Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why do holes horrify me?

mosaicscience.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 96 posts

Re: Why do holes horrify me?

#81

Post by Spare_account »

r00fus wrote: post #43
scotty79 wrote: post #41

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.

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

Not the same guy but for me, the regularity of the holes in the watch strap renders it safe. Something that appears more organic tends to trigger revulsion more strongly. The implication of lots of holes in skin is very difficult to look at, actual holes in an animals skin is the worst (there's a frog that pops babies directly out of holes on its back).

Re: Why do holes horrify me?

#82

Post by clarry »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #79
cc-d wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 speci…

> 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.

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

Re: Why do holes horrify me?

#84

Post by kmm »

cc-d wrote: post #35
kstrauser wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

> 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 speci…

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.

Re: Why do holes horrify me?

#85

Post by limomium »

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?

Interesting question. Was afraid of the shower drain cover's holes once, but generally no, have seen few human-made objects possessing the phobic quality. I think manufactured patterns are too regular and neat to trigger it.

Re: Why do holes horrify me?

#86

Post by Chris2048 »

cc-d wrote: post #35
kstrauser wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

> 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 speci…

Do pople who eat spiders not consider them to look scary?

Re: Why do holes horrify me?

#87

Post by lioeters »

scotty79 wrote: post #41

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.

That's fascinating that the feeling was so memorable, even after so many years, and how you describe it as not only dangerous but "evil" - that seems to be tapping into some primal instinct, like "horror" in a Lovecraftian sense.

> I have to repeat this experiment some day.

Gotta love the pursuit of knowledge, the curiosity to understand one's own psychology. It reminds me of the various experiments conducted in the surrealist movement, inspired by Freud's exploration of the unconscious, the "art of the insane", anthropogical literature.

In another comment of yours, you mention that the holes being physical, rather than a 2D image, was probably an important aspect of its effectiveness in raising a strong reaction. That makes me wonder about what other natural phenomena produce such trypophobic textures, in terms of physics, chemistry, biology.

Strangely, I think I have a kind of "trypophilia", a sense of aesthetic pleasure from dense, complexly patterned structures.

Re: Why do holes horrify me?

#88

Post by dkarras »

EvanAnderson wrote: post #83

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_...

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.

Re: Why do holes horrify me?

#89

Post by 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.

Re: Why do holes horrify me?

#90

Post by saiya-jin »

ryanmcbride wrote: post #20
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.

When I was a little kid I was terrified of coral because of the little holes. I definitely wouldn't say I have a phobia but images of things with lots of holes makes my skin crawl.

well thank you for ruining coral diving for me, one of most wonderful experiences in life...

more seriously though, it seems strange that a lot of things I wouldn't notice at all unless there was some really bad trigger, like photoshopped trypto images and then I start noticing this pattern more (especially if there is something sticking out of those holes...)

bee/wasp honey combs with their younglings, anybody?

Post reply on HN