LANDMARK RULING, CASE NO. 4: TEAM SEAT UP V. TEAM SEAT DOWN
Toilet seat up or down?
There is no official rule for leaving the toilet seat up or down. An economist found that leaving the seat where you used it takes less total effort than always putting it down in a wide range of cases, while seat-down fans argue for the next person's comfort. Judge Whiskerton's ruling ends it fairly: everyone puts the lid down, so everyone does the same chore.
Both teams are guilty of ignoring the lid.
Sentence: Close the lid before every flush and give it a respectful nod.
The case for Team Seat Up
Team Seat Up brought an economist. In a paper published in the journal Economic Inquiry in 2011, titled Up or Down? A Male Economist's Manifesto on the Toilet Seat Etiquette, Michigan State University economics professor Jay P. Choi asked whether the down rule makes sense if the goal is the least total hassle.
His answer was no. Choi found the down rule is inefficient unless moving the seat is far more of a hassle for one group than the other. The selfish rule, leaving the seat in whatever position you used it, did better than the down rule across a wide range of cases, including when the hassle is the same for everyone.
Choi also noted that the selfish rule can be self-enforcing, with no outside sanctions needed. He even applied the same logic to a shared car's driver seat. Team Seat Up asks why nobody demands that the driver's seat be reset for the next person, but the toilet seat must be.
The case for Team Seat Down
Team Seat Down says efficiency math counts the seconds spent moving a seat, not the cost of sitting on an open bowl in the dark. Choi's own paper allows that a big enough difference in hassle could justify the down rule. The fight is also old: his paper opens with a Dear Annie advice column whose writers said they got hundreds of letters on the subject.
There is a hygiene angle too, though it argues for the lid more than the seat. A 2022 University of Colorado Boulder study used lasers to film a toilet flush with no lid closed and found droplets shot up to 1.5 meters, about 4.9 feet, into the air. "We had expected these aerosol particles would just sort of float up, but they came out like a rocket," said engineer John Crimaldi.
A lid is not a perfect shield. A 2024 University of Arizona study led by Charles Gerba found that closing the lid did not stop viral particles, because flushing pushes air out through the gap between the seat and the cover. A closed lid does limit bacterial spread, and cleaning with both a disinfectant and a brush cut contamination in the toilet water by 99.99%. Still, Team Seat Down notes that a closed lid is, by definition, a seat that is down.
The court's ruling
Team Seat Up wins the math, and Team Seat Down wins the midnight. But both sides spent years arguing about the seat while ignoring the lid, which settles everything. If the lid goes down after every flush, everyone lifts something, everyone lowers something, and nobody gets a surprise.
Both teams are guilty of ignoring the lid, and are sentenced to close it before every flush and give it a respectful nod. The rule costs each side exactly one extra motion. That is what fairness looks like in a bathroom.
How to settle it at home
Pick one house rule and say it out loud. Lid down for everyone is the simplest, because it is the same rule for every person. If your household hates the lid, Choi's leave-it-as-you-used-it rule is the next fairest, as long as everyone looks before sitting.
Whatever you pick, the Arizona researchers' bigger point is that regular cleaning and disinfecting matters more than lid position. If the house still cannot agree, file both sides and let Judge Whiskerton rule.
Questions people ask
- Is the toilet seat supposed to be up or down?
- There is no official rule. An economics paper found that leaving it as you used it beats always putting it down in a wide range of cases, but lid down for everyone is the fairest household rule.
- Should the toilet lid be up or down when flushing?
- Down helps a little. Researchers filmed a flush with no lid closed launching droplets up to 4.9 feet, but a University of Arizona study found a closed lid does not stop viral particles, so cleaning matters too.
- Is it better to keep the toilet seat up or down?
- For a shared bathroom, keep the lid down, so nobody has to check the seat and everyone does the same chore. In a one-person home, do whatever you like.