So one of my Christmas gifts this year was from Cynthia, who sent me the hood for my
camera – Thanks Cynthia. But she also sent me some random chocolates that I didn’t think much about,
until I discovered that Wheatley had eaten the Santa from the waist down. It’s days
later and he’s fine so don’t worry, but I bet he’ll never do it again,
and here’s why. [Intro music]
[Intro music]
Wheatley has never really had a thing for human food,
I’ve tried on several occasions to try and get him to eat meat and he just won’t do it.
But the one thing he does have a sweet tooth for chocolate. Can you blame him?! The reason
chocolate is so bad for animals is because it contains theobromine, which is like caffeine,
but is slower to metabolize. So if they eat enough of it, they can suffer from theobromine
poisoning – which if you’ve ever drank too much coffee or Red Bull, you know what that
feels like. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and in advanced stages, tremors and cardiac arrhythmia,
the usual cause of death is a heart attack. Now I wasn’t too worried because in order to
get a lethal dose of theobromine he would have had to eat about five ounces of milk chocolate,
and he didn’t get anywhere near that amount. [Cleaning noises] So all I really expected out
of him was the squirts. Which also didn’t happen… so maybe my assumption that he’ll never do it
again is baseless. But it is the reason I chose to do this topic this week so I’m gonna stick with
it. So let’s assume that he at least felt some nausea. That would trigger a disgust response
known as food aversion or taste/smell aversion. This is an evolutionary response to eating
something toxic that will make you never want to eat it again. It’s pretty smart really and
it happens without your conscious awareness. You feel nauseous and maybe vomit, and your
brain goes back and remembers the last thing you ate, and tags that as the cause. You eat berries,
you puke, you don’t eat those berries again. It’s kept us alive for thousands of years.
I’m not a big fan of seafood. But I absolutely refuse to ever eat shrimp,
crab, or lobster ever again. And that’s not just because they’re giant sea bugs. Basically
ocean cockroaches. It’s because when I was a kid, my family had a bad batch of shrimp that
laid us all out for at least a day. Now I can’t even think about eating those rubbery shellfish
without gagging. Here I am 25 years later and my food aversion is as strong as ever.
You can probably think of one or two examples for yourself, leave them down in the comments and let
us know how you acquired it. The difference between humans and animals is that you are
able to think your way out of it if you want to. Many of you have or are going to partake
in drinking to toxic levels this weekend, which will likely give you nausea and possible vomiting,
but you’ll probably convince yourself to do it again next weekend. Probably because you
weigh the social benefit of drinking against the possibility of being nauseous and you decide to
roll the dice again. [Scrubbing] Another one of my food aversions is tequila because of one bad
experience. I refuse to drink that anymore – and I’ve found out that that one is pretty common.
All alcohol has the same likelihood to make you sick, but for some reason just saying the
word tequila makes me feel like I need to hurl. An unfortunate result of this effect though is
because you form these food aversions without your conscious awareness,
sometimes your brain will tag the last thing you ate as the cause of your nausea even though it
clearly isn’t and you know it isn’t. Whether you were just on a rollercoaster that spun you around
to the point where you comically spewed all over everyone or you just go in to get chemotherapy.
This was actually a big problem that needed to be solved for people who underwent chemotherapy.
They would eat a normal meal – or sometimes their favourite meal – then go get chemotherapy
and feel nauseous or even vomit, and their brain would make the aversion connection,
so suddenly they no longer liked their favourite meal. So in 1987 an experiment was performed to
see if we could stop that from happening. After their meal, and before they got chemotherapy,
doctors would give them root beer flavored candy. I personally find this offensive,
root beer is one of the best flavors in the world. Couldn’t they have picked something universally
hated like black licorice? Anyway, then they would go get their chemotherapy. And success,
those who ate the unfairly scapegoated root beer candy were far less likely to form a food aversion
to normal menu items. [Cleaning noises] Now they just hate root beer candy, which is bullsh-[BEEP]
The feeling of disgust is evolutionarily important; it kept us alive. It’s the reason
why when you see one person throw up, you feel like throwing up, especially if you ate the same
thing as they did. It’s the reason why the smell of feces, universally recognized, regardless of
what animal it comes from, makes you sick. Poop is loaded with parasites and you shouldn’t handle
or ingest it. Don’t worry, I totally washed my hands off camera. Trust me. Remember the saying,
you love the smell of your own brand? Well, there’s truth in that. The reason why you
don’t find the smell of your own poops and farts to be nearly as gut wrenching as other people’s
is because your brain recognizes the bacterial footprint in the smell and doesn’t find it to be
that big of a deal. Mothers are also not disgusted by the smell of their baby’s poop for the same
reason – although this effect doesn’t seem to be as true for fathers. This disgust-induced
avoidance is beneficial to us in many ways. But what about seemingly mundane things like
sweat and saliva? In most contexts if someone were to sweat on you, you’d be pretty grossed
out. And if someone were to spit on you, you’d probably be ready to throw some punches. Unless
you’re sexually aroused. In which case a little sweat and saliva are the last things on your mind.
Disgust is inhibited during sexual arousal. Think about it. During sex there are certain smells,
tastes, and even sights that outside of the sexual context would be pretty unappealing… You might
experience a flash of disgust but then think “meh” and continue on. I mean, I’ve never experienced
that because all of the women I’ve been with have been perfect and the exact opposite of disgusting
but… I’ve heard. Certain unnamed bodily fluids, in addition to sweat and saliva, would be pretty
disgusting outside of the context of a sexual encounter. You know what I’m talking about. That
wet spot on the couch might just be just a funny accident while you’re in the act but the next day,
neither of you are gonna want to go near it. Inhibiting disgust during sex is incredibly
important. Disgust is designed to keep you safe from disease, and sex opens you up to
contamination in a way that no other natural act does. The inability to inhibit disgust is actually
a sexual dysfunction. If you’re unable to look past how disgusting sex is, which, let’s face it,
it kind of is - especially since girls are loaded with cooties. Then you’re not going
to be able to participate in a healthy sexual relationship. It’s theorized that the reason
why some people are asexual and they find sex absolutely disgusting is because they’re unable
to inhibit their disgust-induced avoidance. But the disgust inhibition goes beyond just
body fluids and smells. If you’re not sexually aroused, you’re pretty unlikely to drink a
glass of water with a bug in it. {No bugs were harmed in the making of this video.}
But if you’re sexually aroused, you’re far more likely to not care about the bug and just drink it
anyway. You think I’m going to film myself being sexually arroused?! Okay fine, if you’ve recently
had a sexual encounter. Messing up my hair doesn’t mean I had a recent sexual encounter. [Sad music:
One is the loneliest number…] Geez. Okay well, you can imagine if you were sexually aroused you
wouldn’t care so much about something disgusting. Some of the other tasks that people were asked to
do in a lab, which sexually aroused people were far more likely to do, included:
Removing soiled toilet paper from a jar. Wiping your hands with a used tissue.
Eat a cookie that had a living worm next to it. Hug a shirt recently worn by a pedophile.
Throw away a used tampon Stick a needle into a cow’s eye.
Place used women’s underwear into a bag. Stick your finger in a bowl of used condoms.
All of those were things people who were sexually aroused were more willing to do
than people who were not aroused. Disgusting! I know right?! Gross!
So while sexual arousal will inhibit disgust… meaning, while you’re sexually aroused you’re
more willing to do disgusting things. The reverse is also true. Disgust will inhibit sexual arousal.
Meaning, if you do or see something disgusting, and then you’re asked to become sexually aroused,
you’re pretty unlikely to do so. So guys, the next time your wife is cleaning up the dog puke from
the kitchen floor, don’t ask her to have sex with you when she’s done, because now, you know better.
Hey guys if you made it through that video without throwing up or having uncontrollable explosive
diarrhea, or maybe you learned something, make sure to give that like button a click. If you’d
like to see more from me, I put out slightly less disgusting videos every weekend, so be sure to
hold your nose and hit that subscribe button. It’s a new year so be sure to follow me on Facebook,
Twitter, and also join us on the Reddit. I’m sure that’s a resolution worth following up on. Anyway,
in the meantime if you’d like to see one of my older videos, how about this one?
[Outro music]