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This study investigated how the size and number of circles within clusters affected discomfort levels in adults and in children aged 4\u20139\u00a0years. In Experiment 1, we confirmed that the remote experimental procedure could evoke discomfort when participants were presented with cluster images. The findings reveal that children as young as 4 or 5\u00a0years old consistently experienced discomfort when rating trypophobic images, even printed images rated in real time during video calls. In Experiment 2, we explored the impact of cluster size, considering both the size and number of circles, in a remote experiment. The results indicate that discomfort tended to increase with cluster size in both children and adults, with the effect becoming more pronounced with age.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-024-67002-z","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,17]],"date-time":"2024-07-17T11:03:16Z","timestamp":1721214196000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Effects of cluster size on trypophobic discomfort in children aged 4\u20139 years"],"prefix":"10.1038","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9158-4512","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tomoko","family":"Imura","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Chiharu","family":"Suzuki","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Mai","family":"Kasahara","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kyoshiro","family":"Sasaki","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yuki","family":"Yamada","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Nobu","family":"Shirai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"67002_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1980","DOI":"10.1177\/0956797613484937","volume":"24","author":"GG Cole","year":"2013","unstructured":"Cole, G. 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