As a person who suffers badly from misophonia (which is not limited to chewing sounds) it’s pretty fucking grimly depressing to see research on it treated this way.
Same boat, it drives me bonkers even imagining the scenario.
And its not only chewing food sounds but some other mouth sounds. Also certain inflection of speech that make some wet pauses between sentences. There had been few podcasts I dropped due to sounds the host/guest were making. And their expensive microphones that pickup every sound do not help :(
But as I grew older I got the more I managed my emotions better. The more I focus on the sound the more it drives me up the wall. So learning to pay less attention and not actively looking for the sounds is something I am always working on.
I can eat out, as long as person(s) with me doesn't chew loudly. I can tune out other tables.
Its bit sad that this is seen as a goofy research. Misophonia is not life ending but definitely can affect your life, especially if left alone can probably decrease life quality.
Its strange that Mysophobia - fear of germs or dirt - is something people are treating like a 'normal' disorder. Its as idiosyncratic to fear every single germ as to be agitated by arbitrary sound(s).
Guess what. I have the same fucking condition and I'm delighted. It's gotten so bad that I don't eat in cafeterias, don't eat with my roommates and very very rarely in restauranrs. I'm still delighted to see that someone actually notices and that so many people have now been exposed to its existence.
> We collect improbable research. Real research, about anything and everything, from everywhere. Research that’s maybe good or bad, important or trivial, valuable or worthless.
There's typically a few serious research papers included each year.
