{"id":67327,"date":"2015-12-31T10:00:49","date_gmt":"2015-12-31T15:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=67327"},"modified":"2015-12-22T01:02:45","modified_gmt":"2015-12-22T06:02:45","slug":"why-do-people-hate-the-word-moist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2015\/12\/31\/why-do-people-hate-the-word-moist\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do People Hate the Word “Moist”?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2<\/a>Hey, they did a study<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Psychologist Paul Thibodeau and three colleagues decided that it was time to take a closer look at the word “moist,” writing:<\/p>\n

The word \u201cmoist” …\u00a0has been the subject of a Facebook page (called \u201cI\u00a0HATE the word MOIST\u201d) with over 3,000 followers and\u00a0was rated as the least liked word in the English language by\u00a0a Mississippi State Poll\u00a0…\u00a0; feature articles have\u00a0been written in Slate Magazine …\u00a0and The\u00a0New Yorker …\u00a0; and popular TV shows like\u201cHow I Met Your Mother\u201d (\u201cStuff\u201d) and \u201cThe New Girl\u201d\u00a0(\u201cBirthday\u201d) have devoted entire plot-lines to the comic\u00a0consequences of word aversion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now it’s not just anecdotal. Thibodeau found that between 13 and 21% of people have an aversion to the word.<\/p>\n

But why?<\/p>\n

\"20150629_001830\"<\/p>\n

Is it just a gross-sounding word?<\/strong> If so, then people who hate moist<\/em> should also hate foist<\/em> and rejoiced. <\/em>Verdict: No. Hating the sound moist is independent of one’s appreciation for words that rhyme.<\/p>\n

Is it because it makes people think of sex?<\/strong>\u00a0Verdict: Yes! Priming people to think of sex versus, say, cake, makes people dislike the word more. Bonus: People who scored higher on a measure of disgust for bodily functions were more likely than those who scored lower to claim an aversion to the word.<\/p>\n

So, if you don’t like the word moist, get your mind out of the gutter. And, if your aversion is severely hampering your life, just think about cake!<\/p>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey, they did a study. Psychologist Paul Thibodeau and three colleagues decided that it was time to take a closer look at the word “moist,” writing: The word \u201cmoist” …\u00a0has been the subject of a Facebook page (called \u201cI\u00a0HATE the word MOIST\u201d) with over 3,000 followers and\u00a0was rated as the least liked word in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":68483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[23384,329,675,120],"class_list":["post-67327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-social-construction-discourselanguage","tag-emotion","tag-psychology","tag-sex"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2015\/01\/212.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67327"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68512,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67327\/revisions\/68512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}