Do bacteria select for "soap resistance"?

Question

When people wash their hands with soap, this limits the spread of bacterial infections. That much, I am pretty convinced of. Duh.

What I don't get is how this doesn't lead to evolutionary pressure on the bacteria to become "soap resistant." I'm not talking about anti-bacterial soaps (I understand the FDA no longer recommends these), but just plain old soap and water.

The soap does something (I feel like I've heard a few mechanisms), but the net effect is that it makes the bacteria less likely to spread. How would this not lead to evolutionary pressure that drive bacteria to be less likely to be removed/killed/destroyed/whatever by soap?

Or is it not a problem because soap is just so "strong" that it's like evolutionary pressure for humans to survive underwater. Sure, if gradually introduced over 1MMM years, we might eventually get gills. But if you just keep drowning people, no one is gonna really evolve gills.

You make a reasonable analogy in the last couple of paragraphs - perhaps check out how soap works. There are 2 factors at play; chemical and physical. — bob1, Sep 15 '21 at 02:07
I agree with @bob1. If you understand how soap works, you'll probably see why there's no selection pressure for soap-resistant bacteria. If after researching how soap works, you still have questions, please post what you found that confuses you. — anongoodnurse, Sep 15 '21 at 09:48
Conceptually related: Do organisms use detergents to fight off viruses? — acvill, Sep 15 '21 at 14:05
It would be an interesting experiment to supplement growth medium with small amounts of detergent and see how that affects evolution in a model bacteria over successive generations (something like Lenski's LTEE). Keep in mind, however, that bacterial killing is a secondary effect of soap in handwashing. The primary effect is to get the bacteria off your hands. — acvill, Sep 15 '21 at 14:25
But wouldn't the bacteria then just evolve to not "get off your hands"? Like - whatever mechanism the soap works by, it's creates evolutionary pressure to resist that (be functionally stickier, in this case). — Nate Rush, Sep 15 '21 at 14:48
I must be misunderstanding something about the boundary conditions, because the argument I'm making seems to be mechanisms-of-soap agnostic... — Nate Rush, Sep 15 '21 at 14:50
@NateRush I think it would be enlightening for you to review the excellent answers to the question Why do some bad traits evolve, and good ones don't? — acvill, Sep 15 '21 at 17:38
To avoid clogging up the comments, please continue discussion in this chat room. — acvill, Sep 15 '21 at 17:43

Do bacteria select for "soap resistance"?

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