Trypophobia

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Some people find the holes in the seed pods of the Indian lotus flower repulsive or frightening.

Trypophobia (from ancient Greek τρῦπα trýpa , German 'hole' and ancient Greek φόβος phóbos , German 'fear' ) is a feeling of disgust or fear that some people feel when looking at patterns made of holes or bubbles. It is primarily an aversion . Trypophobia is not a recognized anxiety disorder , but in individual cases it can express itself as a specific phobia.

The peculiar perceptual psychological phenomenon is not yet fully understood. Scientists have hypothesized that trypophobia has an evolutionary root in response to danger or disease .

To the subject

The term trypophobia is said to have appeared for the first time in an online forum around 2005. It has since been disseminated on social media , but has also been picked up in medical literature.

Triggering objects

Objects whose sight can cause trypophobic reactions include many from everyday life, such as sponges , foam , certain fruits or technical objects. Trypophobic effects are also found in images of insect damage and wounds , such as fly maggot disease , especially in dogs. The strongest known triggers are images in which a human body part is shown looking perforated by means of image processing .

In particular, the clustering (accumulation with spatial proximity) of many holes or bubbles seems to trigger the stimulus . Images that triggered trypophobia were examined using optical measurement methods. According to Cole and Wilkins (2013), these images have a high spatial frequency with greater energy in the middle range. According to Martínez-Aguayo et al. (2018) are said to trigger trypophobia such images that have high-energy contrasts at low and medium spatial frequencies.

Sample images (please expand to display them)

Medical

classification

Trypophobia is not a specific diagnosis. However, like practically anything that can trigger anxiety, it can fall under the term “specific phobia” ( ICD-10 F40.2) or “anxiety disorders” ( DSM-5 ) in individual cases , if the patient's condition is in accordance with the criteria to be applied has the characteristics and extent of an anxiety disorder. Whether or not trypophobia counts as a phobia in an individual case depends, among other things, on whether the patient mainly feels fear or disgust, since fear is a necessary criterion for an anxiety disorder.

Symptoms

Trypophobia often manifests itself as a reaction of the autonomic nervous system . Those affected described reactions of shuddering , goose bumps , panic attacks , sweating , palpitations , nausea or itching . Other symptoms reported include tremors , malaise , eye pain, and visual impairment.

Trypophobia can manifest as a fear response, disgust response, or both. Usually disgust is the stronger emotion.

Comorbidity

Le et al. (2015) found that generalized anxiety disorders did not trigger trypophobia. According to Martínez-Aguayo et al. (2018), however, indicate that trypophobia often occurs as a multiple diagnosis together with depression or generalized anxiety disorder. They also found that a significant minority of those examined with trypophobia met the DSM-5 criteria for obsessive-compulsive disorder .

treatment

Possible types of treatment are methods of cognitive behavioral therapy , such as the exposure therapy .

Epidemiology

How common trypophobia is is not known. However, based on the data available so far, it can be assumed that an aversion to trypophobia-inducing stimuli is relatively common.

In a 2013 study by Cole and Wilkins with 286 participants, 46 subjects (11% of the men and 18% of the women, a total of 16%) reported that they could barely stand the sight of lace patterns. The study's authors also found that among the non-trypophobic subjects, a majority found trypophobia-inducing images more uncomfortable than neutral images.

Trypophobia seems to be more common in women.

causes

There is still no general consensus on the causes of trypophobic reactions. Several possible causes have been suggested.

In 2013, Cole and Wilkins assumed that trypophobia is an "unconscious reflex " based on a biological revulsion rather than a culturally learned fear response.

The widespread disgust or fear reaction to pictures of poisonous animals such as snakes , spiders and insects has something in common with trypophobia. Therefore, in various publications (2015, 2016, 2018) it is assumed that trypophobia has an evolutionary basis that warns people of dangerous organisms. In contrast, Can et al. (2017) the view that the connection between trypophobia and evolution is weak. If there is a connection, it will only manifest in adulthood and not in childhood.

According to Yamada and Sasaki (2017), trypophobic reactions can be traced back to the similarity of the images with skin diseases . In 2018, Kupfer and Fessler speculated that trypophobic reactions could serve as warnings about infectious diseases or parasites that would bring a survival benefit to the individual who has this reaction.

society

In the social networks there are groups in which people post and discuss pictures that cause trypophobic reactions in them. Since the phenomenon of trypophobia is not yet widely known, many sufferers do not know a name for it and mistakenly assume that they are alone with their strange sensory reaction until they encounter the topic and other affected persons in the media. Since the phenomenon has become more and more well-known, more and more targeted photos that trigger trypophobia, including disturbing image processing, are published on social media.

The topic received media attention in 2017 when the American horror television series American Horror Story featured a trypophobic character.

literature

  • Juan Carlos Martínez-Aguayo, Renzo C. Lanfranco, Marcelo Arancibia, Elisa Sepúlveda, Eva Madrid: Trypophobia: What Do We Know So Far? A Case Report and Comprehensive Review of the Literature. In: Frontiers in Psychiatry . tape 9 , 2017, doi : 10.3389 / fpsyt.2018.00015 .
  • Tom R. Kupfer, An TD Le: Disgusting clusters: trypophobia as an overgeneralized disease avoidance response. In: Cognition and Emotion . 2017, doi : 10.1080 / 02699931.2017.1345721 .
  • To TD Le, Geoff G. Cole, Arnold J. Wilkins: Assessment of trypophobia and an analysis of its visual precipitation. In: Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology . tape 68 , 2015, p. 2304-2322 ( researchgate.net ).
  • Geoff G. Cole, Arnold J. Wilkins: Fear of Holes . In: Psychological Science . 24, No. 10, October 2013, p. 1980-1985 , doi : 10.1177 / 0956797613484937 ( researchgate.net ).

Web links

Commons : Trypophobia  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Irena Milosevic Ph.D, Randi E. McCabe Ph.D: Phobias: The Psychology of Irrational Fear . ABC-CLIO, 2015, ISBN 978-1-61069-576-3 ( books.google.de ).
  2. ^ A b Daniel Schacter, Daniel Gilbert, Daniel Wegner, Bruce Hood: Psychology: Second European Edition . Macmillan International Higher Education, 2015, ISBN 978-1-137-40675-0 ( books.google.de ).
  3. ^ A b Deutscher Ärzteverlag GmbH, editorial office of the Deutsches Ärzteblatt: Tyrpophobia: When holes trigger phobias. In: aerzteblatt.de. Deutsches Ärzteblatt, 2014, accessed on March 3, 2021 .
  4. ↑ a b c Trypophobia - Online Lexicon for Psychology and Education. In: stangl.eu. Accessed March 1, 2021 (German).
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Juan Carlos Martínez-Aguayo, Renzo C. Lanfranco, Marcelo Arancibia, Elisa Sepúlveda, Eva Madrid: Trypophobia: What Do We Know So Far? A Case Report and Comprehensive Review of the Literature . In: Frontiers in Psychiatry . 9, 2018, ISSN  1664-0640 , p. 15. doi : 10.3389 / fpsyt.2018.00015 . PMID 29479321 . PMC 5811467 (free full text).
  6. ↑ a b c Jennifer Abbasi: Is Trypophobia a Real Phobia? . July 25, 2011. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
  7. ↑ a b c Sandee LaMottef: TV show triggers little-known phobia . CNN . September 14, 2017. Retrieved October 26, 2017.
  8. ↑ a b c d Geoff G. Cole, Arnold J. Wilkins: Fear of Holes . In: Psychological Science . 24, No. 10, October 2013, pp. 1980–1985. doi : 10.1177 / 0956797613484937 . PMID 23982244 .
  9. ^ Everything You Should Know About Trypophobia . Healthline. August 7, 2015. Retrieved October 26, 2017.
  10. ^ To Trong Dinh Le, Geoff Cole, Arnold J Wilkins: Assessment of trypophobia and an analysis of its visual precipitation. 2015, accessed March 3, 2021 .
  11. ↑ What Is Trypophobia? Triggers, Symptoms, Causes & Treatment. In: medicinenet.com. MedicineNet, accessed March 3, 2021 .
  12. ↑ Julie Beck: Who's Afraid of a Cluster of Holes? 16 percent of people. The Atlantic , 2013, accessed March 3, 2021 .
  13. ↑ Don Hockenbury, Sandra E. Hockenbury: Discovering Psychology . Macmillan Higher Education, 2016, ISBN 978-1464176968 .
  14. ↑ a b T. R. Kupfer, DMT Fessler: Ectoparasite defense in humans: relationships to pathogen avoidance and clinical implications. . In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences . 373, No. 1751, July 19, 2018, p. 20170207. doi : 10.1098 / rstb.2017.0207 . PMID 29866920 . PMC 6000138 (free full text).
  15. ↑ W. Can, Z. Zhuoran, J. Zheng: Is trypophobia a Phobia? . In: Psychological Reports . 120, No. 2, 2017, pp. 206-218. doi : 10.1177 / 0033294116687298 . PMID 28558623 .
  16. ↑ Yuki Yamada, Kyoshiro Sasaki: Involuntary protection against dermatosis: A preliminary observation on trypophobia. In: BMC research Notes. 2017, accessed on March 3, 2021 .
  17. ↑ Michaeleen Doucleff: Fear Of Cantaloupes And Crumpets? A 'Phobia' Rises From The Web . In: NPR . Retrieved April 10, 2016. 
  18. ↑ Eric King: American Horror Story: Cult: Why is Ally afraid of small holes? . September 6, 2017. Retrieved October 26, 2017.