
Why do holes horrify me? - bingden
https://mosaicscience.com/story/trypophobia-why-clusters-holes-horrify-fear-disgust/
======
stared
If you want a trypophobia dataset, my mentees created one:
[https://www.kaggle.com/cytadela8/trypophobia](https://www.kaggle.com/cytadela8/trypophobia)
(for a deep learning project). Use it at your own risk. Great Old Ones warn
you.

Here is one of the abstracts (with some references):
[https://www.dropbox.com/s/pb1h19kslroyro8/TrypophobiaTFML.pd...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/pb1h19kslroyro8/TrypophobiaTFML.pdf?dl=0)

~~~
me_me_me
And here I was, wonder why people in horror movies go and have a look for the
monster. Immediately opening that gallery.

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miguelmota
Humans want to avoid disease and some diseases can causes holes or hole-like
symptoms on victims, so it's human nature to be horrified of clusters of holes
because it's abnormal.

~~~
thfuran
Probably not. Lots of abnormal things aren't viscerally horrifying and I'd
expect something with a strong evolutionary basis like avoidance of disease to
be much more widespread than trypophobia. Such as, for example, the nearly
universal dislike of the taste and smell of rotting meat.

~~~
kstrauser
Perhaps it's a local thing. If you're around guinea worms, you evolve to be
afraid of their signs, maybe? Not everyone is afraid of spiders or snakes, but
there's a good evolutionary reason to be, so maybe people who aren't afraid of
them are from areas without extremely venomous versions?

~~~
cc-d
> Not everyone is afraid of spiders or snakes, but there's a good evolutionary
> reason to be, so maybe people who aren't afraid of them are from areas
> without extremely venomous versions?

This reaction is almost certainly a taught cultural behaviour.

In some areas of the world, snakes/spiders are considered food sources. Many
of these areas, such as the amazon, also contain the highest concentrations of
venomous species.

~~~
thaumasiotes
> This reaction is almost certainly a taught cultural behaviour.

On the other hand, chimpanzees raised in captivity have been known to scream
in fear when seeing snake-like objects such as pieces of hose.

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clarry
Also, cats and cucumbers? Probably most domestic cats haven't been exposed to
snakes or threatened by cucumbers.

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scotty79
When I was a kid I tried to make porous plaster brick with baking soda and
gypsum. I think I used chalk instead of gypsum because it didn't set. However
it was porous and when I saw holes inside I felt as if it was dangerous (maybe
even evil).

I had to wait till the internet happened to find out what was that all about.

I have to repeat this experiment some day. I probably got less sensitive since
then.

~~~
r00fus
Interesting - does the Apple Watch Nike sport band (with holes) inspire the
same revulsion from you?

~~~
scotty79
Not really. I've seen that kind of imagery on the internet and even the worst
ones give me bearly noticeable uneasiness.

I want to try to recreate that first thing that triggered me. Maybe physical
object will work stronger than images or some specific proportions between
hole size, distance, shading, randomness.

It wasn't even revulsion. Just a feeling it's dangerous or somehow evil.
Despite full knowledge it's not because I just made it with perfectly safe
ingredients that don't react to create something worse.

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vesche
Not even clicking on this article because I know it's about trypophobia and
I'm afraid of seeing the pictures!

~~~
khendron
There actually are no triggering images. I guess they want trypophobics to be
able to read it.

~~~
maxander
Pretty few would take the risk, I bet. It's an interesting problem- we have
"trigger warnings" and "content warnings" but not "content all-clears."

~~~
Avamander
I'm actually surprised accessibility movements haven't standardized an HTML
tag or a meta attribute that specifies that the site has certain phobia-
inducing images. It would allow people with certain phobias to avoid seeing
such images (e.g. images could be auto-blanked, text blurred).

~~~
hombre_fatal
Yikes, the real horror is always in the comments.

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hprotagonist
social contaigon is a weird, weird thing.

I have always understood /r/trypophobia to be a deep in-joke, and the earliest
i can find reference to the idea at all is 2005:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20090316071914/http://www.geocit...](https://web.archive.org/web/20090316071914/http://www.geocities.com/holephobia/trypophobia.html)

and that smells tongue-in-cheek too.

~~~
kstrauser
I don't think it's _just_ that, though. I'd never heard of it, or the concept
of it, when I first saw one of those "doctors hate this weird trick for
getting rid of parasites" or whatever ads. It had a photoshop of some kind of
a seed pod onto human skin, so it looked like a bunch of worm heads inside
holes or something. I almost threw up the instant I looked at it. I later
found out that lots of people have that reaction, and it had a name. I think
sometimes just naming something gives it life, because then it's an actual
thing that people can identify with or not. I'm sure there are lots of phobias
or... I dunno, triggers?... that would affect me but I've never experienced or
heard of them before so I have no awareness of them. A name might give me that
awareness.

But yes, it's a weird, weird thing. No one ever talked about being afraid of
clowns when I was a kid. Lots of people liked them, lots were indifferent, but
I don't recall ever hearing anyone say they were frightened of them until much
later in life. And I clearly remember the first time I heard of anyone
disliking the word "moist", and thinking I was being trolled.

~~~
Buttons840
I agree that trypophobia is more than just a social contagion.

I personally had physical reactions of disgust and an unusual desire to
destroy Lotus seed pods the first time I saw them. I wanted to put them on the
cement and smash and grind them with my shoe until they were a fine paste.
This was before I had ever heard the word "trypophobia".

The only thing in nature I've found to trigger me is Lotus seed pods. Unlike
your example of the doctored images, there is nothing objectively gross about
seed pods, they are a natural part of a healthy and harmless plant.

Call it morbid curiosity, but I will sometimes browse /r/trypophobia and I get
the same feelings there, but never worse than simply viewing a seed pod.

~~~
TeMPOraL
> _Lotus seed pods_

Should've read the rest of your comment before googling that. I didn't expect
as strong a reaction as I just had upon seeing those. Deeply unsettling.

~~~
booleandilemma
I’m curious to Google it and at the same time afraid...

~~~
Buttons840
Don't be afraid. It is a plant. A green-leaf garden variety plant. The seed
pod is harmless, even if its shape is unsettling.

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LeonB
Just want to mention Steve Jobs likely had a similar phobia/disgust around
buttons, known as Koumpounophobia.

[https://www.spectator.co.uk/2014/11/steve-jobss-button-
phobi...](https://www.spectator.co.uk/2014/11/steve-jobss-button-phobia-has-
shaped-the-modern-world/)

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kup0
My skin is crawling/itching just from reading the discussion about
trypophobia, and I haven't even looked at the pictures (and can't, because I
definitely have the phobia).

I think there are other visual phobias that maybe are even lesser known. I
have some kind of phobia-like thing with industrial/mechanical things that are
dirty-looking or poorly-lit. It's hard to explain. Also things like dam
spillways/etc.

Like, opening up an indoor furnace to repair or check for issues. The dust,
the rust, the coils, etc all give me a weird feeling. It's not as heavy or
pronounced as my trypophobia. I can overcome it much easier (with
strong/bright lighting, etc) but I still notice its presence.

\--

Also, I'm not sure if "phobia" is the best term or not either. For me, in some
cases there can be some kind of fear or disgust involved. But mostly for me
it's not any kind of mental analysis ("ew, gross", etc) it's just a reaction.
Looking at the pictures just immediately induces an unsettling feeling,
crawling/itching head and skin, etc.

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EvanAnderson
I have no problem with the lotus pod-type holes, but things like dam spillways
and other large pipe-like structures are creepy:
[https://old.reddit.com/r/thalassophobia/comments/2tosha/how_...](https://old.reddit.com/r/thalassophobia/comments/2tosha/how_do_we_feel_about_dam_drain_holes/)

~~~
dkarras
I find Trypophobia phenomenon interesting. For most phobias, I can understand
how one can develop a repulsion to them. But things that bother you guys, I
have 0% reaction to.

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redleggedfrog
Whoa! I have trypophobia and just never knew what it was - I thought it was
just a quirk of my brain.

Sometimes it creeps into my dreams - can be very disturbing.

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aaron695
/r/Submechanophobia (submerged man-made objects) and /r/Thalassophobia (deep
water) are other populated subreddits where people use these these lower
emotions to get high.

If you're not phobic you like the adrenaline I guess.

Other than Acrophobia and gore not sure of others that are common enough to
get popular subreddits? ASMR is a more enjoyment high.

A lot don't transfer well to a computer screen I think. /r/claustrophobia is
quite small compared to Submechanophobia.

[edit] And the reason Trypophobia is thought to not be a phobia -

"While phobias are triggered by the emotion of fear, the study published in
the open-access journal PeerJ concludes that trypophobia is more likely driven
by disgust instead." [https://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-
states/trypophobia...](https://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-
states/trypophobia-the-fear-of-holes-may-not-be-a-real-phobia-study)

------
n1000
Apparently the new iPhone is known to trigger trypophobia.
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/09/12/iphone-
tryp...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/09/12/iphone-trypophobia-
three-lenses-camera/)

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Lio
Whenever this comes up it makes me think of William Gibson’s Neuromancer.

There’s a flashback description of the main character’s revulsion with a
smashed wasp’s nest.

That was written in 1984ish so this has been around for longer than the web
anyway.

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ncmncm
Crumpets!

I can't help but think that cognitive therapy would enable anyone to overcome
the syndrome. But maybe the thought of a future self having overcome it is
itself a trigger?

~~~
DrOctagon
I'm fine with crumpets but the thought of lotus pods is too much.

~~~
jcims
Probably because you can’t eat them doused in butter and honey.

~~~
thaumasiotes
I don't see why not?

~~~
ncmncm
Lotus pods are pretty fibrous.

An elephant could manage it, with or without butter, if you could find an
elephant not afflicted with trypophobia.

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Rifu
Even without the images, just the descriptions alone were enough to trigger
feelings of revulsion.

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huehehue
I worked with a designer who had Trypophobia and refused to mock out a GitHub-
style contribution graph / punchcard. Friendly reminder to not create products
that inadvertently terrify people.

~~~
xaedes
Did you come up with a different design that doesnt trigger it? I would be
interested to hear.

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mirimir
Huh. I'd miss some of my favorite foods.

Pancakes. Crispy fried eggs. Fudge. Raw honeycomb.

Edit: And crumpets.

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pvaldes
Mangoworm

Good night

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ratsimihah
I thought it was a universal condition...

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Hitton
I knew about trypophobia and it doesn't really disgust me, but the linked "Dr.
Pimple Popper", has some rather disturbingly "tasty" stuff. I hope I don't
dream about.

