Is Trypophobia a Real Phobia?
Lotus Seed Pod AZAdamWe investigate the fear of creepy clustered holes If you're like me and you have a visceral reaction to the image above-if it makes your skin crawl, your hair hurt, and your stomach turn-you can count yourself among the trypophobic. According to its Facebook page, which is more than 4,000 members strong, trypophobia is fear of clustered holes. It is usually small holes in organic objects, such as lotus seed heads or bubbles in batter, that give trypophobics the extreme willies, triggering reactions like itchy skin, nausea and a general feeling of discomfort. (A picture of a candy bar with a pattern of small air bubbles did me in. Goodbye, dear chocolate. For now.) My editor tasked me with investigating what causes this bizarre and irrational fear, which I had never heard of before. It turns out that I'm not alone. I contacted roughly 10 psychologists for this story,...