A YouGov Omnibus survey in July posed the question, “In which of the following places, if any, have you ever urinated?” Sixty-two percent of people checked the box that said “in the shower.” What’s more, this appears to be a national phenomenon: The fraction of people who say they urinate in the shower is pretty consistent whether you’re looking at U.S. regions, or age, income, sex, race, education or marital¹ status.

网站YouGov在7月的一项精选调查贴出了这样一个问题，“如果有的话，你曾在以下哪些地方小便?”62%的人勾选了“淋浴间”这个选项。而且，这似乎是一个全国性的现象，不管你按照什么标准划分人群，美国的各个地区或是年龄、收入、性别、种族、教育程度或婚姻状况，在淋浴时小便的人数比总是一致的。

But before you get too excited and start brandishing² labels like “freak,” you should take a closer look at the numbers on shower-peeing frequency. It turns out that 47 percent of people who said they had relieved themselves in the shower also added that they did so “not regularly at all — I have only done this once or twice.” As an “almost every morning” sort of girl, Allie, I’m afraid you’re in the minority — 14 percent of respondents said they do it “most of the time.” And remember, that’s 14 percent of the 62 percent who say they’ve ever peed in shower. So really, barely 9 percent of Americans share your bathroom behavior.

但先别兴奋或是急于给人贴上“怪胎”的标签，你应该再仔细瞧一瞧人们在淋浴时小便的频率。数据显示，其中47%的人指出他们“并不经常这么做，我只这么干过一次或两次。”不过，像爱丽这样“几乎每天早晨”都这样做的女孩来说，我想你们只能算是少数，因为只有14%的受访者表示他们“经常这样做”。请记住，是62%的人中14%说他们经常这么做。所以实际上只有大概9%美国人会有这样的习惯。

Solace³ can be found in the possibility that some people, including those two friends of yours, are fibbing. Of course, the desire to appear “socially acceptable” is an issue with all self-reported surveys. But the fact that 42 percent of respondents in another YouGov survey (conducted just four months before this one) said shower urination was “unacceptable” could explain the large gap between people who say they have peed in the shower (62 percent) and those who say they do it every day (7 percent). If I thought my behavior was unacceptable, I might admit to having done it, but I’d also be keen to downplay how often.

一些人有可能在撒谎，你的两个朋友可能是他们其中之一，这么一来你也许会好受一点。当然，人们会有表现出“社会可接受性”的愿望，这个问题在所有的自测调查中都存在。但实际上，YouGov上另一项调查(于本调查4个月前进行)中42%的受访者说“不能接受”在淋浴时小便，这能够解释为什么曾在淋浴间小便的人数(62%)比每天在淋浴时小便的人数(7%)之间存在这么大的差距。如果我认为我的行为时不可被接受的，那么我可能会承认我做过，但会对频率做一些弱化。

One last thing: You say “as a female I find it liberating⁴ to pee at will.” I imagine that sense of liberation comes from the fact that non-toilet urination isn’t always so easy for women. The data shows clear differences between where men and women choose to pee — men are more likely to pee in public.

最后一点：你说“我作为一个女性认为这样小便是一种解放”。我猜之所以有这种解放的感觉是因为女性想要在没有厕所的情况下小便通常不大容易。数据显示，男性与女性在选择小便地点时产生了明显的差别，男性更喜欢在公众场所小便。

Women in the survey were half as likely as men to have peed in a bush and five times less likely to have peed on a residential⁵ street. The gender⁶ gap closes, though, in places like baths and showers, where more discretion⁷ is available.

调查中，女性曾在灌木丛中小便的比例比男性小一半，在住宅区街道小便的比例更是只有男性的五分之一。当遇到浴室和淋浴间时，这种性别带来的差异就缩小了，人们在这些地方可以自己做出更多的判断。