▷ What does toilet paper reveal about your personality?

Personality manifests itself in everything we do, even in the most inconsequential details. Personality isn’t simply who we are; it constantly influences our decisions, including the smallest ones we seemingly make without thinking or those that have become a habit, like how we place the toilet paper roll in the bathroom.

The small everyday decisions

Interpersonal relations specialist Gilda Carle wondered if the way you hang a toilet paper roll might also be related to certain personality traits. Without further ado, she launched a survey with approximately 2,000 participants.

These people had to fill out a personality test and indicate whether they rolled the toilet paper so that the end fell above or below the roll.

Thus, she discovered that those who roll the paper, letting the end fall on top, tend to be more assertive, are more likely to adopt leadership roles and take charge of situations.

On the contrary, those who hang the roll with the end facing down have a more submissive personality, but they also tend to be more pleasant and flexible.

Carle also found that one in five people change the toilet paper roll in other people’s homes to suit their tastes, which was linked to a more dominant personality.

Interestingly, the way you place your toilet paper roll could also reveal your income. Another survey found that 73% of people earning less than $20,000 place the paper facing down, while 60% of those earning more than $50,000 place it facing up.

In the field of psychology, decisions like the orientation of toilet paper, the way we place cutlery in the dishwasher, the most convenient drawer for socks, or the order we follow when we soap ourselves in the shower are known as “prototypical solutions” because most people tend to follow the same order.

However, there is a percentage of people who do things differently. Neuroscientists believe that, in addition to personality traits, this decision could be influenced by a different neural connection pattern that determines, for example, our ability to mentally rotate. This could be the reason why some people don’t understand how other people could take a different path: they simply can’t imagine it.

So what is the “correct” position for toilet paper?

First of all, did you know that the toilet paper roll was patented in 1891? In the patented prototype, the paper hangs overhead, as this prevents your hands from rubbing against the wall, which could contain other people’s germs and bacteria, as well as transferring your own to the wall. In other words: it’s a much more hygienic solution for everyone.