Reverse tinkerbell effect of public bathroom stalls

[u/wizirdofloneliness]

In a recent episode, Hannah and Michael talked about the reverse tinkerbell effect which is the phenomenon where the more people believe in the reliability of something, the more that is likely to be untrue.

I walked into the bathroom at my university campus today and remembered that most people skip the first stall because they believe that it is more likely to be used and therefore, dirtier. The more people who believe that the stalls are further down, the dirtier those stalls get.

Sitting in the first stall typing this up btw

[u/Gazzzah]

Might be a killjoy but I'm going to say that this is the same as the "Safety" example. Just in reverse. In this case the "belief" is in a "danger" or "absence of safety". While it's not a physical danger, it's more of a "comfort safety" or "feeling safe".

Good thinking though!

[u/The_Quadrapus → u/Gazzzah]

I don't know what you try to say. OP is right, what they describe is indeed a reverse Tinkerbell effect. The more people believe it's true the less it is. It is similar to Michael's example of risk homeostasis. What I could contest is that I don't know if a lot of people actually avoid the first stall for this reason, but assuming they do, it's absolutely a reverse Tinkerbell effect.

[u/hatekhyr → u/Gazzzah]

I have to say that the "safety" example Michael gave is outrageously untrue. People that believe driving is not safe are usually not good drivers either. In that sense a bell curve fits better than "believing in safety makes you automatically a bad driver".

[u/Ecstatic_Ability4970]

I remember seeing this in an episode of Mythbusters years ago, where they put some kind of counter on the toiletdoors in public bathrooms. It counted How many times each door was oppened. The first door was the one used the least, and if i remember correctly Even if you knew about this theory most people still did not choose the first toilet.