Losing interest in record time: analysing the ‘ick’

Some things are massive turn offs. But why?

Have you ever fallen completely, utterly and permanently out of love- or lust- with someone? Not a slow creeping realisation that she or he isn’t right for you, but that sudden, total thudding bump back to reality? That, older friends, is what my generation calls ‘the ick’. The feeling you get when someone is suddenly completely, to use the scientific term, unfuckable.

Sometimes, the ‘ick’ moment makes total sense. He takes his false teeth and fake biceps out before bed. He asks you to dress up as his dead wife. He tries to get off with your best friend. We’ve all got hilarious dinner party tales of those fallen comrades in the games of love. But a lot of the time, you can’t really put your finger on it, or worse, it’s something you weren’t expecting to ‘red flag’ you out so much. At all.

So, for the purposes of science, I’ve decided to look into this. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you;

Ick Theory: The Psychology of Icks

I’ve split this up into four categories;

Collective Icks

Icks that exist beyond your personal psychosocial narrative and into a shared consensus of repulsion; what could be understood as…