# What's something you have a Pavlovian reaction to? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 21, 2014, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-you-have-a-pavlovian-reaction-to/702071 "2014-10-21T20:53:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Oedipus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Oedipus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oedipus)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-you-have-a-pavlovian-reaction-to/702071/1 "2014-10-21T20:53:48Z")
Can you not smell ham without thinking of your grandmas house and how’d she always make it? Do you hear some sort of TV show theme song and get hungry because that’s what’d be on TV when mom was making food? Tell me about your personal Pavlov ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-you-have-a-pavlovian-reaction-to/702071/2 "2014-10-21T20:59:43Z")
CJ Cherryh novels make me feel feverish because I read several of them while I had a bad fever as a kid. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-you-have-a-pavlovian-reaction-to/702071/3 "2014-10-21T21:06:26Z")
I salivate when I hear a bell ring. ---
**Author:** ![markdash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@markdash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markdash)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-you-have-a-pavlovian-reaction-to/702071/4 "2014-10-21T21:47:48Z")
Seeing lettuce or even saying the word makes me salivate. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-you-have-a-pavlovian-reaction-to/702071/5 "2014-10-21T22:41:01Z")
The smell of Bazooka bubblegum makes my jaws clench- does that count? ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-you-have-a-pavlovian-reaction-to/702071/6 "2014-10-21T23:21:16Z")
When I hear the droning sound of a small airplane passing overhead, I immediately get the feeling that I’m wasting the day and should get to work immediately. The sound makes me think guiltily of all the stuff I’ve put off doing. I think it’s because I only notice the sound when I’m sitting around doing nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-you-have-a-pavlovian-reaction-to/702071/7 "2014-10-21T23:23:13Z")
When I drive by a place that sells statuary, I am compelled to do my Quasimodo impression. ‘Statuary! _Statuary!_’ ---
**Author:** ![tapu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@tapu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-you-have-a-pavlovian-reaction-to/702071/8 "2014-10-22T01:24:23Z")
When I was nursing, taking the dog outside to pee, and then hearing him pee, would always make my milk come down. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-you-have-a-pavlovian-reaction-to/702071/9 "2014-10-22T01:35:28Z")
If I’m woken up by a ringing phone, I’m up. My mom called substitute teachers for most of my school career. The building secretaries would start calling in the morning to get their sub lists and I had to get up for school at that time. Normally with like 20 mins to get out the door. So if the phone rings, I’m ready. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-you-have-a-pavlovian-reaction-to/702071/10 "2014-10-22T01:45:14Z")
My grandmother’s house had lots of beveled glass, so, in the afternoons, there were always little rainbows moving over the walls. Beveled glass always makes me happy and nostalgic. Glass doorknobs, too. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-you-have-a-pavlovian-reaction-to/702071/11 "2014-10-22T01:50:50Z")
Thinking or talking about certain psychedelics makes me flash back. Not in a seeing-snakes-climb-the-walls\*, “WHOA MAN I AM FREAKING OUT” sense, but just makes the back of my brain tingle the way it would when I’d be about to come on to something. I guess Pavlovian in the most literal sense, as it feels like the equivalent of my brain’s mouth starting to water. - not that I ever saw anything like that even when I did use psychedelics ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-you-have-a-pavlovian-reaction-to/702071/12 "2014-10-22T02:02:20Z")
Skinny redheads with an overbite. (Yeoman Colt!) Long before HIMYM, if someone said something like “… major problems…” in a sentence, I would have to salute and say “Major Problems!” I know I wasn’t anywhere near the first one to do that, too, as I had to get the idea from somewhere. (I wonder how old a bit that really is) ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-you-have-a-pavlovian-reaction-to/702071/13 "2014-10-22T02:04:52Z")
An envelope with a stamp on the corner. I want to have a look at the stamp, after years of childhood stamp collecting. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-you-have-a-pavlovian-reaction-to/702071/14 "2014-10-22T05:25:24Z")
Hearing someone say “San Pee-dro” always causes me to say “San Pay-dro” out loud. Even If I heard it on the radio, and I’m alone in the car. Same thing when somebody says “Notre Dame” as though as though it’s supposed to be a word in French followed by a word in English. :dubious: I can’t abide gibberish. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-you-have-a-pavlovian-reaction-to/702071/15 "2014-10-22T05:38:47Z")
I see any good looking woman. Plane overhead. Sailboat. Good looking woman running barrels. Steer Wrestling, I can feel the horns in my hands. And on & on. I have an automatic physical reaction to a lot of things. If a book is good enough that I am not reading anymore but watching a movie with sound & smells, I get a feeling at the end of the book ( which will be read in one sitting ) that is one of the best feelings of surprise that I ever get. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-you-have-a-pavlovian-reaction-to/702071/16 "2014-10-22T05:52:53Z")
The smell of turpentine gives me a feeling of nostalgia that’s partly the basement of my childhood home and partly nothing that happened in real life. And the smell of old paperbacks takes me back to being a kid and reading the many books my father had collected in college and over the years. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-you-have-a-pavlovian-reaction-to/702071/17 "2014-10-22T06:33:16Z")
The smell of gasoline or oil makes me think of my father. A dry mouth while asleep will often make me dream of suffocating. Something I’m pretty sure dates back to a bad case of bronchitis I had as a kid that hospitalized me, and gave me a certain lifelong anxiety over breathing problems. ---
**Author:** ![Jameson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jameson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jameson)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-you-have-a-pavlovian-reaction-to/702071/18 "2014-10-22T08:02:13Z")
Smell of a freshly prepared burger makes me salivate like crazy, feel hungry (no matter if I have just eaten) and clench my jaws. Actually even vividly thinking about burgers makes me salivate. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-you-have-a-pavlovian-reaction-to/702071/19 "2014-10-22T09:19:53Z")
The smell of the perfume of my senior year math teacher used to make me tired. Just walking by in the corridor, I’d get a wiff of that and want to lie down and sleep. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2014, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-you-have-a-pavlovian-reaction-to/702071/20 "2014-10-22T10:05:30Z")
Jars with screw tops set loosely on top but not screwed on, and windows whose handles are only _mostly_ turned to the proper ‘lock’ position always make me think of my mother who was prone to that in the last decade or so of her life. A car horn used as a ‘hurry up’ signal always makes me dismount my bicycle/leave my car and get into the driver’s face (the KILL impulse having subsided when I have got to him/her) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-something-you-have-a-pavlovian-reaction-to/702071.md?page=2)