Economists have tackled a question that has dogged heteronormative couples since the advent of indoor plumbing: should the toilet seat be left up or down after use?

Fortunately for us, the world of economics has tools for tackling issues like this and it turns out none is better than game theory.

Using the aptly labeled #1 and #2 for the different uses of a toilet and putting things in terms of “average costs” (which economists love to do), the scientists were able to calculate the male’s average cost of seat position transfer:

B = 2p(1-p)C

Just take it on faith and this is where game theory comes in. There are two possible strategies:

Strategy J:
Each person retains the default strategy that they used before cohabiting. This strategy is proposed by the man with the argument “Why does it matter if the seat is up or down?”. Working through the math will show that this strategy benefits the man.

Strategy M:
Each person leaves the seat down. This strategy is proposed by the female with the argument “It ought to be down.” You don’t need to be an economist to see that this strategy benefits the woman.

If the couple agree that the mutual goal should be to equalize the respective incremental costs then a quick mathematical analysis shows that can be achieved if the male leaves the seat up after performing toilet operation #1 with a frequency of:

f = (2p-1)/p

Which leads to the following optimal strategy:

In the morning the male should leave the seat up after performing #1 and in the evening he should put it down.

So now you know.

h/t: Marginal Revolution

technorati: toilet economics

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 21st, 2006 at 9:54 pm by Insider and is filed under I knew I'd use my Econ major. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.