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The title is based on @Oddthinking's very helpful comment.

From A Complete Taxonomy of Internet Chum1 published in The Awl (bold italics added by me):

Bottom Left: Deeply Psychological Body Thing: While on the surface this may scan as a Skin Thing, the regular pattern of indentations made in this woman’s legs by what appear to be frozen peas or stones are in fact designed to trigger feelings of mild discomfort/anxiety amongst sufferers of Trypophobia, a common sensitivity to regularly occurring patterns of holes in surfaces — a discomfort that perversely elicits curiosity, playing on our fixation with the frailties of our bodies and our ultimate fear of death.

Do images that "trigger feelings of mild discomfort/anxiety amongst sufferers of" trypophobia2 elicit curiosity?

Or, as @Oddthinking says: Do "patterns of holes in surfaces [act as] surprisingly good clickbait - playing on our curiosity about mildly discomforting things?"

I couldn't find evidence for or against this. Maybe this statement is random and hasn't been researched?

1 The article has been reported in Slate. The author has been reported in CBC.

2 Defined as "an intense and disproportionate fear towards holes, repetitive patterns, protrusions, etc." by Martínez-Aguayo et al..

Barry Harrison
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    This statement seems to be being interpreted out of context. The claim is not "sufferers of trypophobia wander around life being surprisingly curious about the world". It is "patterns of holes in surfaces are surprisingly good clickbait - playing on our curiosity about mildly discomforting things". – Oddthinking May 16 '19 at 05:49
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    is the claim actually that trypophobia specifically includes curiosity about holey things, or isn't it rather that pics that make us uncomfortable also make us curious? – bukwyrm May 16 '19 at 09:34
  • Trypophobia "sufferers" are almost always normal people who google image searched "trypophobia" once. If you'd like to condition yourself and join the trypophobia club, give it a try-pophobia. –  May 16 '19 at 13:38
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    [Turns Out Trypophobia Isn’t a Phobia](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/seriouslyscience/2017/08/08/6441/) –  May 16 '19 at 13:46
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    @fredsbend and yellowcake isn't a cake... if you replace 'trypophobia' with 'disgusted reaction at the sight of holey material', it is a) completely natural to use in a sentence, and b) interesting as to it's origin and neurophysiologcal/evolutionary background – bukwyrm May 16 '19 at 14:19
  • @Oddthinking My bad. This is my fault of asking a question not based on a claim. It was accidental. – Barry Harrison May 16 '19 at 14:37
  • @bukwyrm I'm sorry, didn't ask the right question. – Barry Harrison May 16 '19 at 14:38
  • @fredsbend That's interesting! – Barry Harrison May 16 '19 at 14:38
  • @bukwyrm IDK, an instance of standard conditioning isn't really that interesting, though conditioning as a behavioral theory is. –  May 16 '19 at 14:42
  • Pattern of holes, or the pattern of holes being a symptom of something somewhat gruesome and abnormal? If someone posts a picture of a colander, I'm not going to click on it, so I'd guess it's more what it suggests than the holes, themselves being a triggering behavioral stimuli. – PoloHoleSet May 16 '19 at 17:56
  • @PoloHoleSet Interesting thought. What about in the context of the linked article? – Barry Harrison May 16 '19 at 19:22
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    To be honest, this article isn't even pop science, it's just a tongue-in-cheek explanation of how chumboxes work. Do we really want to challenge and discuss random, casual remarks from four-year-old pop articles? I fail to see a notable claim here. The fact that the article (but not the claim) is mentioned on another website, and that the author is quoted on a third, doesn't make this particular claim any more relevant. Plus, the claim from the current title ("Trypophobia is good clickbait") isn't even _in_ the article, but is based on @Oddthinking's comment. – Schmuddi May 16 '19 at 23:02
  • @Schmuddi Feel free to edit the title :) I'm unsure if the author of the article is writing "without really meaning what one is saying or writing." I feel the article is the most authoritative that there is on chumboxes. – Barry Harrison May 16 '19 at 23:17
  • The actual claim in the article is that "Deeply Psychological Body Thing" is good click bait. They have another one a bit later on: "Top Left: Deeply Psychological Body Thing. Summoning Freudian dreams of teeth turning to mush in your mouth, with a dash of the same phobic neuron tingle as frozen-pea-leg-indentation-lady. Again probably not coincidentally, both this and the frozen pea images can be found together on a BuzzFeed post on Trypophobia from 2013." They did not show any non-body (chum) images of trypophobia (in the owl), which however the BuzzFeed does aplenty. – Fizz May 17 '19 at 01:32
  • @Fizz OK. If I'm reading this correctly, the ad maker is inducing anxiety in sufferers of Trypophobia in "Deeply Psychological Body Thing" (by including images with patterns of holes) to generate more clicks. Maybe not? Would you like to edit the question? – Barry Harrison May 17 '19 at 05:49
  • The article is written in a fairly sarcastic-entertainment tone, Stuff like "Deeply Psychological Body Thing" just means shocking body images. There's not much to research on that. – Fizz May 17 '19 at 05:53
  • No, just the tone is full of hyperbole. It's true that most clickbait relies on some form of shock https://libguides.np.edu/fakenews/clickbait – Fizz May 17 '19 at 06:02
  • @Fizz OK. Is the trypophobia part a hyperbole too? Sorry, I really can't tell. Thanks for the help! – Barry Harrison May 17 '19 at 06:03
  • @BarryHarrison: As somebody who _does_ suffer from a phobia (not this one), I can tell you that an image that triggers that phobia won't be "clickbait". A picture that makes you nauseous _might_ serve as a clickbait (because who doesn't pick at a scab?). If a *phobia* gets triggered, your web surfing session is *over*, and you'll be spending the next bit of time in your day trying to get your nerves calmed. You make me face my phobia, and I'll be in that corner over there, shaking with cold sweat, thank you very much... – DevSolar May 17 '19 at 09:39
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    @DevSolar I think trypophobia is more of anxiety/discomfort and less of fear. Thanks for sharing your thoughts! – Barry Harrison May 17 '19 at 18:52

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