Fear of Cantaloupes, Crumpets & More: Is Trypophobia for Real?

Anjali Prasertong
Anjali Prasertong
Anjali Prasertong is a writer and public health dietitian focused on food systems, racial equity, and nutrition. Originally from Los Angeles, she has taught English in rural Japan, worked as a private chef in Malibu, and led an innovative city-funded corner store program in New…read more
updated May 30, 2019
We independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices were accurate at the time of publishing.
1 / 5
Cantaloupe (Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

NPR’s The Salt looked into this bizarre self-reported condition, which is not listed in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, but is apparently gaining steam online, where websites like Reddit have boards dedicated to photos of “triggers” like lotus seed pods and crumpets. There is also an Instagram hashtag, which includes some genuinely creepy photos alongside very innocuous pictures of macaroni and car speakers. (I guess I don’t have trypophobia.)

Psychiatrist Carol Mathews of the University of California, San Francisco believes trypophobia can be attributed more to social media and the power of suggestion than a genuine phobia:

Intermixing truly yucky pictures of parasites and skin conditions with innocuous images of cantaloupes and crumpets, she says, could also make you feel grossed out by your breakfast. This is a type of conditioning, in which one emotion — disgust, uncomfortableness — gets associated with something that normally doesn’t evoke that emotion.

I’ve assembled a small slideshow of trypophobia-triggering photos above. What do you think? Do these images disturb you or are they just…photos of hole-filled objects?

(Images: Matthew BenoitNancy Kennedylev radinStudioSmartValentyn Volkov, all via Shutterstock)