# Sticky tape shivers (like chalkboard screech) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 6, 2011, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sticky-tape-shivers-like-chalkboard-screech/570435 "2011-02-06T20:37:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sticky-tape-shivers-like-chalkboard-screech/570435/1 "2011-02-06T20:37:29Z")
Fingernails on a chalkboard never bothered me. Handling something sticky like tape does. Sometimes just thinking about it give me the shivers. Am I alone here? am I that odd? I’ve never heard of anyone else suffering from this ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sticky-tape-shivers-like-chalkboard-screech/570435/2 "2011-02-06T21:15:00Z")
I don’t know but fingers on the chalkboard don’t bother me either. However I get the same feeling when some things vibrate (yeah yeah I’m opening myself up to a lot of vibrator jokes). But only certain things that vibrate at certain frequencies. A vibrating phone or riding a Harley is fine, but I can’t even hold some tools that vibrate. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2011, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sticky-tape-shivers-like-chalkboard-screech/570435/3 "2011-02-06T22:08:06Z")
There’s a rare condition that hypersensitizes people to adhesive tape. To test if you have it, try unrolling some in the dark, and see if it appears to be lighting up where it’s peeling off of the roll. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sticky-tape-shivers-like-chalkboard-screech/570435/4 "2011-02-08T15:09:48Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > There’s a rare condition that hypersensitizes people to adhesive tape. To test if you have it, try unrolling some in the dark, and see if it appears to be lighting up where it’s peeling off of the roll. 😕 What on earth does the presence or absence of [triboluminescence](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triboluminescence) in a particular type of tape have to do with a person having sensitivity to it? BTW vaguely related but my mother gets skeeved out by touching newspaper with wet hands. Odd. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sticky-tape-shivers-like-chalkboard-screech/570435/5 "2011-02-08T15:16:55Z")
This is what gets me: \>writing with a pencil \>handling styrene (styrofoam) \>cutting cardboard ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sticky-tape-shivers-like-chalkboard-screech/570435/6 "2011-02-08T16:15:42Z")
> [@Fubaya](#): > > (yeah yeah I’m opening myself up to a lot of vibrator jokes). So a couple of vibrators walk into a bar… ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sticky-tape-shivers-like-chalkboard-screech/570435/7 "2011-02-08T20:11:33Z")
I’ve never really understood why certain sounds do this. Nothing affects me in this way, but I can use it against others. ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sticky-tape-shivers-like-chalkboard-screech/570435/8 "2011-02-08T20:56:20Z")
The sound of a shovel grating against gravel on cement drives me nuts! (or nuttier) :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sticky-tape-shivers-like-chalkboard-screech/570435/9 "2011-02-08T21:48:54Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > There’s a rare condition that hypersensitizes people to adhesive tape. To test if you have it, try unrolling some in the dark, and see if it appears to be lighting up where it’s peeling off of the roll. You are the whoosh beneath my wings, but for the life of me I don’t get it. Please enlighten this poor Armenian lad. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sticky-tape-shivers-like-chalkboard-screech/570435/10 "2011-02-08T23:41:22Z")
I have problems with the texture of wet gloves/mittens (the cheap stretchy kind, not nice leather or thinsulate etc). For some reason, ever since I was a little kid, whenever I would touch a wet mitten (like to move it from the washer to the dryer) I would get a mental image of biting the mitten and it made me cringe. Still does. idk why, but I stopped washing my cheap mittens and just toss them out and buy a new pair instead. I guess I could buy a nicer pair of mittens, but I perpetually lose them. ---
**Author:** ![TravisFromOR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cc9497/32.png) [@TravisFromOR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TravisFromOR)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sticky-tape-shivers-like-chalkboard-screech/570435/11 "2011-02-09T01:49:14Z")
The sound of scraping frost off your windshield does me in. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sticky-tape-shivers-like-chalkboard-screech/570435/12 "2011-02-09T02:01:17Z")
Scraping two pieces of styrofoam together gets me.:eek: ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sticky-tape-shivers-like-chalkboard-screech/570435/13 "2011-02-09T03:35:03Z")
This is all great and everything that some people have odd things that give them the willies. But I was asking more if anyone shared my specific sticky tape issue. No offense, but I wasn’t really looking for a survey of all the things people get creeped out over… …just sticky tape… …or sticky glue… …or sticky arm pulled off of vinyl… ---
**Author:** ![Wogglebug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@Wogglebug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wogglebug)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sticky-tape-shivers-like-chalkboard-screech/570435/14 "2011-02-16T19:40:12Z")
I also am not sensitive to fingernails on blackboards, or to the sound of glass being ground. I do have other similar sensitivities. It’s not clear that there are people with no such sensitivities. Watching others, it appeared to me that there was interference with their nervous system. I.e., it looked similar to a convulsion or a tickle spasm, in that one would think only a single area would be affected by a stimulus, but instead the whole body was. Since most people are sensitive to fingernails on blackboards, there are going to be a limited number of unimpassioned observers. Which may be the reason it’s not well explained, even in urban legend. Why some few people have different responses? The “resonate frequency” (if there is such a thing) of their nervous systems are different? ---
**Author:** ![wbeaty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/439d5e/32.png) [@wbeaty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wbeaty)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sticky-tape-shivers-like-chalkboard-screech/570435/15 "2011-02-17T02:12:02Z")
> [@Sigene](#): > > Handling something sticky like tape does. Sometimes just thinking about it give me the shivers. Imagine getting some honey on your hand. Soon it spreads to anything you touch. The corners of book pages have big sticky fingerprints. The keyboard is all sticky and gathering dirt. Now wipe your sticky hands all over your neck. Now sprinkle some dry grass or chopped fiberglass on it. ---
**Author:** ![wbeaty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/439d5e/32.png) [@wbeaty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wbeaty)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2011, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sticky-tape-shivers-like-chalkboard-screech/570435/16 "2011-02-17T02:20:36Z")
Also, go watch people holding x-acto razor knives near their eyes. Personal crackpot theory: Fingernails on chalkboards “set your teeth on edge.” [http://amasci.com/amateur/screet.html](http://amasci.com/amateur/screet.html)