Trypophobia- Fear of Holes May have Evolutionary Basis, Researchers Say

Trypophobia is the fear of tiny holes such as those found in lotus flowers and aerated chocolate. From an evolutionary perspective, a latest study suggests that the fear of tiny holes might have helped humans stay away from poisonous animals that have similar patterns on their bodies.

The present study was conducted by researchers at University of Essex. There are few studies conducted on people who suffer from Trypophobia. In their study, researchers Geoff Cole and Arnold Wilkins found that at least 16 percent of the study participants suffered from trypophobia.

Many people have an uneasy feeling when they see an object that has clusters of holes in it, but few people believe that it is actually real, which is why researchers say that trypophobia is "the most common phobia you have never heard of."

Experts compared 76 objects related with trypophobia and 76 control images. Spectral analysis of the images showed that trypophobic images had unnatural pattern of holes, Huffington Post reported.

The moment of "eureka" for the researchers came after they heard about a case where a person developed fear of holes after encountering a blue-ringed octopus.

Researchers then analyzed images of poisonous animals such as blue-ringed octopus, deathstalker scorpion, king cobra snake and spiders. It was observed that they had similar visual properties- relatively high contrast energy at midrange spatial frequencies- as the trypophobic images.

On the basis of the study, researchers concluded that fear of holes has an evolutionary basis and that it arose in humans due to their fear of poisonous animals that display similar clusters of holes.

"We think that everyone has trypophobic tendencies even though they may not be aware of it," Cole said in a news release. "We found that people who don't have the phobia still rate trypophobic images as less comfortable to look at than other images."

The study is published in the journal Psychological Science.