Seeing tiny holes, like the kind on some fruits or plants, freaks me out. What’s going on?
Some people have negative reactions to tiny, clustered holes. This is known as trypophobia. Visual triggers include lotus seed pods, bubbles surfacing on a pancake and even theAround 10 to 15 per cent of people find these images uncomfortable to look at, says Nate Pipitone, an associate professor of psychology at Florida Gulf Coast University, who has been studying trypophobia for several years.The images can cause feelings of repulsion and disgust as well as itching and nausea.
While tiny circles in any context may be disturbing enough to some, Pipitone found that reactions are particularly strong when superimposed upon images of dangerous animals – and even more so upon images of human skin such as on the hand. Think dark holes against a light background. Holes that look more washed out don’t usually cause discomfort.The circular pattern is also a critical component, Pipitone adds. Images of palm fronds, for example, have similarly sized swaths of light and dark, but don’t freak people out.Many venomous creatures, such as the blue-ringed octopus, have the characteristic visual property, leading some researchers to argue the reaction stems from a subconscious reflex rather than a learned fear response.
The easiest solution is simply to avoid these images whenever possible. In fact, Pipitone tells me that students in his lab have opted out of trypophobia projects because of their own reactions.Another theory about trypophobia is a bit less Darwinian and instead relates to the power of suggestion: if you’re primed to search for a supposedly trypophobic image after I imply it’ll make you itchy, you may feel itchy simply because you were primed to do so.
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