The fear of a cluster of irregularly formed circles or holes, such as the holes in a sponge, honeycomb, or bubbles in a coffee cup, is known as trypophobia. These forms may appear harmless to most people, but for certain people, just seeing photos of these holes can cause extreme sensations of fear, anxiety, and aversion.
The source of this disorder, according to psychologists at the University of Kent in the United Kingdom, is a deep-seated antipathy to parasites and disease.
Their research, which was just published in the journal Cognition and Emotion, reveals that the disorder is linked to an evolutionary reaction to prevent infectious diseases or parasite infection. Many terrible illnesses, such as tics, botflies, smallpox, measles, rubella, typhus, scarlet fever, and others, have circular patterns and holes, as they point out.
It’s a well-known truth that many disgust and aversion responses have evolved as a means of avoiding infection sources. Many people, for example, are repulsed by blood and foul odors, which serves to keep them away from potential sources of illness.
The researchers enlisted over 600 volunteers, half of whom had trypophobia and the other half did not, to see 16 photos of holes and clusters and complete a questionnaire. Eight of the photographs depicted diseased body parts, such as rashes or embedded ticks, whereas the remaining eight depicted non-disease-related objects, such as drilled holes in a wall and a seed pod.
Both groups had an unfavorable reaction to the eight disease-related photos. The non-disease-related images, on the other hand, only elicited this response in persons with trypophobia.
When those with trypophobia saw these photographs, they felt disgusted, nauseated, and had the want to vomit. They also claimed to have felt itchy skin, skin crawling, or the sense of bugs crawling on their skin. The idea that patients with trypophobia see cluster stimuli as harbingers of parasites and disease was reaffirmed once more.
It’s just a deep-rooted response, like so many of our worries – in this case, probably an overgeneralized fear of parasites and infectious diseases.
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