There is no new thing under the sun — not even your grossest, strangest habits.
And to prove it, a new survey had Americans and Europeans admit to their weirdest behaviors, from the just plain bizarre (like making weird noises) to the unhygienic (say, skipping showers for days) to the totally disgusting (smelling your own farts, anyone?).
But while some of these habits may raise eyebrows, the truly surprising thing is how common they actually are.
Kinky: Superdrug Online Doctor had 1,500 answer questions about the ‘unusual things’ they do that are ‘better left practiced in private’
How odd: People confessed to eating boogers, smelling worn underwear, playing with their pubic hair, and skipping showers to build up a good stink
Superdrug Online Doctor had 1,500 answer questions about the ‘unusual things’ they do that are ‘better left practiced in private’. They then compiled the results into some handy infographics, and broke them down by gender and location (Americans versus Europeans),
About a third of respondents admitted that they have, at least once, picked a booger and ate it (though men were slightly more likely to have done so than women).
Plenty also said that they’ve played with their own pubic hair in a non-sexual manner, with 45.4 per cent of men and 36.1 per cent of women copping to copping a feel.
A disheartening 44.3 per cent of men admitted to smelling their worn underwear to see if it can be worn again, compared to 30.9 per cent of women — and roughly 13 per cent said they’ve simply flipped their undies inside out to rewear them.
It’s not just underwear they’re not washing, either — well, for a few respondents. Of those polled, 11/1 per cent of men and 5.3 per cent of women said they’ve not bathed — on purpose — just to see how smelly they could get.
But one of the most common quirks, by far, is enjoying the smell of one’s own farts: 94.1 per cent of women and 92.7 per cent of men said they did.
Over 90 per cent of both sexes also confessed to peeing in the shower, picking boogers (though not necessarily eating them), picking off dead skin, picking pimples ‘too soon’, and smelling their dirty armpits.
Over 90 per cent also said they like to watch a blackhead pop — a statistic that’s not so surprising given the popularity of pimple-popping videos on YouTube.
Free-boobing: Nearly all American women (and most European women) surveyed said they take their bra off soon after arriving home
Clean up: Most women also said they wash their bras at least once a week
But which behaviors are the most satisfying? It was unanimous: farting after waiting to be alone is the best feeling, followed by picking an irritating booger.
Women, of course, have their own set of ‘odd’ behaviors — which actually aren’t so odd after all.
The survey found that a whopping 99.2 per cent of American women take their bras off as soon as they get home, eager for the relief of going strap and underwire-free the moment it’s appropriate to do so.
What’s more, 65.4 per cent of Americans will also decide not to go back out if they’ve already taken their bras off.
Nearly three quarters of women from both the US and Europe will also stick to shaving just part of their legs, cleaning up the bits that will be exposed by skirts or dresses. A fifth won’t shave their pubic hair at all if they’re trying to avoid a hook-up.
No surprise here: About half of the men polled admitted to playing with their balls
And over half use the smell test to determine cleanliness — of their genitals.
Men are just as mixed up when it comes to their private parts. Two thirds of Americans don’t wash their hands following a trip to the bathroom if they ‘didn’t touch anything,’ over half will smell their fingers after touching their testicles — and almost half will play with their genitalia in a non-sexual manner.
A playful but messy 41 per cent have moved farther away from the toilet to see how far their pee could reach, and almost half have peed in the sink.
Just 9 per cent have eaten food from their own beards (compared to 24.9 per cent of women who’ve eaten food out of their bras).