My wife and I differ on this issue a bit. I prefer a cushy seat, because I am sitting on the toilet so much in a given day thanks IBS :( I will not buy a cheapo cushy seat though. I will spend between $15 and $20 for a good cushy toilet seat. Those more expensive cushy seats are made of better material, better padded, and usually more sanitary. My wife prefers the hard toilet seats, specifically the wood, because she said they are easier to clean, but I do not buy that premise. A clean seat is a clean seat, is a clean seat, regardless of the material it is constructed out of. I have seen plenty of hard seats that are very gross, to the point that I will not even sit on them, I will just go somewhere else to poop. Plastic seats, will never find a way to this house, I have been pinched once too many times from a cracked plastic seat at others’ houses, and public toilets. For me, cushy, for the misses, hard.