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Subscribe to RSSIf seeing someone hurl makes you gag, too, and then launch into a puffed-cheek, double-hands-to-the-mouth, chest-heaving dance before you either toss your own cookies or scurry safely (and dryly) away, well, we owe you a compliment.
People who feel the urge to barf when witnessing another person throw up are both compassionate and highly evolved, say two medical experts on the stomach-turning topic.
“There's good news and bad news about why upchucking causes other people in the immediate vicinity to upchuck,” said Amy Morin, who teaches psychology at Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield, Maine and works a licensed clinical social worker.
“The good news is, if it happens to you, it means you have empathy,” Morin said.
In human brains, scientists have discovered “mirror neurons” that cause some people to feel the same emotions as others around us. This explains why you might tear up when you see someone in the room cry.
If that sounds like you, when you see someone vomit, your brain feels empathy and causes you to actually feel that disgust with the other person, and so the food in your gut wants to come out, explained Morin, who also writes for about.com at discipline.about.com.
“The bad news is, there's not much you can do about it. If you are prone to upchucking or gagging at the site, smell, or mention of vomit, your brain is likely fairly hard wired to react by doing so,” she added.
This wretched reaction is, in fact, still laced into our brains from ancient times – as a pure survival instinct, said Dr. Jennifer Hanes, an emergency physician at Northwest Hills Surgical Hospital in Austin, Texas.
"Humans are communal creatures, and if our ancestral brother began to vomit from spoiled food or other illness, likely we were exposed to the same pathogen as well,” said Hanes, author of "Lady in Weighting." "When one person vomits, our body begins to retch to expel the germs or poison that may be in our system, but (have) not yet reached a toxic level to cause illness on our own.
“If one member of the tribe is sick or poisoned, chances are the other members are as well so it developed as a self-preservation reflex. If it affects you, just think of yourself as highly evolved,” Hanes said, adding: she has never vomited in the ER but has witnessed the reflex with nurses and medical students.
In contrast, nurse Mary Pitman, calls on-the-job spewing her “single greatest weakness” in the emergency room.
“I have a theory on why one person hurling can turn a room into a vomitorium,” said Pitman, a Vero Beach, Fla. resident who has spent 31 years as a nurse. “Unlike my peers, for whom suctioning thick, green secretions out of someone's lungs is the ultimate stomach churner, mine is vomiting and here's why. It's a multi-sensory experience – there’s the sight, the sound, the smell and – most of all – the memory.
“Most people at some point have vomited. Seeing someone do it, and the sight of partially digested food, brings back that cascade of memories,” Pitman said. “And it's never good.”
Dang, she had to say "cascade."
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“If one member of the tribe is sick or poisoned, chances are the other members are as well so it developed as a self-preservation reflex."
This is speculation and smells Lamarkian rather than Darwinian. And it stinks enough to make me want to barf.
Thanks Juneau I have never heard of lamarckism before.
No. By definition, it would be Lamarkian only if empathetic barfing was a learned response. However, according to the article, empathetic barfing seems to be more of a hardwired reflex. And since instinctual reflexes certainly can be hereditary, it is quite plausible that this particular reflex may be Darwinian.
Barfing is a reflex. Wanting to barf anothers do is learned and can be unlearned.
Just ask any nurse in a hospital.
journal,
They did ask a nurse.
Well, I'm a nurse and you can unlearn it. I was successful...until I got pregnant. Sorry, morning sickness had me hurling in the dirty utility room when exposed too long to unpleasant smells.
There are a lot of those in hospitals. It's not very professional to barf at the bedside. You have to play games with your head in order to get your attention off of it, while you get rid of those cues in a speedy fashion. A nurse who can't control it, won't be a nurse for too long.
I only feel like vomiting when I am in close proximity of someone vomiting because it's disgusting and the smell is one of the worst smells in the world.
I can watch people on TV vomit and be totally fine.
I had the same thought. It sounds reasonable that the smell would make someone else vomit, not necessarily the sight. Of course, whenever I see Mitt RMoney spewing drivel on TV it does often tend to bring up the last meal..
You have a very valid point. As someone that worked in a hospital, it's the smell that gets you the most, followed by the sound. Visuals are the easiest thing to ignore.
Btw, that's not the worst smell in the world by any stretch. Just trust me on that one.
I use to work in Property Management for a very large Mental Health Agency. My job was to call various vendors and our “sister” company for services. We had tons of “biohazard” clean ups; vomit, feces, blood, etc. There was a guy that had worked for the ‘sister” company since it had opened and he did most of all the biohazard clean ups. He was a turn Saint and I told him all the time he already had his ticket to heaven for all he did for the mentally ill people. He was truly the most warm hearted, sweetest, caring man and he had a rock hard stomach because nothing fazed him. So once in a million you can have the most empathic person in the world not puke when cleaning up things that most people would not get even remotely near.
I used to be like that, but after working as an usher in a building that held many rock concerts in the 80's, I kind of got used to it. When it happened, we would simply cover it with sawdust we kept around for just such an emergency, until the building custodians could clean it up. To this day, I still think "sawdust" when I see it. However, I have never been hurled on, so who knows?
They used sawdust to cover up the smell of vomit in my elementary school in Europe, but I had never seen (or heard of) it used in the U.S. before. It's actually pretty effective, and is a much better alternative to leaving a cone by the vomit until the janitor can clean it up an hour later, which is what they seem to do nowadays.
I distinctly remember janitors using sawdust for vomit in elementary school here in the US during the 60s. I have no idea when they stopped doing that, but they certainly don't do it now.
I have a dog that eats everything in sight, and four kids, so I have to deal with vomit All. The. Time. At least once a week. Our recently adopted cat has taken to throwing up the mice she catches as well, so my stomach is getting to be pretty rock solid these days. I still turn it over to my husband to clean up whenever possible.
Umm.. While I do think I am an empathetic person, the sight of seeing someone vomit is pretty gross so I tend to believe that it is the disgusting sight of watching someone vomit barely digested food the actual reason for wanting to hurl myself.
I knew it. I knew it. I'm highly evolved!
Just kidding.
Man I just hate that acidic burning sensation of stuff rising up....including that stench from volcanoes ha.
We are just talking about "puke" and how I run for the hills if someone around me, be it the dog, or a human, is puking because I know I am right behind them. Nice timing.
I used to have an actual crippling phobia of throwup be it me or anyone else. I would drive myself seperately everywhere for fear of being trapped in a car. I had school busses pull over because I was scared I was going to puke. This all happened because someone threw up out a bus window two rows ahead of me and it came back in my window and I got coated. One day, years later, a trip to New York City for New Years Eve cured me. I had a last minute chance to go into the city while on vacation with a group of frineds who lived upstate. We parked in NJ and rode the subway in. After the ball dropped, we ate and had a few beers and then went to the train station to get back to Jersey. The trains were free so people wouldn't drive so every train was stuffed well beyond capacity. A guy on my train started it all before we left by vomiting right down his shoulder and his arm and on the floor of the car entrance. A woman in a mink coat was running in high heels to get into the car before the doors closed, slipped in this guys puke and slid into the center of the car. The guy just puked down his shoulder again like it was nothing. Once we got underway we stopped under the Hudson river for some reason. People were trying to kick the windows out due to the smell and a couple people started to puke. We had two stops before getting to Journal Square. Before we got there, a guy near me walked near the door and threw up all over and down the wall. I was turing white and was mortified. For the next five minutes a chain reaction caused several other people to throw up all over the train. To get away from the puke, I got out of my car and ran to another during a brief stop in Hoboken, NJ. My friend who travelled with me was in this car and when I looked at his face, I could see he was dealing with the same horror I was. As the subway pulled out, I looked around the car and there was puke splattered on the walls and the floor. My friend and I chatted briefly on how this was a vomit armageddon. We finally got to our stop and when we got out, one more guy stumbled out of the car in front of us and unleashed the biggest pile of puke I'd ever seen. In short folks, instead of having severe PTSD from havind my worst nightmare unfold, it actually had the opposite effect. It was so rediculous and on such a scale that I just resigned myself that it was ok if I had to puke and ok if others had to do it and from that day on I am actually the one who volunteers to clean up puke and it has no effect on me at all. I knew one day I would get a chance to tell this story and I hope it helps someone who struggled as bad as I did.
Nice story Dixon. I hate puke and doubt I could have gone through that without spewing.
I definitely get the urge to vomit when I see someone else do it.
The best solution I have found? Forcing a smile. Something about forcing a smile just makes the gag reflex go away.
So... apparently I lack empathy because others vomiting does not give me to urge to vomit? Clearly I'm unevolved and emotionless.
I am so sorry. These scientists just don't think about the poeple they insult when they post this pseudo-science.
It would seem to me that this would be a very old trait and the fact that you don't empathetically vomit would be more evolved, since we don't need that function any more.
Now that I'm a bit older (52) I feel less disturbed by the sight of a hurling human but I don't think I'll ever reach the point to where it doesn't bother me. Elementary school was wretched because kids were always throwing up in school (or at least in mine). The custodians would sprinkle a product called Vomisorb on it. I would gag but never complete the act. As an adult, I was at work one day and the lady in the office next to me got sick (and used her office trash can). I didn't actually see it, but I knew what was going on an I started shaking, sweating and probably turned pale white. I had to leave my office for a while until I could get my nerves back in order.
I went to QuikTrip last weekend and there was this lady who was leaning out of the open door of a car with her face directed to the pavement as I was parking next to her. I was screaming in my head: "Lady don't you dare barf! Don' you dare! She didn't, thankfully.
I've never vomited after seeing someone else vomit. I must be a real dick. More evidence: I never even realized it. Even more evidence: I don't feel bad about it at all.
"If you are prone to upchucking or gagging at the site, smell, or mention of vomit, your brain is likely fairly hard wired to react by doing so."
At the site, smell, or mention of vomit? Site? It's "sight." Who the heck writes these articles? I know "site" is also a word, but it's inappropriate in this situation. (By inappropriate, I just mean wrong or not right. Not, like, "shouldn't be seen by children.")
Also, this entire thing is bullcrap. Why in the name of all Scottish people would you want to feel the disgust of other people? I, personally, would want to make them feel better, but not puke with them.
I don't think I have ever vomited as a result of seeing, hearing, or smelling something. The few times in my life that I have vomited were because of internal sickness or maybe bad food that I ate. I have felt queasy at times when around people vomiting, but it has never made me vomit too.
Why would "empathic vomiting" even be necessary? Couldn't you just stick your finger in the back of your throat if you really thought something contaminated your tribe/community?
The article makes me nausea slightly with all the descriptions. My husband is the worst, if he sees, smells or hears someone throwing up he is done for. Dr. Hanes makes an amazing point that we are still connected to how our ancestors reacted. It is amazing how so much of how we live has changed but we are still wired the same. She has some great content and insight www.facebook.com/drjenniferhanes
So...it's "laced into our brains from ancient times" and simultaneously a sign of being "highly evolved"? Isn't that self-contradictory?
Empathy is an intellectual identification or emotion. "Barfing" is a physical reflex to either outside stimuli or internal physical issues.
Many people would upchuck without feeling "empathy" for the person responsible for the source of their nausea. Conversely, many people (me, for instance) could feel empathy without getting sick to their stomach.
Maybe "compassion" and "empathy" aren't the right words to use.
Then again ... ;-)
American Heritage
Cultural Dictionary
empathy [( em -puh-thee)]
Identifying oneself completely with an object or person, sometimes even to the point of responding physically, as when, watching a baseball player swing at a pitch, one feels one's own muscles flex.
By the same token, using that definition of empathy, a "physical" empathy if you will, does not warrant "complimenting" a person or calling one "compassionate" -- it's just a physical reflex and has nothing to do with altruism.
IMHO