One Hand Washes The Other—Maybe

Lady Macbeth isn’t the only one. It turns out that many woman wash their hands a lot—more so, at any rate, than men do. In a survey of adults commissioned by The Soap and Detergent Association, women said they wash their hands nine times a day, on average, while men make do with six hand-washings per day. (The chart below gives the data for adults in general.) Women’s greater propensity for hand-washing is in sync with their perception that it’s a matter of health: 60 percent of women, vs.