A Better Way To Clean

Wonderful food and spectacular views are among the treats that San Francisco consistently delivers. The Slanted Door, a Vietnamese restaurant located in the San Francisco Ferry building, has both. Views of the bay and a variety of delightful dishes. And the bar drinks are fabulous too.

But from a sociological perspective the bathroom area is the most interesting spot in the restaurant. The beautifully designed space features a long sink to the right and then a few doors that lead to one co-ed toilet each. So you often have a line of people waiting right by the sink for the next available bathroom. As people exit the toilet this line of restaurant patrons can see who does (and who doesn’t) stop at the sink. Who uses soap, who doesn’t etc.

The effectiveness of shame in improving hand washing compliance was proven by a research study conducted by London School’s hygiene centre.

The researchers suggested people were most sensitive to the idea that others were watching their behavior and this was a motivation that was most likely to translate to post toilet hand washing. Mrs Gaby Judah, who led the study, said: “What other people think – what is deemed to be acceptable behaviour – is probably a key determinant in shaping behaviour”. They found for example that for men, the more people there were in the bathroom, the more likely they were to wash their hands with soap.

Dr Valerie Curtis, director of the London School’s hygiene centre, said: “It is very embarrassing to be thought of as dirty by others, even by strangers”.

So be sure to include the Slanted Door on your next visit to the Bay Area. You’ll enjoy that great food even more knowing there’s little doubt your server has clean hands.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 at 8:20 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.