Why do holes horrify me? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why do holes horrify me?

#91

Post by kup0 » Wed, Dec 04, 2019, 1:58 PM UTC

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.

Re: Why do holes horrify me?

#92

Post by kup0 » Wed, Dec 04, 2019, 2:09 PM UTC

mapcars wrote: post #73

vesche wrote: post #13

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

I wonder can't you see the picture is just a picture? In a way as when you watch a movie where people die or something you realize it's just a movie, right?

I think it's not really about the rational/analyzing part of the brain being involved here.

A lot of phobias have "involuntary" reactions, so, for me, it doesn't matter that I know the picture can't hurt me- I still get the negative reaction to it every time and no amount of rational thinking or understanding has any effect.

It's something more primal than that.

Re: Why do holes horrify me?

#93

Post by pingyong » Wed, Dec 04, 2019, 2:32 PM UTC

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 looked at a couple of pictures from the dataset posted above, and I think for the best effect the holes need to be local (so there's a regular / smooth surface, and only some of it is covered in holes), they need to be large enough to actually see individually and there needs to be some space between them (so meshes etc. don't work at all), and ideally they are also slightly irregular.

You really don't encounter something that satisfies all of these naturally very often. Pretty much never. But it doesn't have to be "biological", it can be bread or plastic or anything else.

Re: Why do holes horrify me?

#94

Post by ChrisRR » Wed, Dec 04, 2019, 3:40 PM UTC

stared wrote: post #21

If you want a trypophobia dataset, my mentees created one: 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...

Jesus, some of those images turn my stomach and I can't explain why.

Re: Why do holes horrify me?

#95

Post by ncmncm » Wed, Dec 04, 2019, 3:57 PM UTC

thaumasiotes wrote: post #80

jcims wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I don't see why not?

Lotus pods are pretty fibrous.

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

Re: Why do holes horrify me?

#96

Post by drinfinity » Wed, Dec 04, 2019, 7:27 PM UTC

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…

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.