# Tickling yourself **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [June 11, 2003, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tickling-yourself/181192 "2003-06-11T20:33:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![regbarkley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/edb3f5/32.png) [@regbarkley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/regbarkley)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2003, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tickling-yourself/181192/1 "2003-06-11T20:33:24Z")
> [@](#): > > Consider, for instance, that you cannot tickle yourself. According to Darwin, this is because “the precise point to be tickled must not be known,” lest some sort of mental tickle-canceling mechanism be automatically invoked. This is the biggest bunch of BS I have ever heard. I can easily tickle myself, so can most ticklish people I know. If you can’t do it, you just aren’t trying hard enough. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2003, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tickling-yourself/181192/2 "2003-06-11T21:36:15Z")
The Cecil Adams column in question: [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1\_207.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_207.html) ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2003, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tickling-yourself/181192/3 "2003-06-11T22:01:44Z")
Despite your gift for autoticklification, most people find it more difficult to tickle themselves than it is for others to tickle them. An experiment shown on a not-too-old episode of _Scientific American Frontiers_ sheds a little bit of light on the phenomenon. The experiment had a feather connected by rods and levers to a small joystick. Whenever a subject moved the joystick, the feather moved in the same manner. They were to try to tickle themselves with this “remote-controlled” feather. The result: People found it no easier to tickle themselves with this lever-controlled feather than it was to tickle themselves with their own fingers. **But,** it a short **delay** was added (so that the feather duplicated the movements of the control lever a second or two after-the-fact), then it **was** much easier for people to tickle themselves! The theory that came out of this experiment: The mental tickle-cancelling mechanism that Cecil/Darwin talked about is not geared to the **position** of your tickle-fingers, but to the **movement** of your hand. ---
**Author:** ![carnun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bc8723/32.png) [@carnun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnun)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tickling-yourself/181192/4 "2003-06-12T07:49:42Z")
I have to go with \regbarkley\ on this. Even though I’m not very ticklish it does sometimes cause me endless pleasure and frustration when the undersides of my feet are itchy. Really a Catch 22 situation: I want to scratch, but I can’t for long enough because the undersides of my feet are too ticklish… -H ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2003, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tickling-yourself/181192/5 "2003-06-12T18:48:46Z")
My experience is that when other people tickle me, I’m ticklish in a variety of spots (neck, feet, armpits, stomach, etc.), but the stomach is the only area where it is actually seriously painfully irritating. But when I tickle myself, only my stomach is ticklish, and then it’s just as ticklish as when other people tickle me. Hence, I am more susceptible to tickling by others than myself … but in the one location I’m really super-ticklish, it doesn’t matter who or what is providing the stimulation – I hate it all equally. ---
**Author:** ![LaLuna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed8c4c/32.png) [@LaLuna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LaLuna)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tickling-yourself/181192/6 "2003-06-18T00:46:33Z")
Actually, there is a semi-medical reason for being ticklish. We have 2 types of tactile (touch) systems. One is deep pressure aka the proprioceptive system which tends to calm things down. Ever bruise yourself then push on it to make the pain lesson? The deep pressure system in action. Hugs are a good example as well; look at the victims at a tragic incident…someone is usually hugging them while they cry/scream/etc in an attempt to calm them down. Then there’s the discriminative system aka light touch (being able to find your keys in your pocket without looking for example). That one is also linked to the flight or fight response. People who have a hyperactive discriminative system tend to be very jumpy (tap one on the shoulder from behind and watch em hit the ceiling _smirk_) and also tend to be very ticklish. My guess is tickling someone is triggering the flight or fight response, but since it is not necessarily a “danger” situation, the physical response is laughter… ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tickling-yourself/181192/7 "2003-06-23T05:43:55Z")
I’m extremely ticklish, yet never have tickled myself. It just doesn’t work. (Thank goodness!) ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2003, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tickling-yourself/181192/8 "2003-06-24T00:22:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by regbarkley \* > \*\*This is the biggest bunch of BS I have ever heard. \*\* Really? You need to get out more. ---
**Author:** ![tate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e19b73/32.png) [@tate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tate)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2003, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tickling-yourself/181192/9 "2003-11-18T06:26:07Z")
in regards to why are we ticklish. my guess is that laluna is on the right track. being ticklish is an evolutionary defense mechanism. thing of all the things (spiders and snakes) that can kill you in your sleep, or if your unaware of thier presence. being ticklish could warn you when you come into contact with these types of dangers. ---
**Author:** ![Xiphos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/48db29/32.png) [@Xiphos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xiphos)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tickling-yourself/181192/10 "2003-11-25T09:12:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LaLuna^ \* > \*\*My guess is tickling someone is triggering the flight or fight response, but since it is not necessarily a “danger” situation, the physical response is laughter… \*\* Does make a nice theory… Other forms of danger response seem to be consistent, watching a pratfall is only funny as long as there’s no blood and screaming (for most people anyway), parents pretending to drop children provokes laughter. If the same game was played by a stranger much tears and filled nappies (diapers). ---
**Author:** ![skidoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc8723/32.png) [@skidoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skidoo)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tickling-yourself/181192/11 "2003-11-25T14:32:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tbg \* > \*\*I’m extremely ticklish, yet never have tickled myself. It just doesn’t work. (Thank goodness!) \*\* Try the bottoms of your feet. I’m the same way: extremely ticklish, yet the only place I can tickle myself is the bottom of my feet.