There's No Toilet Like Home

There’s a full-body sigh that happens when you cross the threshold of your home for the first time after a long trip. And I do mean full-body: No sooner have your limp arms discarded your luggage on the floor and your lungs filled themselves with that sweet familiar home air than your gut feels the sudden, emphatic need to poop.

For me, it happens within minutes, if not seconds. And I’m not alone.

“This is indeed a very familiar story,” says Nick Haslam, a professor of psychology at the University of. “Most people feel more comfortable going to the bathroom in familiar—and private—surroundings.”