Warning: This blog post contains graphic — if not disgusting, yet fascinating — videos and physical descriptions of the act of popping pimples.
44 million views on YouTube belong not to the boxer dogs and babies, or even 10 worst red carpet dresses video, but to clips of exploding cysts or unplugged blackheads! Millions are watching videos of cyst extractions and blackhead treatments. The videos are everywhere even if you have never actually clicked on one.
Not only are there YouTube channels such as YouTube’s Greatest Cysts and an active subreddit (/r/popping), but there are websites which their main goal is providing pimple popping videos. There are even popping celebrities – including Dr. Sandra Lee (aka Dr. Pimple Popper) and Dr. Vikram Yadav.
In 2010, Dr. Lee who is an American dermatologist began uploading videos to YouTube but did not begin to heavily post content until 2015, after she noticed the popularity of her Instagram videos of skin extractions. She said her page had not attracted any significant attention until she posted a video of a blackhead extraction. She added that people started sharing tens of thousands of videos showcasing their best pimple pops afterward.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo9Wj7nqdkY
Blackhead removal by Dr.Sandra Lee. Source.
But why would people watch these videos?
Heather Berlin, a neuroscientist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, said that because those bumps could be parasites, “it is a normal behavior to want to remove bumps from your skin” and it makes sense that such behaviors can be pleasurable to human beings.
Berlin added, popping pimples or watching others do it stimulates the nucleus accumbens, the reward center in the brain that receives dopamine and gives people a sense of pleasure. On the other side, Berlin added that the behavior may seem disgusting for some people; in those cases, a different part of the brain called the insular cortex is activated.
Danger with The Benefit of Safety
According to The Guardian report, there is another reason for the obsession with pimple-popping videos. According to many popaholics, the videos give them a sort of rush without the fear of danger. Nina Strohminger, the author of The Hedonics of Disgust, said that:
“Rather, negative sensations are interesting, particularly when you’re in a context where they can’t hurt you,” she said. “You’re probably not going to step in dog shit just for the experience, but maybe you’d click on a link to watch someone else doing it.”
Be Careful of Compulsive Behaviors
All in all, there’s no study that proved watching pimple popping videos is unhealthy or psychologically problematic. However, If you are motivated to pick your own skin to excess by viewing them, they may be a trigger for compulsive behavior, and you should consider seeing a professional therapist.
