This revealed the larger the wash, the higher the likelihood of losing socks

Number of socks in a load and people involved were taken into account too

It's (L(p x f) + C(t x s)) - (P x A) when 'L' stands for laundry size, for example

At least one sock seems to disappear with every wash, leaving you with a pile of lonely items that have lost their other half.

Now experts claim to have solved the mystery of the disappearing socks and have even devised a formula to predict the likelihood of them straying.

Although it won't help prevent the First World problem from happening, it may finally shed some light on why it happens in the first place.

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Psychologist Simon Moore (pictured) of behaviour change consultancy, Innovationbubble and statistician Geoff Ellis took various factors into account when developing their formula explaining the probability of odd socks, including the volume of laundry, number of people in the household and number of socks in a load

Psychologist Simon Moore of behaviour change consultancy, Innovationbubble and statistician Geoff Ellis at Evolution, took various factors into account when developing their formula.

These included the volume of laundry, number of people in a household and number of socks in a load.

They found there are many practical reasons for sock loss rather than supernatural disappearances or far-fetched explanations such as them being sucked into black holes, as proposed by famed physicist, Stephen Hawking as a joke.

The duo surveyed 2,000 people who were happy to air views about their dirty laundry to find out about their habits.

In the 'Sock Loss Index', 'L' stands for 'laundry size', based on the number of people in a household (p) with the frequency of washes (f). 'C' stands for 'washing complexity.' Types of wash (t) is multiplied by the number of socks washed in a week (s). 'P', or 'positivity towards the laundry' is subtracted from the sum of 'L' and 'C'

The research revealed Britons lose an average of 1.3 socks each month – more than 15 a year, leaving them with odd pairs and costing them more than £2,528 ($3,645) per person over a lifetime (illustrated)

THE REASONS FOR SOCK LOSS The survey identified four psychological themes that may contribute to the loss of socks during washing. They are: Diffusion of responsibility: Individuals involved in doing the washing assume someone else will take responsibility and consequently, no-one does, meaning clothes get lost. Visual awareness, or heuristics: Heuristics are mental problem-solving shortcuts we use to save time and effort. This means we look in the most obvious places for socks or a TV remote, for example, and if they are not found abandon all hope and assume they're lost forever. Confirmation bias: This occurs where we tend to believe something is true if we want it to be true. So in this case, if we can't see any odd socks, we convince ourselves there are no odd socks. Behavioural errors of omission and commission: Human error accounts for many accidents, mistakes and mysteries, including in the wash cycle. Omission is demonstrated when someone sees a sock on the floor, for example, and fail to pop it into a wash bin or washing machine, while 'commission' is when we do something we shouldn't, like sneak a white sock into a dark wash, or hide it in a random place to avoid having to find its pair. Advertisement

Main factors causing missing socks were found to be the complexity of the washing load, such as the way the batches are divided up, based on whites/colours/different temperatures, and the number of socks in each wash cycle, they said.

The formula, dubbed the 'Sock Loss Index,' is: (L(p x f) + C(t x s)) - (P x A).

In the formula, 'L' stands for 'laundry size' which is calculated by multiplying the number of people in the household (p) with the frequency of washes in a week (f).

'C' stands for the 'washing complexity.'

This includes how many types of wash (t) households do in a week (darks and whites) multiplied by the number of socks washed in a week (s).

'P', or 'positivity towards doing the laundry' is subtracted from the sum of 'L' and 'C'.

This is measured on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being: 'Strongly dislike doing clothes washing' to 5 which represents 'Strongly enjoy doing clothes washing,' the result of which is multiplied by 'A' which stands for 'degree of attention'.

This is the sum whether washers check pockets, unroll sleeves, turn clothes the right way and unroll socks before a wash.

The formula revealed that the larger the wash, the higher the likelihood of losing socks and could even be used to work out the probability of losing a sock in a single week using this version: Prob= 0.38 + (0.005 x L) + (0.0012 x C) - (0.0159 x P x A).

The survey uncovered common causes of sock loss included items falling behind radiators while drying or being mislaid under furniture, stray items going into the wrong wash so pairs become separated, being blown away on the washing line, or even simply being carelessly paired up.

The work was commissioned by Samsung to mark the launch of its new AddWash machine, which lets users put individual items into the drum mid-way through a wash through a special opening.

The work was commissioned by Samsung to mark the launch of its new AddWash machine (shown), which lets users put individual items like socks into the drum mid-way through a wash through a special opening

It found Britons lose an average of 1.3 socks each month – more than 15 a year, leaving them with odd pairs.

With the average Brit living to 81, according to ONS figures, these cleaning catastrophes lead to the equivalent of 1,264 lost socks over a lifetime, costing the average person £2,528 (£3,645).

In all, these laundry losses mean around 84 million socks go missing every month in the UK.