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  • Intro

  • Over the last few months, you might have seen people sharing photos online of Tide laundry

  • detergent pods as pizza toppings, or like a big plate of ravioli.

  • Like any meme, it's funny because it's absurd.

  • You're obviously not supposed to eat laundry detergent, but those little pods are kind

  • of food-like.

  • But then there's the Tide pod challenge, where peoplemostly teenagersstarted

  • posting videos of themselves taking a bite.

  • And the problem is, the pods are actually pretty dangerous.

  • In the first 3 weeks of 2018, at least 86 American teens have gotten sick enough to

  • alert poison control.

  • People have understandably started freaking out, and YouTube and Facebook are pulling

  • the videos out of public safety concerns.

  • So, why have Tide pods spun out of control?

  • We're going to try to break down the psychology behind the fad and explain how risky choices

  • and internet fame could've played a part.

  • For one, the pods kind of look like oversized candies or Gushers fruit snacks.

  • They're bite-sized, and can have colorful swirls.

  • That's probably why toddlers chow down on them.

  • They're expecting a treat, not a concentrated dose of cleaning goop.

  • Adults might not be deceived, but this whole pods-as-food meme could've started for similar

  • reasons.

  • Turns out, even the shiny plastic coating might be appealing.

  • Humans like glossy objects, and one psychology study suggests it's because they remind

  • us of water, which we need to survive.

  • In one experiment, people rated glossy items as even more desirable when they were fed

  • crackers but not given a drink, compared to a group of people who got both.

  • Tide also describes its original pod scent as havingfloral and fruity notes,” almost

  • like it's a fancy wine.

  • Of course, not all of them read l ike a menu.

  • The 'Plus Febreeze' and 'Spring Meadow' versions sound like the laundry detergents

  • that they are.

  • But using food-related marketing to promote cleaning or hygiene products is common, and

  • it's led to some problems before.

  • We love food, so companies will draw on those associations to make their boring cleaning

  • products more appealing.

  • Just think about 'sugar cookie' candles, 'watermelon fusion' shampoo, or bath bombs

  • in virtually every cupcake flavor.

  • And while it seems obvious that we shouldn't eat those things, people have.

  • One study found that packaging is partly to blame.

  • If you put people in an fMRI machine and have them look at basic designs of cleaning products,

  • sometimes the same parts of the brain that respond to food packaging become activated.

  • The study is very preliminary, but the authors suggest that food-related marketing fools

  • your brain, at some level, into thinking cleaning products are edible.

  • But there's still a leap between thinking Tide pods look kind of like candy and eating

  • them for fun.

  • And this is where being a teenager could be important.

  • Teens are notorious for doing risky things, and a lot of that may be related to brain

  • development.

  • In those awkward years, scientists think the prefrontal cortex, which helps regulate self-control,

  • is still developing.

  • At the same time, the reward-sensitive parts of the brain are extra active.

  • That imbalance seems to be even more out of whack when teens are being social or surrounded

  • by friends.

  • And teens seem to take more chances than adults when it comes to unknown risks, like using

  • a drug they don't know much about.

  • Because they might focus on possible rewards more than possible consequences.

  • It's not that you can't override this risk-taking behavior, but it could explain why we're

  • seeing teenagers, rather than older adults, popping Tide pods in their mouths.

  • Another part of it might have to do with the warnings not to eat the pods, which might

  • make people think, “How bad could they be?”

  • This gets at something psychologists call reactance.

  • People hate being told what to do.

  • A natural reaction to a limit on your independence is to do a thing anyway.

  • Researchers have seen this with warning labels on cigarettes and violent video gamesthey

  • can backfire and actually increase the appeal.

  • This is sometimes called the boomerang effect or forbidden fruit effect.

  • To be fair, not all warnings do this, and it doesn't affect everyone.

  • So it's hard to say whether this is actually driving people to eat the pods.

  • The vast majority of people aren't doing it, because, well, they get that eating concentrated

  • laundry detergent isn't good.

  • But something has to be prolonging the joke, and maybe it has to do with internet fame.

  • Some psychologists have noticed that in recent years, more and more pre-teens have become

  • preoccupied with fame, and are using social media to get it.

  • In one focus group, 8 out of 20 kids said fame was the most important value to them,

  • beating out things like kindness or success.

  • And the Tide pod challenge is also exactly the type of thing that tends to go viral,

  • which is what these people probably want for their videos.

  • Researchers have repeatedly found that content that makes us emotional is more likely to

  • be shared.

  • That can include things like anxiety or awe, as well as disgust.

  • Now, because burning curiosity might encourage more risky behavior and challenge videos,

  • here's what happens when you eat a Tide pod.

  • And, frankly, there's a lot of burning.

  • Laundry pods are full of chemicals called surfactants, which are molecules that can

  • grab ahold of dirt on one end, and attract water on the other.

  • So when they're rinsed away, they remove grime.

  • That means they're great at cleaning clothes, but aren't meant to be inside of your body.

  • Once they're in your mouth, the pod chemicals will start eating away at your tissuesfrom

  • your throat down to your stomach.

  • The most common reaction to all this is vomiting, which can be extreme, like throwing up blood.

  • Kids who have eaten the pods have stopped breathing, had seizures, or gone into comas.

  • A few children have died, as well as several adults with dementia who ate pods.

  • Doctors don't know for sure why pods are so dangerous, because regular liquid laundry

  • detergent isn't as bad.

  • It could be because of the higher concentration, the ingredients, or something about the packet

  • itself.

  • Laundry pods are also more toxic than dishwasher pods, and liquid pods are worse than powder

  • ones.

  • So of course the Tide pod challenge involves the most hazardous concoction.

  • So, Internet, we understand the appeal.

  • Or at least we can guess, until some psychologists do serious research on challenge videos.

  • These pods are enough like food that the memes can be funny.

  • But please don't actually eat them.

  • You can't enjoy your fame if you're dead.

  • Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow News!

  • If you want to learn more about the internet and our brains, you can check out videos like

  • What Makes a Meme Go Viral?” over on SciShow Psych at youtube.com/scishowpsych.

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