ASMR: The videos which claim to make their viewers 'tingle' | Hacker News Reader

ASMR: The videos which claim to make their viewers 'tingle'

bbc.com

53 pointsotoolep54 comments

If you had told me that ASMR was a real thing five years ago, I probably would not have understood, and thought it was a bunch of baloney.

About a year ago, gross as it is, I noticed I actually kind of enjoyed the sound of one of my coworkers chewing with their mouth open. Then somebody came in with a big mechanical keyboard several months later and started clonking away, and I enjoyed that, too. The unevenness of the clicks and clacks make little patters and pops in my head that are like tiny little itch bubbles that are scratchpopped the same moment they blip into existence.

These are sounds I used to find extremely annoying and I don't know why it changed. But when I started looking up mechanical keyboard sounds on youtube so that I could listen to them at home, I came across these ASMR videos and discovered that apparently, it's a thing.

For me, in-person sounds are always more satisfying. They are less predictable and less uniform. The videos some people try to make to capture the ASMR feeling have the idea right, but are not uneven enough. It's like when you ask someone to write 50 iterations of a coin flip and they end up having max substrings of the same character in a row that are only 2 characters long. Real randomness isn't like that - you'll have some 4's and 5's, and 1's with wide padding.

I think if you don't already feel this phenomenon yourself, watching some ASMR videos to discover what it's like will probably not give you the feeling. It's like eating a food you always hated, or jazz music - you don't like it until suddenly, one day sitting there, you realize that you probably would if you tried it again. And then you go, and you do. Before that, you don't really get the appeal. It's just the fermentation of the brain. After a certain amount of time, it just has a different taste.

For me, in these whisper videos, it's not the soft voice that triggers the feeling, but the clicks in the speech - the "sk" and "st" sounds, and simple pops of the tongue while it's being rearranged in the mouth between words. Those noises made by the water in the mouth and not the air.

Just thought I'd share.

the only sounds that give me a solid reaction are wet mouth sounds. everything else just feels like it doesn't quite work. the feeling is almost there, but the sense of satisfaction and relief doesn't complete.

its a very strange phenomenon to try to describe. but its unmistakeable and unprovoked by anything else.

Quite peculiar, isn't it? So many people who experience similar feeling, but from such a wide range of triggers.

I really hope that it will be studied in the future instead of being dismissed as a hoax as some people do.

For me, I've only really had the sensation once, triggered by the writing of a fountain pen and the soft and slightly rasping voice of a university supervisor. I'm very familiar with the "doesn't quite work" feeling, though. Anyway, it seems to be scratching kinds of noises for me.

This is really fascinating, I didn't know about ASMR until now, but I'm experiencing the feeling since childhood.

I found it so cool as a child that I trained myself to reproduce it without any external stimulus or thought pattern.

If mechanical-keyboard sounds give you an ASMR feeling, and you're in the market for a piece of distraction-free writing software (not that that isn't a commodity feature these days), try Ommwriter (http://www.ommwriter.com) — it has a variety of configurable "pseudorandom typing sounds", meant to be played atop an ambient soundscape using headphones. They're all very pleasing in a way I would now think of as ASMR.

I don't think i've ever heard anyone say that, but i had my first experience with ASMR through something completely mundane: Listening to music with good bass headphones on.

The high frequency percussion of albums like these, would result in a feeling like a direct brain massage:

Psydrop - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPy-fYprejc&index=5&list=PL3... (In fact, the very narrative of the linked track explains the feeling.)

Infected Mushroom - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU2i_xOu4gk

Infected Mushroom - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBjuOtgTe6U

It was 8 more years until i found that ASMR videos that did the same.

I enjoy it a lot more at open air parties. Tingling sensations all around ;)

EDIT: as a follow-up, something like this: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=731162680276109&type=2&...

I wonder if you were experiencing the related, but different phenomenon of frisson.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisson

I get that too with certain music, but the brain massage effect is distinct from that. :)

Yes the random aspect of the sounds is absolutely crucial for me. There's an element of surprise that triggers the sensation most strongly. The majority of the 'community' and it's videos are way to deliberate. The best feeling I generally get is a nice mellow relaxation. Very rarely do the tingles occur.

I'd even say watching ASMR videos on a fairly regular basis has made it less common for me to experience the sensation in every day life. I used to stumble into the feeling once a week maybe... Now almost never.

This is a shame because it's definitely one of the most pleasurable sensations I've experienced outside of drug use. When it comes on strong it's ecstacy.

I noticed a similar phenomenon, but I'd distinguish 3 different kinds:

1. As a child (and still as an adult) I sometimes get this tingling sensation in my scalp when someone does something very mundane (e. g. when I watch the barber cutting my hair). I definitely have to be in the mood for that. So, this scalp sensation comes mostly when I see and observe something. Sometimes, it also comes when someone tells a story in a soft voice. My father could trigger that when I was a child.

2. Some music just gives me the chills. This tingling sensation is mostly "goosebumps down my neck and spine", less in my scalp. I found that "Brutal Dubstep Drops" never fail to cause it quite strongly and fast. E. g. this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQU9RFTR_84 (edit2: this never gets old and almost always works, how weird. If you listen to it, listen at least the first 1:30 minutes)

3. If someone touches my neck or back and uses fingernails to stroke me very softly. I get goosebumps and my body doesn't get used to it for 15-20 minutes if done right.

I guess 2+3 are different from ASMR, but I definitely experienced it. Quite enjoyable.

Edit: Also this video, as cheesy as it might be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiXGELjbc&list=PLFC4EE4355...

I think, for me, it has something to do with fascination, mix of repetitiveness and variation, and a relaxed state of the person I observe.

#2 is a separate sensation called frisson:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisson

Is there any hard psychological or neurological research being done on ASMR?

Not to detract on people's experiences (I believe you!), but right now it looks as though there are a lot of different manifestations of the experience which are being grouped into one "ASMR" category, ranging from "it calms me" to "It feels nice" to "I get a tingling sensation" to "I am sexually aroused". I think this is why there is a lot of defensiveness about it being branded a fetish.

I'm gonna need a source on that one. I experience ASMR, and the tingling sensation definitely calms you and feels nice, but it has nothing sexual attached to it.

I think it may be partially attributed to what Bret Victor calls Picture Under Glass [1].

Bret talks a lot about how we use our phones and tablets all day handling representations of real things beneath glass. We are not interacting in a tactile way with our environment - not like we used to. So perhaps what's happening is that maybe AMSR viewers are yearning for the authenticity of touch that we are losing. This to me seems why watching someone paint their nails would be so potent for some people.

Might need a neurologist to weigh in now.

[1] http://worrydream.com/#!/ABriefRantOnTheFutureOfInteractionD...

I can weigh in as someone who gets ASMR.

I've been experiencing it for my whole life, literally as long as I can remember, and I was born in 1990, before tablets were a thing. That theory is trash.

Also, painting of nails does nothing for me, everyone seems to get different effects from different things.

The one thing that seems to set off everyone with ASMR is Bob Ross:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX2AEfZpWT8

Confirmed that Bob causes it! In addition, he does some great drawings so what a bonus!

He also has pretty impressive big hair.

I was born in 1983, and I think Mr Happy Little Trees is not only is one of the best ASMR triggers, I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't awaken the tingles in people that never before had it.

I remember having this as a 10 year old watching another child draw something. I always now get it when having an eye test or haircut - strangely, even remembering an eye test causes it. I wonder if that's because I have a photographic memory or something? I would be interested in what is actually happening mentally, with tests done as an ECG.

Some of the videos are "triggers" for me, strangely even the "hair salon" one. I have never been to a hair salon in real life but the quiet whispering / personal attention given causes it.

Unfortunately when trying to explain it this does sound like some weird sexual thing but it really isn't. I think trying to explain it only causes more problems. Amusingly, trying to explain it to my wife: she said that she gets a feeling when scared when being chased. That wasn't the feeling I was trying to explain - that's fear haha.

I have a twin so perhaps I should see if he experiences it too?

What a superficial article.

That word - "braingasm" should be completely removed from ASMR and almost everyone in community (at least r/asmr) agrees with it. It has a very bad influence on the way outsiders view ASMR and treat those who experience these tingles.

I've had had number of arguments with people who after short search in YouTube assumed that ASMR is nothing more but some weird perversion and simply because number of the girls who make those videos are attractive. Had to force people to look more - to see that there's a lot of videos that do not feature women. Man showing his pen/coin/knife collection without featuring his face or body - yeah, we all dig that. /s

And here I thought author actually made some effort to get to know the community - he talked to some of the artists, but apparently either not enough or he didn't ask right questions.

The article is a summary of a ~five minute report on the Today programme. It isn't intended to be an in depth exploration of ASMR, just to introduce it to people who haven't come across it. Your critique come across in the same way as a Star Trek fan complaining about bring called a Trekkie rather than Trekker.

It maybe, but this article and I guess initial report makes quite a number of mistakes which could have been avoided simply by checking couple of ASMR communities. They spend time on tracking and talking to some of the artists - so they must have had time to get to understand it better.

What mistakes?

There was a time when an article of that length would be thoroughly researched before publication. Now, it seems acceptable to fill such articles with "going on a journey" narrative - e.g. "I personally, the reporter, sometimes had this, and it made me wonder this, so I looked it up. On YouTube there are lots of videos about it. It is called T.H.I.S. Nobody knows who invented it, but there have been lots of tweets recently. One video contains a picture of a that, and it has had 7 million views, although the sound quality is poor.." and on and on and on it goes like a junior school report.

Admittedly it does at least get a bit better as it goes on, but this style of "journalism" is very off-putting once you notice how insubstantial it really is. It really just is a long-form narration of a clicking-around-on-Google session.

"There was a time when an article of that length would be thoroughly researched before publication."

And when was that exactly?

There's a subreddit for this: http://reddit.com/r/asmr

I watch some of these videos every now and then, it's just kinda relaxing.

I definitely wouldn't consider it as a viable alternative to therapy....

This visualisation triggers it for me! http://earth.nullschool.net/#2014/12/11/0900Z/wind/surface/l...

I also experience the 'frisson' sensation mentioned in the article. It usually happens when I visualise something slightly strange or funny! I have to physically shake it off.

I've experienced this since childhood. Among other things, eye exams, as well as having any exam with an otoscope can trigger it. I noticed that this is especially so if I can hear the doctor breathing.

The experience seems to be the "opposite" sensation of, say, fingernails on a chalkboard. I seem to be especially sensitive to those annoyances, and others, such as forks scraping plates, etc. I wonder if there is a proportionate increased sensitivity to ASMR experiences.

Some NPR programs, such as "All Things Considered", also seem to invoke ASMR. Interestingly, Family Guy did a gag [1] wherein it was an annoyance, which I thought odd. Makes me wonder if this really would be considered ASMR and whether it really does irritate some people, where others are soothed by it. So, some experiences can invoke the pleasant ASMR-type response in some, while invoking its opposite in others.

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQSO0RbmHBI

> So, some experiences can invoke the pleasant ASMR-type response in some, while invoking its opposite in others.

I can control which one I get! I have ADD. Unmedicated, it's the unpleasant kind. Medicated, it's the pleasant kind. If this generalizes, it probably says something about how ASMR works.

I was up all night working on a demo, and had to go home and catch a few hours of sleep before giving the demo in the afternoon. Outside my flat (in Glasgow), they were sawing open the cobblestone street with a loud screeching circular saw, which sounded almost as bad as Sarah Palin's voice (however it wasn't saying anything stupid or nonsensical). It went on and on, and it was very loud, and I could not block it out, so I just let it into my mind, concentrated on it, and relished the sound, and got a wonderful pleasurable tingling sensation, like endorphins being released, which made me feel rested and refreshed without actually sleeping! I guess that qualifies as making lemonade out of lemons. Maybe I should search youtube for a recording of circular sawing cobblestones and see if it still works on me!

I'll throw my hat in by saying I noticed I had this sort of reaction before I ever heard about it. Certain sounds would just cause a reaction I can best equate to getting a scalp massage. The sounds that trigger the effect are pretty widely varied.

It was actually pretty bizarre when I realized it wasn't a universal thing. In fact, I think the most interesting facets of the whole thing is this divide. It makes for one of those weird situation where if you don't experience it, you just have to take people's word that it's not something akin to a placebo effect. And I fully admit it sounds like it's made up, and I probably would be skeptical if I didn't have firsthand experience.

Well that explains a lot. I had no idea that this was a thing, although I seem to recall an MP3 I had on my phone which was a "3D" recording of a barber-shop. The whole thing gave me a weird sensation in my scalp as I listened to it. After that I realised that a lot of sounds do that.

At the moment I'm really into Dubstep/Techno/Electronic music - when I hear a song that is really well layered (think Skrillex, Madeon) and you hear one of the lower layers like a tambourine or a tiny synth it will give me the same feeling. I can't explain why, but it's something about it.

Interesting. At home I give this sort of feeling to my son playfully. I go close to his ears and keep talking very slowly but with normal voice like " do you know one thing that...." And give a pause and again slowly taking deep breaths and blowing air... And suddenly I make slightly loud voice.

This whole thing give him experience of thorough tickling and GOOSEBUMPS. That shows how much tickling he felt. It's good fun and kids njoy this connection.

Though these videos gave me tingle, I didn't get goosebumps. But still it's good feel esp around my right ear and neck.

ASMR artists worth watching (imho, anyways, and in no particular order):

  * https://www.youtube.com/user/HeatherFeatherASMR
  * https://www.youtube.com/user/ASMRrequests
  * https://www.youtube.com/user/GentleWhispering
  * https://www.youtube.com/user/OliviaKissperASMR
  * https://www.youtube.com/user/Hlvillaire (Hailey WhisperingRose)

I seem to only get the tingles with binaural speaking close to the ear. But I like to watch ASMR videos that don't trigger it because they are simply comfortable and relaxing. Like the polar opposite of TV which is constantly loud, fast and in your face. These days I have a preference for the guys, especially Dr Dmitri...

This American Life had a great segment introducing this: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/491/t...

I first heard about this from an online friend of mine (from Norway, female), who described the feelings similarly. I don't experience it myself, but I can understand it to some degree. Funny that the BBC finally caught up though, lol

but can you really understand it? I used to tell people that I could understand what the difference between Red and Green are, and I really believed that I could tell just a little bit. I no longer believe that. I have no idea what is Red and what is Green...

> I sometimes experienced a pleasant physical sensation in my scalp when I was especially intrigued or fascinated by something

I get this feeling as well, but the ASMR videos really does nothing for me.

I can remember when I was in 2nd grade, and I had missed the assignment instructions. A classmate faced me and started giving instructions. I was totally mesmerized. Same happens today. Salespeople explaining/selling a product can also trigger this in me, and they're usually happy to do so. But in videos it's mostly miss for these types of things. The pop and crackle ones work though.

For me, the coda of Comfortably Numb almost always does it. Interestingly, there is a refractory period too! I haven't considered it a worthwhile exercise to scientifically measure it.

Hm,I've ever experienced refractory period. I'm a man, so I'm well aware of that phenomenon, but I do not experience it with ASMR. If video quality is good and triggers are lined nicely I can experience tingles in waves without any change in my mental state. And after that I can return to anything I've been doing prior. Actually it helps very much to clear my head after lengthy coding sessions.

Ten paragraphs before they expand the abbreviation ("Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response")!

I registered asmr.me a while back, and i've been trying to think of an interesting way to use it (rather than just a cut down version of youtube). I thought perhaps some sort of tool for video creation, but it doesn't spark my interest enough to spend the hours coding it.

More rubbish dreamed up to scam money from the gullible.

You shouldn't comment if you have no idea what you are talking about. A lot of really good content is free on youtube and it helps people relax and even "tingle". I say this because it has this effect on me and has helped me fall asleep during times of high stress.

Parent commenter definitely has got an idea what he's talking about: He isn't affected by these things. And then it's hard to tell if someone's getting something out of it or just being scammed.

However, there's no denying an effect on people in these videos. I can't listen to Mrs. GentleWhispering more than a couple seconds before feeling sick. And I mean that! My best guess is that I feel the video being deliberately manipulative and generate a shut off.

I do experience, but I'm not a fan of a lot of ASMR videos and for one reason only - they don't feel natural.

From your description it sounds like that's what you feel.

You should check some other category of ASMR videos. For example those where people show their collections of various elements or simply some brushing without any words or videos where author makes candies from special toolkit [1].

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsiO8XcPo-o

Actually this phenomenon is very real. I experienced it all my life and didn't know others did as well, let alone have a name. I remember the first time I felt it - I was in the 6th grade (in the 80s), and a girl needed a table to write on while outdoors, but didn't have one, so she asked to use my back. I had an immense wash of tingles that felt like shocks and glitter traveling from the top of my head all the way down my spine. It was one of the most pleasurable things I had ever felt. It seemed really weird at the time. I also got the same feeling from the electric shaver on my neck at the barber, and the rhythmic strumming of train wheels on a track.

Anyway, this is very real, though not everyone experiences it. For those who don't, like yourself, it seems like a bunch of BS.

Bob Ross for me. it seemed like everyone who used to watch bob ross watched it for the same reason. and people who didn't get it... it's like everyone is seeing a color that you can't see. That some people don't get it interests me more than the asmr itself.

Another inane comment from the person who brushed over something he doesn't experience and goes ahead and dismisses it as some sort of a hoax or a way to scam money.

Here's a thing - there are thousands of people who experience ASMR (including myself) and I only recently found out that it is a thing. Previously I had assumed that everybody feel it, but simply don't talk about it. Apparently not. How am I being scammed out of money then? This is not something somebody imposed on me - I had it all my life.

i don't think it's inane. I think that's his honest experience that he can't feel what you feel. I think it's interesting. Like synesthesia. Some people can't feel what other people feel... that in itself is pretty interesting.

... and erectile dysfunction is psychogenic, amirite?

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