Is my throat abnormally suggestible?

January 26, 2006 7:29 PM

Why is it that I feel nauseated when I hear other people rattle their phlegm (you know, that pre-loogie sound), but my own throat feels somehow "better" when I hear someone else clearing his?
posted by kittyprecious to health (8 comments total)

Because you know what foul gunk they are trying to dislodge from their lungs and it paints a horrible image in your mind?

I used to work with this guy who would stand there and talk to you, all the time this phlegm/drainage would plug up his throat. He sounded like he was talking to you while gargling. It was disgusting as hell but the guy seemed oblivious to it.

Maybe that's the key? If you're the one dealing with the crud, it somehow seems automatic? If you can do nothing but sit there and experience someone else turning their lungs inside-out, it becomes slow torture.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:31 PM on January 26, 2006

If you're abnormal, then I'm right there with you. I might even be more suggestible.

I'm a singer and when I hear someone like Renée Fleming or Ian Bostridge I can feel my throat relax and open up into good singing form. Put on Bob Dylan or Pearl Jam and my throat clamps down tighter than ... well, tighter than Eddie Vedder's throat when he forces out what in some circles passes for singing.
posted by santry at 10:06 PM on January 26, 2006

It may be your mirror cells, cells that read minds. ""It took us several years to believe what we were seeing,".... brain contains a special class of cells, called mirror neurons, that fire when the animal sees or hears an action and when the animal carries out the same action on its own"
posted by hortense at 10:39 PM on January 26, 2006

Other people's phlegm is (are?) a disease vector. So, from an evolutionary standpoint, the disgust reaction modifies your behaviour in a way that protects you from that threat. Of course some of this is learned reaction, but there is research out there that demonstrates an instinctive basis as well.
posted by randomstriker at 12:06 AM on January 27, 2006

Hortense - Interesting links, thanks. Maybe explains why yawning is contagious.
posted by the cuban at 2:03 AM on January 27, 2006

I don't know about the throat-clearing reaction, but as for the other- It's just a reaction to being grossed out. I retch when I have to clean up cat puke- we all have our triggers!
posted by elisabeth r at 5:13 AM on January 27, 2006

My husband's grandmother does this. She talks through rattling phlegm and her voice 'bubbles', and then I start clearing my throat in response. It drives me crazy. I have to ask my husband to tell her to clear her throat. It's nauseating, and I don't know why. She's deaf and 94, so there's some excuse there, but it's a strong reaction from me when I hear her talk "through" it. Erg.
posted by Savannah at 7:43 AM on January 27, 2006

I might venture to guess that you've got a great deal of empathy and counsel someone by listening and meeting them on the same level of emotion?
posted by vanoakenfold at 9:21 AM on January 27, 2006