I’ve never really understood why the word “moist” makes me cringe. I enjoy using moisturizer on my face and body, and the word can connote good things — like cake. And yet, I tend to avoid using the word; it just sounds, well, icky, and I don’t like the feel of it coming from my lips. And because you’re already cringing, too, you know I’m not alone. Lots of people have a similar aversion to this mostly harmless word — it’s been called the most hated word in the country. Researchers at Oberlin College and Trinity University decided to explore the logic behind the aversion using three experiments that suggest semantic features of the word “moist” — like its associations with bodily functions — are the underlying cause of our collective disgust.

We automatically cringe when we hear or say certain words — and it’s not just about how they sound