Is the new iPhone scary? Scientists wonder why tiny holes scare some people

Katie Shepherd, Washington Post

published

7:21 am EDT, Thursday, September 12, 2019

While Apple was making its debut with its new iPhones on Tuesday, a striking new feature was taking center stage: a three-lens setup that put a near-professional camera in the hands of anyone who could afford $ 999 devices to $ 1099. Three lenses are better than two, unless they fly away with disgust.

This is the unexpected reaction that thousands of Apple fans have shared on social networks in the form of images on the back of the new phone, where the trio of lenses is cluttered in a small square in the corner upper left.

"The new iPhone scares me … with the 3 small cameras," wrote a Twitter user.

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The reaction comes from people who claim to be suffering from an obscure and confusing illness called "trypophobia" – a fear of bunches of small holes like those found in shoe sheaths, nests, and burrows. bees and lotus seed pods. Professor Geoff Cole of the University of Essex, a self-diagnosed trypophobe researcher in the UK who studies this disease, calls it "the most common phobia you've ever heard of speak".

Phobia is not recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which psychologists and psychiatrists use to diagnose patients. Some claim themselves and some researchers claim that the images can cause a strong emotional reaction and cause itching, goosebumps and even nausea and vomiting.

Trypophobia was named in 2005 only after the word began to appear on Reddit and on other online forums, as in a ticket from an Irish woman named Louise who belonged to an online community of " so-called "weird who have an irrational fear of HOLES".

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Over the next decade, however, thousands of people have reported trypophobia. Support groups have sprung up on social media. In 2016, Kendall Jenner raised the profile of the disease when she wrote an article on her blog, claiming that the images caused her "the worst anxiety".

"Things that could trigger me are pancakes, a bee's nest or lotus heads (the worst!)," She writes. "It sounds ridiculous, but so many people actually have it!"

But why would these images of safe stuff disturb people? Some scientists are trying to understand why people enjoy taking pictures of objects as harmless as a sparkling latte.

They found that even those who did not feel repelled by such images often felt uncomfortable watching a group of small holes grouped together. Just as scratches can cause headaches and flashing lights can cause convulsions, clusters of holes can have a physiological effect on the brain.

Researcher Arnold Wilkins, professor emeritus at the University of Essex, theorizes that the hidden mathematical principles in the schemes require that the brain uses more oxygen and energy, which can be annoying.

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The images have the same statistical properties and are inherently difficult to process by the brain, in part because we have evolved to look at images in nature, "Wilkins said in an interview with The Washington Post. to be treated, calculated by brain neurons, they use more brain energy. "

Photos of honeycombs and strawberries – common sources of goosebumps, or worse, for people with trypophobia – also share these mathematical qualities with more sinister visions such as mold and skin lesions.

Other research suggests that discomfort could come from an innate desire to avoid infectious diseases and contaminated food. Some have also hypothesized that the fear could come from an evolutionary response to dangerous animals such as frogs and poisonous insects, which often exhibit patterns similar to those seen in trypophobia.

What can you do if you want to lament each time you see the new iPhone?

Your best bet is to buy an iPhone 11 Pro or 11 Pro Max Black so that the camera's lenses blend into the rest of the phone, Wilkins said. Or try to cover your eyes when you see the phone, he added, which helps reduce brain activity and avoid seizures caused by flashing lights.

Some patients have also responded to the progressive exposure therapy. A case study published in 2018 in Frontiers in Psychiatry by researchers from the University of Valparaiso in Chile revealed that a girl fearing that pics of small holes would feel better after viewing many images on a given period.

The researchers found that this approach had made little progress. The girl whose fear has diminished has again reported feeling disgusted by the pictures of tiny holes.