Why do certain things trigger our skin to “crawl”?

164 views

For me, it’s the sound of dry napkins/paper towels or getting cotton under my fingernails. I know a lot of people struggle with scratching chalk boards.

In: 7

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

No explanation here but holy shit do I remember being triggered on the paper towels thing. There used to be a commercial for Bounty where a kitchen knife cut a segment of a paper towel roll into a sponge and imagining the sound it would make absolutely made my skin crawl. Far worse than nails on a chalkboard. In fact, the idea of sticking a dull kitchen knife into a roll of paper towels just feels….loathsome. Ugh.

I have a general idea where, evolutionarily speaking, these aversions come from. Trypophobia makes sense to me. But the paper towel thing? No idea.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The skin crawling sensation is evolved to get you away from something thst could be dangerous to you, the more repulsed you feel by it thr more likely you are to avoid it.

I believe the nails on a chalkboard is theorized to be because the high pitched sound could be the scream of someone/thing I’m intense pain. Sometimes reflexes don’t work as intended though and random things can set them off.