Friday, October 23rd, 2009

All Listeners Must Wash Hands

CDC image.

Mom told you to wash your hands -- but do you? New research published in the American Journal of Public Health gets the dirt on our handwashing behaviors. Researchers observed the behavior of drivers visiting highway service station restrooms, recording entry and soap use, and studied what kinds of signs were most likely to encourage more handwashing.

Women responded best to text messages mentioning germs, while men were most affected by unpleasant messages such as "Soap it off, or eat it later." We'll talk with one of the authors of the paper about their study and what they discovered.

Guests

Val Curtis
Director, The Hygiene Center
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
University of London
London, England, UK

Related Links

• Experimental Pretesting of Hand-Washing Interventions in a Natural Setting
• NPR Health Blog: Raising Eyebrows Gets Handwashing Results
• BBC: Shame 'boosts hand-washing rate'

Segment produced by:Christopher Intagliata

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

• Neuroscience Meeting Highlights
• Now Hear This
• All Listeners Must Wash Hands
• Are Humans Still Evolving?
• Frans de Waal and 'The Age of Empathy'
• Extinctions from Algae?

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