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Why do holes horrify me?

mosaicscience.com

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Re: Why do holes horrify me?

#61

Post by wruza »

philwelch wrote: post #14
hprotagonist wrote: post #2

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... and that smells tongue-in-cheek too.

I don't think I have it to the degree that it's a "phobia", but I find a lot of trypophobia images really creepy/gross/frightening. Basically the same reaction I have to arthopods. I also have had a history, prior to being exposed to the concept of trypophobia, of body-horror nightmares where lots of tiny holes open up in my skin around my joints, so yeah, it's probably one of those common fears.

Oh, that nightmare when you stress your muscles and they rip into holes. I also had it, and it was weird, not terrifying.

Re: Why do holes horrify me?

#64

Post by xaedes »

miguelmota wrote: post #5

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.

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.

Re: Why do holes horrify me?

#65

Post by [deleted] »

Avamander wrote: post #47
maxander wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

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).

[deleted]

Re: Why do holes horrify me?

#66

Post by xaedes »

huehehue wrote: post #37

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.

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

Re: Why do holes horrify me?

#67

Post by lowercased »

taneq wrote: post #54
limomium wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 vi…

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?

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).

Re: Why do holes horrify me?

#68

Post by lowercased »

wruza wrote: post #61
philwelch wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I have it to the degree that it's a "phobia", but I find a lot of trypophobia images really creepy/gross/frightening. Basically the same reaction I have to arthopods. I also have had a history, prior to being exposed to the concept of trypophobia, of body-horror nightmares where lots of tiny holes open up in my skin around my joints, so yeah, it's probably one of those common fears.

Oh, that nightmare when you stress your muscles and they rip into holes. I also had it, and it was weird, not terrifying.

well... thank you very much. 3 am - can't sleep... now I'm terrified of even trying as I've never had that nightmare but it's now stuck in my head... :/

Re: Why do holes horrify me?

#69

Post by hombre_fatal »

Avamander wrote: post #47
maxander wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

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).

Yikes, the real horror is always in the comments.

Re: Why do holes horrify me?

#70

Post by elliekelly »

hprotagonist wrote: post #2

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... and that smells tongue-in-cheek too.

I remember seeing a PostSecret about it (but not referencing trypophobia by name) when I was in college ~2008.
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