ELi5: Why do certain sensations like chalk on a chalkboard or rubbing styrofoam together cause your skin to crawl?
In: Other
I have no good answer but a weird version of this when you shuck corn 🌽. It drives me absolutely mad!
Also, it only started for me as an adult; the sound never bothered me as a kid.
I think of it as the auditory version of being freaked out by collections of small holes. There’s a deep instinct in us related to something our ancestors once feared, triggered by things that are totally unrelated but in some way resemble that feared thing
This so much. Styrofoam. Just typing it makes me uncomfortable. At this point when my spouse is unpacking something I have to leave the house and walk down the street. I can’t even touch it; it always feels hot to the touch to me. If you’ve never experienced this feeling (for me): hearing it squeak makes me feel like I could turn my skin inside out. I wish I could explain it better.
I personally have never had either sensation. It always seemed to be a “crowd reaction” rather then one that was naturally induced. That being said, I was that kid that had a parent that loved to blast music while I was in the carseat. I have had tinnitus for as long as I can remember. So take my reply with a grain a salt.
I have less knowledge then a arm chair doctor, I would suspect that it has something to do with the noise hitting a certain…. Frequency and the hairs in your ears end up touching each other giving you that feeling like something g is crawling on you, or in your ear. ?… 100% my guess.. And I’m okay with it being – 2%right.
The worst is the sound of marshmallows rubbing together. That powdery noise makes me cringe in my spine.
My friend once had a big crawl into his ear at night. He said it sounded like nails on a chalkboard.
I remember hearing someone say its because the frequency of those noises are similar to the screams of a newborn in danger, so it triggers that response in humans.
“It turns out the sound waves associated with primate warning cries, particularly chimpanzee warning cries, are remarkably similar in appearance to the aversive, middle frequency sound waves produced by fingernails on a chalkboard,”
The gold here is that the researchers won an Ig Nobel Prize for their research!
https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.vanderbilt.edu/2006/10/06/fingernails-on-a-chalkboard-garner-vanderbilt-psychologist-ig-nobel-prize-58866/amp/
Touching or even looking at suede or weird textured clothes makes me cringe so hard. I don’t know what the deal is but I hate it. I can tell a shirt will make my skin crawl without even touching it. Yuck
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