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Comment by taneq | Hacker News Reader

That's the thing, most "example images" aren't just a bunch of holes or circles (I've never heard anyone claim security mesh or a half-cooked pancake are horrifying, although apparently crumpets are a known trigger?). They're photos (either shopped or real) of something that looks like a gnarly parasite infection. Disliking that is not 'phobia', it's legitimately yuck.

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It's not merely a 'dislike' though.

I've had arachnophobia (spiders). It feels like an intense, paranoid, startling horror which demands visual attention and quick jumping away of the body. If I know there's a spider nearby, I must be able to see it from a safe distance.

I have trypophobia (holes). It feels like my skin is crawling, like I'm being eaten alive from the inside, like my very essence of being is being violated by some cosmic plague, commanding me to look away and get as far away from the holed object as possible -- though without excessive urgency.

I can look at many things I dislike; many things I know for fact are dangerous. I can't look at certain kinds of clusters of holes.

Fair, and I should have added a rider that "if you're actively incapable of dealing with such things, then that's not dislike, that's a phobia."

Please don't feel obliged to answer this, but - is it only biological-looking pictures that trigger this? Or do you get it from clearly non-biological things (eg. security mesh, ventilation grills, cheesegraters) as well?

I looked at a couple of pictures from the dataset posted above, and I think for the best effect the holes need to be local (so there's a regular / smooth surface, and only some of it is covered in holes), they need to be large enough to actually see individually and there needs to be some space between them (so meshes etc. don't work at all), and ideally they are also slightly irregular.

You really don't encounter something that satisfies all of these naturally very often. Pretty much never. But it doesn't have to be "biological", it can be bread or plastic or anything else.

I'm not the earlier poster, but have similar reactions as that poster, and for me, yes, sometimes non-biological things trigger similar reaction. Not always, and usually not as strong, but it's often there. It can depend on context, my own physical state (fresh awake and mentally 'on' vs... tired/foggy/etc).

Interesting question. Was afraid of the shower drain cover's holes once, but generally no, have seen few human-made objects possessing the phobic quality. I think manufactured patterns are too regular and neat to trigger it.

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