The Influence of Background Objects on Unpleasantness Evoked by Lotus-seed-pods-on-the-living-body Images (&amp;ldquo;Hasu-colla&amp;rdquo;)

Furuno, Manami; Imaizumi, Shu; Maeda, Kana; Hibino, Hiroki; Koyama, Shinichi

doi:10.5057/ijae.ijae-d-16-00045

Cited by 13 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Yamada and Sasaki (2017) also showed that individuals with previous skin-related medical problems reported higher discomfort ratings towards trypophobic images compared to those who have no history of skin disease. Two other recent studies found greater unpleasantness ratings for faces of humans and animals when a trypophobic image (lotus seedpod) was superimposed on them compared to the trypophobic image viewed in isolation or when viewing the trypophobic image on inverted faces (Furuno et al, 2017;2018). While the evidence seems to support the infectious disease / disgust response, previous work assumes excess energy at mid-range spatial frequencies to be the primary reason for visual discomfort, and our results show otherwise.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 67%

Object Clusters or Spectral Energy? Assessing the Relative Contributions of Image Phase and Amplitude Spectra to Trypophobia

Pipitone¹,

DiMattina²

2019

Preprint

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Trypophobia refers to the visual discomfort experienced by some people when viewing clustered patterns (e.g., clusters of holes). Trypophobic images deviate from the 1/f amplitude spectra typically characterizing natural images by containing excess energy at mid-range spatial frequencies. While recent work provides partial support for the idea of excess mid-range spatial frequency energy causing visual discomfort when viewing trypophobic images, a full factorial manipulation of image phase and amplitude spectra has yet to be conducted. Here, we independently manipulated the phase and amplitude spectra of 31 Trypophobic images using a standard Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). Participants rated the four different versions of each image for levels of visual comfort, and completed the Trypophobia Questionnaire (TQ). Images having the original phase spectra intact (with either original or 1/f amplitude) explained the most variance in comfort ratings and were rated lowest in comfort. However, images with the original amplitude spectra but scrambled phase spectra were rated higher in comfort, with a smaller amount of variance in comfort attributed to the amplitude spectrum. Participant TQ scores correlated with comfort ratings only for images having the original phase spectra intact. There was no correlation between TQ scores and comfort levels when participants viewed the original amplitude / phase-scrambled images. Taken together, the present findings show that the phase spectrum of trypophobic images, which determines the pattern of small clusters of objects, plays a much larger role than the amplitude spectrum in determining visual comfort.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 67%

Object Clusters or Spectral Energy? Assessing the Relative Contributions of Image Phase and Amplitude Spectra to Trypophobia

Pipitone¹,

DiMattina²

2019

Preprint

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“…Further, our results can be at least partly explained by the hypothesis that the disgust to the clusters of dots is caused by the reminder of disease and contamination ( Furuno et al., 2017 ; Kupfer & Le, 2018 ; Rozin, Haidt, & McCauley, 2008 ; Skaggs, 2014 ; Wada, 2012 , 2016 ; Yamada & Sasaki, 2017 ). Our results were consistent with the previous study suggesting that disgust to the clusters on the skin was stronger than dots on the nonskin objects, such as wood grain ( Wada, 2016 ) and stones ( Furuno et al., 2017 ). We did not see any signs of ceiling effect: The average disgust rating to the upright and inverted faces, with and without dots, was around 5 to 6 points of the 9 points.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 65%

“…Some researchers have hypothesized that disgust to the clusters of dots increases when they are presented on human skin because they remind us of scars and sores ( Skaggs, 2014 ). This hypothesis was supported by a study in which viewers reported greater disgust when a cluster of dots was placed on faces rather than on stones ( Furuno, Imaizumi, Maeda, Hibino, & Koyama, 2017 ). In addition, a study by Kupfer and Le (2018) reported that disgust to a cluster was stronger when the cluster consisted of disease-relevant elements such as circular rash marks on a chest than those consisting of disease-irrelevant elements such as drilled holes in a brick wall.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Face-Inversion Effect on Disgust Evoked by a Cluster of Dots

et al. 2018

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A cluster of dots such as lotus seed pods evokes extremely strong disgust when it is placed on human and animal skins. However, few empirical studies have examined the role of the background image, such as skin, in the generation of disgust. In this study, we investigated whether the orientation of background faces influences the disgust evoked by the dot pattern. The participants were asked to evaluate disgust to an upright, inverted, or phase-scrambled face image with or without a cluster of dots on it and then complete a questionnaire measuring trypophobia proneness (Trypophobia Questionnaire). The results suggested that disgust was intensified by the background faces, especially by the upright faces. The intensification of disgust in the upright face was correlated positively with the Trypophobia Questionnaire scores. The results indicated a face-inversion effect on the disgust to the dot pattern, suggesting a significant role of the background image.

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“…Researchers explain that observers experience discomfort from trypophobic objects in order to rapidly avoid them because most poisonous animals have a similar pattern on their surface [ 1 ]. Another explanation is based on the notion that patterns of trypophobic objects are similar to scars and sores [ 2 , 3 ]. Such visual information is associated with animal reminder disgust, which is a subclass of the emotion of disgust, and is linked with primitive fears of animals, including humans, regarding death and body damage [ 4 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Involuntary protection against dermatosis: A preliminary observation on trypophobia

Yamada

Sasaki

2017

BMC Res Notes

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ObjectiveTrypophobia refers to the intense negative emotions evoked by exposure to repeated visual patterns like a honeycomb. We propose a cognitive mechanism that can explain why such negative emotions are triggered by trypophobic objects, primarily through automatic and involuntary avoidance of skin diseases, which is also called as the Involuntary Protection Against Dermatosis (IPAD) hypothesis.ResultsWe asked 856 participants to evaluate the discomfort evoked by trypophobic images and to report their past and current skin-related medical problems. Results showed that participants with a history of skin problems rated the pictures as evoking high discomfort as compared to those without skin problems. We conducted another survey to replicate the original survey using additional 690 participants, which confirmed the reliability of the current findings. The current study presents preliminary observational data that supports the IPAD hypothesis and suggests ways to reduce maladaptive emotional reactions toward trypophobic objects.

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The Influence of Background Objects on Unpleasantness Evoked by Lotus-seed-pods-on-the-living-body Images (“Hasu-colla”)

Cited by 13 publications

References 33 publications

Object Clusters or Spectral Energy? Assessing the Relative Contributions of Image Phase and Amplitude Spectra to Trypophobia

Object Clusters or Spectral Energy? Assessing the Relative Contributions of Image Phase and Amplitude Spectra to Trypophobia

Face-Inversion Effect on Disgust Evoked by a Cluster of Dots

Involuntary protection against dermatosis: A preliminary observation on trypophobia

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