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[♪ INTRO]
Fair warning: If you don’t like thinking about zits
and the stuff that comes out of them,
this episode might be a little too gross.
Picture the last zit you had.
But not a baby one — a real juicy sucker,
right there on your forehead.
We’ve all had them, and many of us have spent
more than a few minutes squeezing them into oblivion
in front of the bathroom mirror.
When a zit finally bursts, it can give people a really satisfying rush.
But this love of pimple popping isn’t just limited
to personal acne: It’s a phenomenon, complete
with YouTube channels and even a TV series.
But why?
Why is this so satisfying?
And why do people love watching
other people do it so much?
On one level, the answer seems to be pretty simple:
It sometimes feels good to pop a zit.
Although no studies have looked at pimple popping directly,
a number of researchers have investigated other forms
of compulsive skin picking.
And they’ve found that picking at your skin
can trigger your brain to release the chemical dopamine.
Dopamine plays a huge role in motivating
reward-based behavior.
When it’s released, the brain interprets it as
a signal that you’ve done something right,
and you generally feel motivated to do that thing again.
So when you see the goop come rushing out
of the pimple, your brain might think of it as an accomplishment.
And the next time a big whitehead springs up,
you could find yourself getting up close and
personal with the bathroom mirror.
For some, though, the need to pick may go beyond
wanting to feel satisfied.
In some cases, the act itself might actually
be soothing or reduce tension and anxiety.
For example, in a small 2015 study with forty-seven people,
researchers found that participants were more likely
to do things like skin-picking, hair-pulling, and
nail-biting when they were frustrated or bored.
The effect was especially significant for those
who typically had trouble controlling these behaviors,
but it was there for the control group, too.
Since this was an exploratory study with
a small sample size, more research would help back up this idea.
But it does seem to make sense.
After all, if popping zits does release dopamine,
it’s reasonable that you’d feel an urge to do it
when you’re otherwise not feeling super great.
Now, all that might explain why some people
have a fascination with picking at their own skin,
but the Internet is obsessed with watching other people’s zits pop, too.
And… yeah, we’re just not going to show any clips of that.
You can search YouTube for yourself if you want.
The bigger question is why people enjoy this so much.
It’s possible that watching these videos might
release some dopamine, or that it could be relaxing.
But there might be something larger going on here, too.
As humans, we often like to watch or do things
that make us experience undesirable emotions
or reactions, like disgust.
There’s even a term for this: benign masochism.
Benign masochism is the idea that we like
negative experiences only when we know
nothing bad will happen to us.
In these scenarios, your brain initially thinks
that what you’re watching or doing is dangerous
or threatening and reacts accordingly.
Like, when you see a close-up of someone’s pimple,
you might be overcome with waves of disgust,
and might even feel the urge to run out of the room.
Then, when your brain realizes that everything
is actually fine and no harm will come to you,
you get a jolt of pleasure.
It’s still not clear how this works neurologically,
but researchers suggest that benign masochism
is also why you might like eating spicy peppers
or riding huge roller coasters.
Two things that, honestly, sound more pleasant
than watching zit videos.
Also, just for the record?
Picking at your zits is totally normal, but there are reasons
dermatologists don’t recommend doing it yourself.
When you do, you risk infection, scarring,
and generally making the pimple more irritated.
So leave that zit alone! Maybe ride a roller coaster.
Eat something spicy! Or watch a documentary.
If you want to learn more about the strange things
humans do and why, you can check out CuriosityStream.
They’re a subscription streaming service with
thousands of documentaries and films.
And while none of them are about popping zits,
they are fascinating.
In 2015, for example, they came out with a film
called Maestro, which follows one of the world’s most
famous musical directors.
It covers classical music in a really thoughtful
and insightful way, and you can learn a lot about
culture and history because of it!
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