6 ms·

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 beca

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 7y ago
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 7y ago
  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 7y ago
    > 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.
    - kstrauser 7y ago
      I’m not sure I believe that. I was terrified of spiders since I was a little kid. I couldn’t touch the pages of the nature picture books my parents bought me before I could read. Neither of my parents were afraid of spiders, but they freaked my young self out. It’s gotten better now and I can coexist with them, but I would still freak out if a spider were on me. Thinking about it is increasing my pulse as I write this.
    - wruza 7y ago
      >taught cultural behaviour There was a video that presented images very quickly and asked you to count spiders and snakes percentages among innocent pics. Most respondents (me included) evaluated to at least 50%, while real ratio was something like 1/5 or less. Also, when you watch it, it feels like snake-spider-snake-grass-spider-snake. You may not run in panic, but you do see it. Cannot find the video, and it was probably a gif, afair.
    - thaumasiotes 7y ago
      > 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.
      - clarry 7y ago
        Also, cats and cucumbers? Probably most domestic cats haven't been exposed to snakes or threatened by cucumbers.
    - kmm 7y ago
      I have a hard time believing that. Lots of parents are afraid of dogs, but that doesn't give their children the visceral irrational revulsion towards dogs that arachnophobes have towards spiders. I've never heard of someone who can't even look at pictures of dogs or birds or bears, whilst it's very common for images of spiders to make people very uncomfortable. As far as I can tell, not being afraid of them has to be learned. I cannot find a source, but I recall reading that even people who keep spiders as pets, still have a raised heartrate when holding them.
    - Chris2048 7y ago
      Do pople who eat spiders not consider them to look scary?
    - drinfinity 7y ago
      Snakes don't phase me _at all_, no pulse change whatever. I don't care, never have. I'll happily enter a bath filled with them and stay there for hours. My baby boy doesn't care about spiders, snakes, etc. He is now learning it because my wife is (over)reacting to them. There is a major environmental/learned aspect to this, I don't buy the 100% inborn argument at all. Young children (0-12mo) don't give a damn about anything. I do believe we are born with the innate potential to focus on these creatures faster/earlier than other animals, but fear, that's learned.
- maxander 7y ago
  Trypophobia is presumably an abnormal, overly-aggressive version of the disease-avoidance mechanism, though; there's no evolutionary reason to be unsettled by holes on inorganic objects, or even most kinds of holes on organic ones. Presumably, almost everyone has some level of the underlying mechanism; go look at a picture of a smallpox victim and see how you feel about it.
taneq 7y ago
That's the thing, most "example images" aren't just a bunch of holes or circles (I've never heard anyone claim security mesh or a half-cooked pancake are horrifying, although apparently crumpets are a known trigger?). They're photos (either shopped or real) of something that looks like a gnarly parasite infection. Disliking that is not 'phobia', it's legitimately yuck.
- limomium 7y ago
  It's not merely a 'dislike' though. I've had arachnophobia (spiders). It feels like an intense, paranoid, startling horror which demands visual attention and quick jumping away of the body. If I know there's a spider nearby, I must be able to see it from a safe distance. I have trypophobia (holes). It feels like my skin is crawling, like I'm being eaten alive from the inside, like my very essence of being is being violated by some cosmic plague, commanding me to look away and get as far away from the holed object as possible -- though without excessive urgency. I can look at many things I dislike; many things I know for fact are dangerous. I can't look at certain kinds of clusters of holes.
  - taneq 7y ago
    Fair, and I should have added a rider that "if you're actively incapable of dealing with such things, then that's not dislike, that's a phobia." Please don't feel obliged to answer this, but - is it only biological-looking pictures that trigger this? Or do you get it from clearly non-biological things (eg. security mesh, ventilation grills, cheesegraters) as well?
    - lowercased 7y ago
      I'm not the earlier poster, but have similar reactions as that poster, and for me, yes, sometimes non-biological things trigger similar reaction. Not always, and usually not as strong, but it's often there. It can depend on context, my own physical state (fresh awake and mentally 'on' vs... tired/foggy/etc).
    - limomium 7y ago
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
xaedes 7y ago
Probably. This also explains that people find comfort in pimple popping and ASMR. The first is a direct skin health care routine and ASMR is simulating human intimacy, probably giving the impression of being cared for by others, which helps when being sick. I guess it is not widespread because the evolutionary pressure only evolved it on part of human people for local reasons. Or what I want to believe: Its phenotypical expression is different for different folks because of gene activation. Could be that traumatic occurences in the past (like being serious sick of s.th. like that, or being in the midst of an epidemy, while avoiding it oneself) activate the gene and this is passed on to the next few generations.
mapcars 7y ago
Well, disease is not abnormal nor death is. Only our culture makes it abnormal.

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 7y ago

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 7y ago
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 7y ago
  > 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.
  - kstrauser 7y ago
    I’m not sure I believe that. I was terrified of spiders since I was a little kid. I couldn’t touch the pages of the nature picture books my parents bought me before I could read. Neither of my parents were afraid of spiders, but they freaked my young self out. It’s gotten better now and I can coexist with them, but I would still freak out if a spider were on me. Thinking about it is increasing my pulse as I write this.
  - wruza 7y ago
    >taught cultural behaviour There was a video that presented images very quickly and asked you to count spiders and snakes percentages among innocent pics. Most respondents (me included) evaluated to at least 50%, while real ratio was something like 1/5 or less. Also, when you watch it, it feels like snake-spider-snake-grass-spider-snake. You may not run in panic, but you do see it. Cannot find the video, and it was probably a gif, afair.
  - thaumasiotes 7y ago
    > 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.
    - clarry 7y ago
      Also, cats and cucumbers? Probably most domestic cats haven't been exposed to snakes or threatened by cucumbers.
  - kmm 7y ago
    I have a hard time believing that. Lots of parents are afraid of dogs, but that doesn't give their children the visceral irrational revulsion towards dogs that arachnophobes have towards spiders. I've never heard of someone who can't even look at pictures of dogs or birds or bears, whilst it's very common for images of spiders to make people very uncomfortable. As far as I can tell, not being afraid of them has to be learned. I cannot find a source, but I recall reading that even people who keep spiders as pets, still have a raised heartrate when holding them.
  - Chris2048 7y ago
    Do pople who eat spiders not consider them to look scary?
  - drinfinity 7y ago
    Snakes don't phase me _at all_, no pulse change whatever. I don't care, never have. I'll happily enter a bath filled with them and stay there for hours. My baby boy doesn't care about spiders, snakes, etc. He is now learning it because my wife is (over)reacting to them. There is a major environmental/learned aspect to this, I don't buy the 100% inborn argument at all. Young children (0-12mo) don't give a damn about anything. I do believe we are born with the innate potential to focus on these creatures faster/earlier than other animals, but fear, that's learned.
maxander 7y ago
Trypophobia is presumably an abnormal, overly-aggressive version of the disease-avoidance mechanism, though; there's no evolutionary reason to be unsettled by holes on inorganic objects, or even most kinds of holes on organic ones. Presumably, almost everyone has some level of the underlying mechanism; go look at a picture of a smallpox victim and see how you feel about it.

taneq 7y ago

That's the thing, most "example images" aren't just a bunch of holes or circles (I've never heard anyone claim security mesh or a half-cooked pancake are horrifying, although apparently crumpets are a known trigger?). They're photos (either shopped or real) of something that looks like a gnarly parasite infection. Disliking that is not 'phobia', it's legitimately yuck.

limomium 7y ago
It's not merely a 'dislike' though. I've had arachnophobia (spiders). It feels like an intense, paranoid, startling horror which demands visual attention and quick jumping away of the body. If I know there's a spider nearby, I must be able to see it from a safe distance. I have trypophobia (holes). It feels like my skin is crawling, like I'm being eaten alive from the inside, like my very essence of being is being violated by some cosmic plague, commanding me to look away and get as far away from the holed object as possible -- though without excessive urgency. I can look at many things I dislike; many things I know for fact are dangerous. I can't look at certain kinds of clusters of holes.
- taneq 7y ago
  Fair, and I should have added a rider that "if you're actively incapable of dealing with such things, then that's not dislike, that's a phobia." Please don't feel obliged to answer this, but - is it only biological-looking pictures that trigger this? Or do you get it from clearly non-biological things (eg. security mesh, ventilation grills, cheesegraters) as well?
  - lowercased 7y ago
    I'm not the earlier poster, but have similar reactions as that poster, and for me, yes, sometimes non-biological things trigger similar reaction. Not always, and usually not as strong, but it's often there. It can depend on context, my own physical state (fresh awake and mentally 'on' vs... tired/foggy/etc).
  - limomium 7y ago

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

xaedes 7y ago

Probably. This also explains that people find comfort in pimple popping and ASMR. The first is a direct skin health care routine and ASMR is simulating human intimacy, probably giving the impression of being cared for by others, which helps when being sick. I guess it is not widespread because the evolutionary pressure only evolved it on part of human people for local reasons. Or what I want to believe: Its phenotypical expression is different for different folks because of gene activation. Could be that traumatic occurences in the past (like being serious sick of s.th. like that, or being in the midst of an epidemy, while avoiding it oneself) activate the gene and this is passed on to the next few generations.

mapcars 7y ago

Well, disease is not abnormal nor death is. Only our culture makes it abnormal.