Millions of view on pimple popping videos and just one scientific paper on the matter. I guess it doesn’t hurt anyone, so why spent money to research it? But, shouldn’t it peak scientific curiosity? Because if you think about it, it’s rather odd that pleasure and disgust can go hand in hand, at least for some people. Usually humans instinctually stay away from any fluids that have left the body. Saliva for example is not disgusting as it resides in the mouth. But once it is spat out, we consider is disgusting and don’t want to tough it. That of cause can be neatly explained with evolutionary theory. Maintaining hygiene and preserving our health is important to survival. Since body fluids can not only contain bacteria but also water and nutrients that all life including pathogens need to grow. So, why do some people get pleasure from watches pus being released from the skin – preferably in close detail?
This one study on the topic recruited two groups of all female participants, some that enjoyed the pimple popping videos and others that don’t. They found three regions in their brains that differed in activity when watching the pimple popping videos.
- frontal polar cluster
- This region is generally part of higher order cognition. Meaning it is required to understand a problem and find solutions and think creatively. Here, those that enjoy the PP videos showed an increased activation. The way this region relates to the pimple popping the authors think is the prediction of the out come of behavior or action. Because in the videos the initial state of the pimple is alway shown. The action leads to the release of pus – the predicted out come which leads to an enjoyable feeling.
- nucleus accumbens
- This area of the brain is part of the pleasure system. Unsurprisingly, those that don’t like the PP videos had a strong decrease here. But, also those that find the videos enjoyable had a decrease in the nucleus accumbens. However, it was not as much as the control group. This lead the authors to believe that watching the videos is a way to practice regulating once disgust reaction and therefor those that like the videos are more adapt at it.
- insular
- The insular is part of the motivational and reward system. The authors found that people that like PP videos have a stronger link between the accumbens and the insular. Again highlighting the possibility that people are in fact practicing to regulate there disgust reaction.
As a last remark they noted that the reason why they conducted this study only in females is because we have a greater tolerance towards disgust than men. Therefor they don’t think the findings are transferable.
My thoughts …
First, I want to say that I’m grateful to the authors that they discussed the relevances of the brain regions they looked at. Because hundreds of individual experiments are conducted, to find out which brain region does what. They deal with specific individual questions and the results are not alway adding up with everything that is out there in the literature. So, as someone who never studied the human brain specifically it can be tidies to find out what it means when the nucleus accumbens in deactivated.
But, to summ up the findings people that like pimple popping are obsessed with predicting the out come of behavior and getting a handle on their disgust reactions. Two things immediately sprang to my mind.
- Predicting behavior is something people with cPTSD often do. Since they are usually subjected to prolonged abuse, they are always on alert to predict their abusers reaction or what might be a consequence of their action in oder to avoid trouble.
- Secondly, as I have discussed in a previously post, I learned interpreting my own facial expressions, to learn how I actually feel. What I found was that I actually don’t love for my parents but feel disgust by them. Having a save environment to practice once disgust response seems incredible valuable when you have to go home to the people that everyone gaslights you into thinking you love but actually only have the upmost distain for.
Previously, I came across the obsessive wish to control the emotion of fear when I was reading about my phobia against blood, injuries and injections. When unable to control, disgust would kick in and that is why people faint.
All in all I want to add a layer to the discussion the authors started.
People that like PP videos -> predict behavior out come and control disgust response -> and these people might often be those with cPTSD and adverse experiences.
Enjoyment of watching pimple popping videos: An fMRI investigation (2021) A. Wabnegger , C. Höfler , T. Zussner , H. H. Freudenthaler , A. Schienle
