Why are we less ticklish as we grow up?
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Are children more ticklish than adults? Or is it just not as common to grab a random adult, put them in your lap, and tickle them? I’ve noticed adults can suppress their response for a bit when being tickled, so maybe it is self control. Mood also impacts how ticklish you feel, and anger can reduce ticklishness. So maybe an adult is pissed that another adult just tried to tickle them, and that overrides ticklishness.
People overlook the big psychological and social aspect in tickling. With (some) kids, after you have started tickling, you can put your hand near without touching them and they will laugh uncontrollably as if you just tickled them. Tickling is a game to a child, and it’s unwritten rules depend on the child being ticklish or else the game is pointless. Since tickling is a weird sensation anyway, our expectations can skew how we process the sensory info.
Kids have not calibrated skin sensitivity. With time sensitivity regulates, and with more experience around certain parts our body gets accustomed to that feeling, allowing better control of our response towards tickling.
Of course this varies between people – how sensitive they are when born, and how their sensitivity will regulate in next years.
From personal experience, you can make yourself less susceptible to tickles. I just tried to not laugh as a kid to seem cool and strong (as if it matters) and then I gradually stopped feeling it at all.
Kids just haven’t been exposed enough to get desensitized to it?
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