{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,25]],"date-time":"2026-09-25T06:13:11Z","timestamp":1790316791676,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,2,23]],"date-time":"2024-02-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1708646400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,2,23]],"date-time":"2024-02-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1708646400000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2024,10]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    Trypophobia is the condition in which individuals report a range of negative emotions when viewing clusters of small holes. Since the phenomenon was first described in the peer-reviewed literature a decade ago, 49 papers have appeared together with hundreds of news articles. There has also been much discussion on various Internet forums, including medical and health-related websites. In the present article, we examine the degree to which the phenomenon is caused by a form of social learning, specifically, its ubiquitous social media presence. We also examined its prevalence among the broad population. In Experiment 1 (\n                    <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">n<\/jats:italic>\n                    \u2009=\u20092,558), we assessed whether younger people and females (i.e., greater social media users) are more sensitive to trypophobic stimuli, as predicted by the social media hypothesis. In Experiment 2 (\n                    <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">n<\/jats:italic>\n                    \u2009=\u2009283), we examined whether sensitivity to trypophobic stimuli and rates of trypophobia is greater in people who are aware of the condition\u2019s existence, as opposed to those who have never heard of the phenomenon. In line with the social media theory, results showed that younger people and females are indeed more susceptible to trypophobia. However, 24% of trypophobic individuals have never heard of the condition. Overall, these data suggest that both social learning and non-social learning contribute to trypophobia. We also find that the prevalence of trypophobia is approximately 10%.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/17470218241232665","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,2,4]],"date-time":"2024-02-04T22:59:35Z","timestamp":1707087575000},"page":"2076-2083","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":9,"title":["The social learning account of trypophobia"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"77","author":[{"given":"Geoff G.","family":"Cole","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Brain Science, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, CO4 3SQ, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1382-9240","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Abbie C.","family":"Millett","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Social Science and Humanities, University of Suffolk, Ipswich, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0241-9529","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marie","family":"Juanchich","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre for Brain Science, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, CO4 3SQ, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,2,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_3_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1651-2227.2006.00180.x"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_3_1","article-title":"E-cigarette advertising expenditures in the USA, 2014\u20132018","volume":"29","author":"Ali F. 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A., Jeavons P. M. (1994). Photosensitive epilepsy. 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Trypophobia: A fear made worse by the internet. Betterhelp.com. https:\/\/www.betterhelp.com\/advice\/phobias\/trypophobia-a-fear-made-worse-by-the-internet\/"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_28_1","unstructured":"Office for National Statistics. https:\/\/www.ons.gov.uk\/businessindustryandtrade\/itandinternetindustry\/bulletins\/internetusers\/2018#:~:text=Older%20adults%20are%20less%20likely%20to%20use%20the%20internet -In%202018%2C%208.4&text=This%20compares%20with%20a%20decline falling%20to%205.7%25%20in%202018"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_29_1","unstructured":"Perrie S. (2017). Trypophobia isn\u2019t a real phobia according to American Psychiatric Association. 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