“Moist” Is Trending But Why Do You Hate The Word?

So take a look at that piece of cake. No one likes a dry cake. That's terrible and a culinary sin.

However if I described that succulent dessert as "moist" chocolate cake, a fair amount of people would have a problem with it. They would be like, "ewwww".

I was messing around on Twitter Monday night and discovered that for some reason "MOIST" was trending. And I still don't know why. But I do know some people...ok, a lot of people have a problem with the word.

And amazingly enough, there's some science behind it. It's called word aversion. Peep the video below.

Paul Thibodeau, a cognitive psychologist from Oberlin College, considered three different hypotheses for why the word makes so many people’s skin crawl. These possible explanations were the sound of the word, the word's connotation, and the social transmission of the idea that the word is disgusting. (IFL Science)

Do the words phlegm, puke, and vomit bother you?

Due to these findings, the study concluded that our uncomfortable reaction to the word stems from our natural disgust of bodily functions. Importantly, this is strongly reinforced by social cues. (IFL Science)

You can peep the entire study aptly titled A Moist Crevice for Word Aversion: In Semantics Not Sounds by Paul H. Thibodeau.

And here's that video of random sexy celebrities saying the word to see if it makes it any easier for you.