Hey smart people.

嘿，聰明的各位。

Joe here.

我是 Joe。

I need to warn you: This video is gonna be a little gross.

我得警告你這部影片會有點噁心。

Especially if you're afraid of tiny… little... HOLES.

尤其是如果你很害怕小小的、密集的 ... 洞洞！！

Or, maybe you're like me.

或者，你可能跟我一樣。

In which case you're probably wondering: Why exactly is this disgusting?

想著：這到底噁心在哪？

I mean, it's just a bunch of holes… right?

就只是一堆洞啊，對吧？

Trypophobia.

密集恐懼症。

In Greek it translates to a fear… of holes.

在希臘文的意思是「對洞的恐懼」。

But it can also include an aversion to bumps, clusters, blobs and bubbles.

但它也可以表示對一堆密集的腫塊、斑點和泡泡的厭惡。

It's actually pretty new as phobias go. The word was invented by an Irish blogger in 2005.

在 2005 年時，「密集恐懼症」(Trypophobia) 一詞才被一位愛爾蘭的部落客發明。所以它其實滿新的。

So there's not a lot of great data out there, but as many as 1 in 6 people may have trypophobia.

也因此目前還沒有太多研究數據，但是高達六分之一的人或許有密集恐懼症。

It's even more common than acrophobia, the fear of heights.

這意味著密集恐懼症甚至比懼高症更常見。

Yes, even ol' PewDiePie himself fears all things holey.

連 Pewdiepie 都承認自己害怕有一堆洞的東西。

But… according to the people in charge of these things, trypophobia isn't even officially recognized as an actual phobia.

但根據有關人士說法，密集恐懼症甚至還未被正式地承認為一種恐懼症。

Wait, then what exactly is a phobia in the first place?

等等，所以恐懼症到底是甚麼啊？

The definition of a phobia is an extreme or irrational fear of something.

恐懼症的定義是對某種東西極端或不合理的恐懼。

Fear–in general–serves a good biological purpose - it helps us avoid deadly things, like venomous snakes or the edge of a cliff.

一般來說，恐懼有其生物性目的：它讓我們躲避會致死的危險因子，像是毒蛇和懸崖。

But when our brains take it too far, and we aim our fear at things that can't actually hurt us in that moment, that's a phobia.

但是當大腦過度延伸，使我們害怕起當下無害的事物時，就成了恐懼症。

Like a fear of spiders.

例如蜘蛛恐懼症。

Sure, if you live in Australia then arachnophobia is not irrational, because Australia is full of scary things that can kill you.

當然，你如果住在澳洲，蜘蛛恐懼症並不是不合理的，畢竟澳洲多的是可以殺死你的東西。

But if you're just reading Harry Potter at bedtime and a little cellar spider joins the party, there's no reason to burn down your house.

但如果你睡前讀哈利波特時有隻小小的地窖蜘蛛想加入，沒有理由讓你燒掉整間房子。

You're not in any real danger.

你沒有真的遭遇危險。

Unless you knock yourself out running away from it or something.

除非你在逃走的時候把自己撞暈了。

It's irrational to be afraid of that little harmless spider friend.

對那隻小而無害的蜘蛛朋友感到害怕是完全不合理的。

A fear of a bunch of small holes?

對一堆洞感到恐懼？

It's definitely irrational.

肯定不合理。

But what if people with trypophobia aren't actually even… afraid of holes?

但假如 ... 密集恐懼症患者並非真的對洞感到害怕呢?

If it's not fear, it can't be a phobia.

如果沒有害怕，就不是恐懼症。

Certain emotions do certain things to people's faces, almost universally.

特定情緒造成特定表情，幾乎舉世如此 ...。

Almost universally.

... 幾乎舉世如此。

People experiencing fear typically have high eyebrows, their mouth is open, their eyes are wide.

感到恐懼的人通常會提高眉毛、張開嘴巴、張大眼睛。

But people feeling disgust typically have wrinkled brows, pursed lips, and crinkled up noses.

但是感到厭惡的人會皺眉、癟嘴和皺起鼻子。

Now, there aren't a lot of scientists studying trypophobia.

現在並沒有很多科學家研究密集恐懼症。

Because, who would want to?

因為 ... 誰會想要啊？

But we can study people's reactions, looking for these telltale signs.

但我們可以觀察人們的反應，尋找明顯的特徵。

Scientists have done this, and research is starting to suggest: trypophobia is more about disgust than fear.

科學家的研究結果正逐漸明朗：比起恐懼，密集恐懼症更多的是厭惡。

Why did we develop a reaction like this, back in evolution?

就演化而言，我們為甚麼會有這樣的反應？

Fear and disgust evolved for different reasons, but they both tell us to avoid a bad thing.

恐懼和厭惡因不同原因形成，但它們都是為了讓我們遠離不好的東西而存在。

Fear helps us avoid immediate danger, usually by triggering the fight or flight response.

恐懼通常利用戰鬥或逃跑反應，來避開立即的危險。

But disgust helps us avoid something different.

但厭惡則讓我們避開不同的東西。

There have been plenty of theories on why disgust evolved, but they each only explain part of the picture.

目前有許多理論解釋為甚麼厭惡會形成，但它們都只解釋了一小部分。

Like helping us avoid rotten food or sick people.

例如讓我們避開腐敗的食物和病人。

It wasn't until a couple of decades ago that we came up with a unified theory of disgust.

直到數十年前我們才發展出一個關於厭惡統一的理論。

A scientist named Val Curtis–that's Val Kilmer, guys–Ok.

有個叫 Val Curtis 的科學家，不不那是 Val Kilmer，喔好。

So Val Curtis developed the idea that our innate disgust reaction evolved as a way to avoid crawly, wormy, oozy things that could cause infection and disease.

總之，Val Curtis 認為我們先天便具有厭惡的感受，是為了讓我們避開可能導致感染和傳播疾病的噁心東西。

It's called the Parasite Avoidance Theory of disgust, and it's the top theory of why we find some things gross.

這稱為「避免性厭惡寄生蟲理論」(Parasite Avoidance Theory of disgust)，也是對於我們為甚麼會感到噁心的最高理論。

It falls into these six categories.

它分成以下六類。

Basically, the things that disgust us risk having some microscopic danger hiding inside of them.

簡單來說，我們討厭的東西都隱藏著危險。

Like poop has bacteria.

例如大便裡面有細菌。

Rotting food may have mold.

腐敗的食物可能有黴菌。

Flesh wounds could carry parasites.

傷口可能攜帶寄生蟲。

Feeling disgust ensures that we literally physically close ourselves off and avoid those things.

厭惡感讓我們不願靠近那些東西。

We're even disgusted by things if they just don't seem quite right, our bodies way of saying, "You can't be too careful when it comes to parasites."

我們甚至對只是看起來不太對勁的物體感到討厭，我們的身體像是說：避免寄生蟲永遠沒有太小心這回事。

If we find it gross, we won't touch it or eat it, which makes it more likely that we'll survive and reproduce, and that's all natural selection cares about.

如果我們感到噁心，我們便不會觸碰或食用，這使我們更易存活和繁衍後代，而天擇就是這麼進行的。

And because our brains have this awesome ability to generalize and categorize and remember, even things that look like dangerous things disgust us.

也因為我們大腦有這超讚的概括、分類和記憶能力，即使是看起來有點危險的東西都會使我們厭惡。

Clusters of holes?

密集的洞？

They most likely remind people of something in one of those six categories of disgusting stuff.

這可能讓我們想起那六類令人厭惡的東西。

I mean, think about it, a lotus seed pod does sort of look like the worst skin infection imaginable.

想想看，蓮蓬的確有點像很可怕的傷口感染。

That may be why these images are particularly nausea-inducing.

這或許是為甚麼這些圖特別讓我們噁心。

Of course people and cultures and customs are very different, and what we find disgusting varies too.

當然不同地方的文化習俗都不同，會令大家感到噁心的也不一樣。

The disgust response may be biologically programmed and universal, but maybe a lot of what we find disgusting is taught and learned.

厭惡的反應可能是生物上普遍的，但很多也可能是我們學習而來的。

More research is needed.

我們需要更多研究。

I'm sure there will be a lot of volunteers.

我相信會有一堆志願者的。

So if you have trypophobia, you may feel afraid of holes, but you're probably just disgusted.

所以如果你有密集恐懼症，你可能非常害怕洞，但更可能只是厭惡他們而已。

And… that means it's likely not a phobia at all.

這代表...或許那根本不是恐懼症。

Unfortunately, we don't really know if trypophobia can be cured, but avoiding videos like this seems like the best way to deal with it for now.

很不幸地，我們不確定密集恐懼症是否可以被治療，但避免看這樣的影片似乎是目前最好的辦法。

So if your friend has trypophobia, don't show them this video!

所以如果你的朋友有密集恐懼症，不要給他們看這支影片！

And if you have it, I'm sorry you had to watch this!

如果你有，很抱歉你得看這個！

But thanks for staying curious.

謝謝你，請繼續保持好奇心！