When you’re the research director for Harris Interactive, one of the country’s most successful public polling firms, you learn some unusual things about people. From the hand-washing study he oversaw for the American Society of Microbiology and The Soap and Detergent Association, Chris McAllister gained two insights: one, that people could be a lot better about their personal hygiene, and two, that it’s not really all that difficult to find researchers who will spend hours in public restrooms watching each trip from stall to faucet—or door handle. We asked him about fielding the study.

How did your researchers keep their cover?

We had guidelines for all the interviewers. They were to remain in the background and not do anything that would draw attention to themselves and they were NOT to be washing their hands. They were allowed to wear appropriate dress and to go in and out of the washroom as necessary. They had observer letters to show people if they needed them. But they’re pretty discreet.

Why the differences in hand-washing rates in different venues?

At the ball game they were less likely to wash their hands than some of the other locations, but we couldn’t go to the depth it would take to figure out why. We couldn’t even say whether the ball game was representative of the population of Atlanta or the population of baseball fans because we didn’t check ballparks in other places.

What worries you more: that as a society we’re poor hand-washers or that we’re liars?

It may not be an either-or question. We often find that people have aspirations but may come up a bit short of how they’d like to behave. The emergence of the swine flu has emphasized the importance of hand washing. People like to think they do a good job but most agree they could do better.

Because of the flu, it seems like there has been much more public conversation about hand-washing. Do you think it will influence behavior? Are you fielding the study again this year?

One would think that behavior would be influenced. We may do the study again this year, and I expect there would be some change, but I’ve done enough surveys to know that when you try to predict you’re often wrong. But one would hope.

Are there other surveys you’d like fielded having done this one?

We don’t do many observational studies of this sort, so when we have the opportunity we certainly enjoy them.

Click here to see the results of the study.