Here’s the main reason why you feel so satisfied even after watching a gross video like earwax removal

Last Updated on 2016-05-19 , 1:53 pm

Why do we like to watch gross videos? Is that some perverse nature of human nature? Earwax removal? No problem. A person digging large pieces of mucus lined dirt out from the nose? Shiok ah! It seems like we are sick enough to enjoy even such unsightly videos. And don’t bother denying it, the fact that we like to watch such videos is the reason why such videos are produced in the first place.

Why is this so? It would seem that as we watch such videos, we tend to empathise with the person having this problem and we begin to put ourselves in the shoes of the person involved. For example, in this video, when we start to put ourselves in the shoes of the person involved, we naturally begin to imagine the pain and uncomfortable feeling of the sufferer.

And when the obstacle is finally removed, we breathe a sigh of relief; because now the person is no longer in pain and at the same time, you no longer have to watch that gross video anymore. In fact, you even feel a sense of satisfaction that you have watched through the whole video and live vicariously through the video to experience to removal of the earwax.

It appears that human beings are rather sick isn’t it? The reason behind it is more psychological than we think! Human beings are not sick. We are just extremely empathetic beings. When we see a video showing us something that makes another person uncomfortable or even in pain, we want to help to get rid of the matter.

When we watch such videos, we imagine ourselves as the person who is suffering because just watching the video already made us suffer alongside the person in the video. When the doctor is helping to clear the earwax, we cringe at every movement and feel acutely the uncomfortable feeling of the earwax getting dislodged from the ear. When it is finally removed, we breathe a sigh of relief because our pain (both ours and the sufferer) is over.

It is therefore not uncommon for us to feel empathetic towards another in uncomfortable situations in our day to day interaction with others. The reason you cringe when your friend tells you of her gross story of her plant’s worm infestation is the same reason why you cringe at the earwax. You feel for the person and imagine the worms just like how your friend sees them in the soil of her plant.

Now that you know this, watch the video below and tell us if you feel disgust and shiok, or pure disgust.