Puxley Addams’ habits of scab picking. Metaphorically, wound licking is the practice of heading back into our “corners” after a defeat and taking time to heal and recuperate.
In practice, wound licking seems like a far more disgusting enterprise - and there is a debate that has raged over whether or not the risks for this practice outweigh the benefits.
On one hand, word from the London School of Medicine and Dentistry claims that wound licking is evolutionary and as much a benefit for humans as it is for animals. Components in our saliva - namely, nitric oxide, helps protect cuts and breaks in the skin from unwelcome bacterial infections.
Additional studies have shown that human saliva contains other antibacterial agents including lactoferrin and lactoperoxidase, which help fight off developing infections, while also containing compounds that act as pain-relieving analgesics. Another study from Amsterdam has shown that wound licking may promote the healing of wounds, causing them to close up to two times faster than wounds that are left untreated.
That said - wound licking is still potentially unsafe. Despite the evolutionary benefits that we have in our mouths, they are still teeming with bacteria. For the same reason that we have to get emergency medical treatment and carefully clean out any animal bites, so too should we avoid introducing all of the bacteria in our mouths into an open wound. We have the benefit of sterile cleaning agents and surgical dressings to clean wounds and keep them germ-free while they heal. So why not side step the saliva treatment?
In one case, doctors in Germany had to amputate the thumb of a diabetic man who had licked a thumb wound after falling off his bike. The man had developed a rare disease called necrotizing fasciitis and was probably worsened by his diabetes. It was caused by two types of bacteria that are common on the skin and in the throat.
Urine Hot Water
Yet another disgusting habit that we almost all share is the tendency to urinate in the shower. With the toilet only feet away (and our clothing obviously already off), it seems strange that we should opt to relieve ourselves in a manner that will likely result in getting urine on our legs or feet. However gross it may seem, according to a poll conducted by the Today Show, more than 80 percent of people relieve themselves in the shower.
Why does this happen? Well, being in the water, whether in a pool or in the shower, affects the blood pressure, which triggers the body to take measures to bring it back down to normal (which includes peeing). This condition is called immersion dieresis and homeostasis. The heat from the shower may also contribute to the urge, because urinating helps release some body heat.
This one falls under the category of gross but safe. Urine is sterile, and it also has the ability to kill fungus - meaning that relieving yourself in the shower may be protecting you against athlete’s foot. It’s also more economical - saving you on both water bills and toilet paper costs. And speaking of toilet paper - it’s also friendlier for the environment when you don’t waste those extra sheets.
So there you have it, the grossest hidden habits that most of us will quietly cop to doing.