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Is Trypophobia a Phobia?

Wang Can1, Zhao Zhuoran2, Jin Zheng3

  • 1Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China.

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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Discomfort from trypophobia, the fear of holes, in children stems from visual patterns, not learned fear of venomous animals. This suggests trypophobia may be an instinctive visual response, questioning its legitimacy.

Keywords:
fear of holesnonconscious associationphobiatrypophobiavisual processing

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Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Visual Perception
  • Child Development

Background:

  • Trypophobia, the fear of clustered holes, affects many individuals.
  • Existing theories suggest a nonconscious fear of venomous organisms due to visual similarities.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the origins of discomfort associated with trypophobic stimuli in preschoolers.
  • To determine if this discomfort is linked to visual features or nonconscious fear of venomous animals.

Main Methods:

  • Adapted self-report measures and the Preschool Single Category Implicit Association Test for young children.
  • Presented trypophobic stimuli and modified images of venomous animals to assess responses.

Main Results:

  • Children reported discomfort with trypophobic stimuli.
  • Discomfort was linked to the visual characteristics of the stimuli, not associations with venomous animals.
  • Removing visual features of trypophobia from venomous animal images eliminated the association.

Conclusions:

  • Discomfort towards trypophobic images in children appears to be an instinctive response to visual patterns.
  • The findings challenge the notion of a learned, nonconscious fear of venomous animals as the primary cause.
  • The justification for legitimizing trypophobia as a distinct phobia is questioned based on these results.