'Moist' make you cringe? One study has a theory for why

If you loathe the word 'moist,' you're not alone. There are many other humans squealing in disgust.

It's no secret that many English speakers share an aversion to the word 'moist', for mysterious unexplained reasons. So a group of psychologists, lead by Professor Paul Thibodeau of Oberlin, decided to study what about the word offends so many people -- and came up with some strange results.

Researchers conducted approximately five experiments over the course of four years to determine who, exactly, hated the word 'moist' and what made them hate it. 

Of the 2,500 people they surveyed, approximately 18 percent defined themselves as "categorically averse" to the word. The group was diverse, but women, young people and those with more education were more likely to fall into this category. Those who scored high on tests of neuroticism, including bodily disgust, also tended to be averse to moist. But the word itself was hated uniformly across participants of different political persuasions, sexual preferences and religious backgrounds.

The researchers then compared the word to other commonly accepted offensive words, including curse words, racial slurs, and word that signify violence and hate. Those who identified as averse to 'moist' were more likely to associate the words "yuck" and "ewww" with it, than those who didn't. Many people who said they hated the word blamed lack of exposure, although researchers believed that the word is common throughout the English-speaking world.

While researchers were unable to pinpoint people's specific reason for disgust, they gave three pretty sound theories:

1. Sound: Researchers have discovered that some sounds are inherently unpleasant to people. 'Moist' uses the same muscles we employ when our faces make a look of disgust, so its possible it triggers the same reaction.

2. Connotation: Moist has connections both negative and positive, but many people correlate moist with our basest bodily fluids, including vomit, phlegm and discharge.

3. Social transmission: One person likes the word 'moist', then they get their friend to like it and soon it's a trend. It's thoroughly possible, scientists speculate, that disliking the word is just a fad that people will eventually tire of.

After reviewing their theories, scientists now believe the latter two hypotheses are the most probable -- but they're still reviewing the evidence. You can read more of the study here.

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