An evolutionary fear of holes?
1 Oct 2013 by Evoluted New Media
Trypophobia is the most common fear you’ve never heard of – but what is it about clusters of holes that bring people out in a cold sweat?
An ancient evolutionary part of the brain might be warning people of a potential threat say visual science experts at the University of Essex who suggest that trypophobia might be the result of a specific visual feature common in poisonous animals.
Dr Geoff Cole and Professor Arnold Wilkins established that trypophobic objects share a common specific visual feature by comparing 76 images of trypophobic objects with 76 controls. Trypophobic objects had relatively high contrast energy at mid-range spatial frequencies.
Cole experienced a ‘Eureka moment’ when one sufferer experienced a trypophobic reaction looking at a blue-ringed octopus, one of the most poisonous animals in the world. Analysis of other poisonous animals – including the deathstalker scorpion and king cobra snake – showed they too had relatively high contrast at mid-range spatial frequencies.
“These findings suggest that there may be an ancient evolutionary part of the brain telling people that they are looking at a poisonous animal,” said Cole, himself a trypophobia sufferer.
The research – published in Psychological Science – concluded that trypophobia may have an evolutionary basis; clusters of holes may be aversive because they share visual features with animals that humans have learned to avoid as a matter of survival.
“We think that everyone has trypophobic tendencies even though they may not be aware of it,” said Cole. “People who don’t have the phobia still rate trypophobic images as less comfortable to look at than other images. It backs up the theory that we are all set-up to be fearful of things which hurt us in our evolutionary past.”
As for a cure – Cole found looking at images so often desensitised him to them.
The team are now exploring whether manipulating spectral characteristics of images of everyday objects leads people to prefer one object over another, shedding light on just how ingrained trypophobic tendencies might be.
Fear of holes http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/08/23/0956797613484937
