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As a part of science’s never-ending quest to apply fancy-sounding names to everyday phenomena, psychologists at the University of Pennsylvania have coined the word “touch transference.” It’s what happens — in our minds, at least — when a package of toilet paper touches your fillet mignon at the grocery store, and for the briefest moment, you think: “eww.” We’re talking about cooties here: when something gross touches something otherwise benign, and “infects” it. Turns out, according to a new article in Time, that touch transference holds powerful sway over a lot of people; it certainly drives business in the cleaning products industry, and guides supermarket owners’ decisions on how to organize goods on their shelves. “In a series of studies, the researchers found not only that some products–trash bags, diapers, kitty litter, tampons–evoke a subconscious feeling of disgust even before they’re used for their ultimate messy purposes, but they can also transfer their general ickiness to anything they come in contact with. ‘We were pretty surprised at how strong the effect was,’ says Fitzsimons. ‘This is probably the most robust result in my career.’”
Also interesting was the notion that cooties may have been a very useful thing hundreds of years ago, before humans had any knowledge of germs and the damage they could do. Hence, we’ve always been revolted by things like rotting food. But everybody’s got their own personal set of gross-outs — anybody care to share?
The whole concept of buffets, no sir I don’t like it…not one bit.
posted by Cotton on 5-31-2007 at 10:44 am
I hate seeing used dental floss. By the way, do kids still say ‘cooties’?
posted by Rhea on 5-31-2007 at 10:52 am
I absolutely can not stand stickers on any kind. The sticky glue on the back gets dirty and gummy, and I don’t want it touch me or anything of mine.
posted by audrey on 5-31-2007 at 11:00 am
no gross out story or anything like that. i just remembered how to “proctect” myself from cooties:
circle, circle, dot, dot now i have my cootie shot
circle, circle, square, square now i have it everywhere
circle, circle, knife, knife now i got it all my life
circle, circle, line, line now i got it till end of time
circle, circle, bread, bread now i got it when im dead
circle, circle, seven, seven now i got it when i got to heaven
we used to do this daily. there were a few more verses, but i can’t remember them. this got to be really long.
posted by trouble on 5-31-2007 at 11:16 am
The New York City subway system. Need I say more?
posted by JP on 5-31-2007 at 12:23 pm
I can’t stand gum it really, truly makes me gag.
posted by rachel on 5-31-2007 at 1:08 pm
I can’t stand gum it really, truly makes me gag.
posted by rachel on 5-31-2007 at 1:08 pm
The jewish religion has a concept of ritual impurity that’s kind of like cooties. There is also a process to clear this impurity. See the wikipedia article linked to by my name above for a few details.
posted by Stew on 5-31-2007 at 1:29 pm
coffee pot rim to coffee cup rim at a restaurant, not a good mix
posted by loaf on 5-31-2007 at 1:53 pm
I share Audrey’s. Old adhesive freaks me out really badly.
posted by Aemi on 5-31-2007 at 2:34 pm
Feet and flip flops, especially in restaurants and airplanes.
Is it just me or is there an epidemic of flip-flop shodden folks that are compelled to put their feet everywhere, and leave dirty flip-flops in plain view. Makes my skin crawl just thinking about it.
The next person that can get legislation passed outlawing these footwear aberrations gets my vote for president.
posted by adam on 5-31-2007 at 3:10 pm
Q-tips on the sidewalk, floor, elevator, etc. EwWw.
posted by ms on 5-31-2007 at 6:18 pm
along with coffe pot to coffee cup, how about water cooler tap to water bottle? particularly since my office water cooler tap looks kinda grungy…
posted by mri on 5-31-2007 at 6:29 pm
I know a lot of people who absolutely refuse to sit on public toilet seats–or on toilet seats of friends’ houses! Me, I could care less! The skin of your behind is not going to transfer germs directly into your system, and your hands get washed right after anyway… Unless people like that touch their behinds and then their eyes/nose/mouth often? Just seems a bit like overkill to me.
posted by Courtney on 6-1-2007 at 12:37 am
Tooth roots. I shudder even thinking about them. I had to have my wisdom teeth out and the oral surgeon tried to FORCE me to look at the X-rays. It was traumatizing.
posted by Allison on 6-1-2007 at 9:29 am
I used to have a supv. who would lick her finger to turn pages. She had triplets who were always “down with” something. “Where’s your rubber fingertip?” Ewwwwwww…
posted by Frankie on 6-22-2007 at 1:21 pm
The five second rule… eating food off of anything onther than a plate is disgusting
posted by Judy on 9-17-2007 at 4:22 am