Oddly Satisfying Pictures That Hit The Perfectionist Sweet Spot

We managed to get in touch with Dr. Mitchell Creed, the head moderator and co-founder of r/OddlySatisfying, and they were kind enough to have a little chat with us about the subreddit even though they have plenty on their plate — Creed is also a physician in Long Island doing a fellowship in child neurology. Far from the derogatory Reddit mod stereotype.

"I came up with [the concept for the sub] back in 2013 while in grad school," Creed told Bored Panda. "I never expected it to become so large, but coming up with the theme and everything, it was really important to me that the moderators do as little moderation as possible, including 'policing.'"

They said the term 'oddly satisfying' is hard to explain precisely. "It does not have a true definition as it is such a subjective feeling; we all know it but cannot fully describe it to one another. It was important to myself, and all of the amazing mods who have been involved, to try to let the community decide what they find best to fit the definition."

There are plenty of different types of things that regularly reappear on the subreddit. "We have had many themes become popular at various times: perfectly looped gifs, knolling, cleaning videos, kinetic sand, paint mixing, popping videos... too many to really recall," Creed said.

"The only issues we really have had to deal with is the typical trolls posting NSFW content, spammers (in particular YouTubers trying to gain traffic for ad revenue) as well as a multitude of reposts (the latter of which continues to be an obstacle now that we are so large). The only one topic I believe we ever have tried to control has been posts related to numbers, as they became overwhelming during the '2048' game popularity, so we made the r/OddlySatisPi_ing subreddit strictly for number posts."

Interestingly, the human eye does have its preferences when it comes to shapes and forms. In 2010, neuroscientists at the Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute at Johns Hopkins University joined forces with the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore to conduct an experiment.

The group had three hypotheses. They thought it's possible that the shapes we're fond of are more visually exciting, meaning that they spark intense brain activity. But at the same time, it could be that our favorite shapes are serene and calm brain activity. Or, they believed, we very well might gravitate to shapes that spur a pattern of alternating strong and weak activity.

To investigate, the scientists compiled ten sets of images, which they hung on a wall at the Walters Art Museum. Each set included 25 shapes, all variations on a laser scan of a sculpture by artist Jean Arp.

They chose Arp's work because his sculptures are abstract forms that are not meant to represent any recognizable objects.

Upon entering the exhibition, called “Beauty and the Brain,” visitors put on a pair of 3D glasses and then, for each image set, noted their “most preferred” and “least preferred” shape on a ballot. The researchers then reviewed them in conjunction with fMRI scans taken on lab study participants looking at the very same images.

“We wanted to be rigorous about it, quantitative, that is, try to really understand what kind of information neurons are encoding and…why some things would seem more pleasing or preferable to human observers than other things. I have found it to be almost universally true in data and also in audiences that the vast majority have a specific set of preferences,” Charles E. Connor, director of the Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, told Smithsonian Magazine.

The scientists discovered that visitors like shapes with gentle curves as opposed to sharp points. Plus, the magnetic brain imaging scans of the lab participants prove the team's first hypothesis: these preferred shapes produce stronger responses and increased activity in the brain.

"One could speculate that the way we perceive sculpture relates to how the human brain is adapted for optimal information processing in the natural world,” the researchers suggested. "Shallow convex surface curvature is characteristic of living organisms, because it is naturally produced by the fluid pressure of healthy tissue (e.g. muscle) against outer membranes (e.g. skin). The brain may have evolved to process information about such smoothly rounded shapes in order to guide survival behaviors like eating, mating and predator evasion. In contrast, the brain may devote less processing to high curvature, jagged forms, which tend to be inorganic (e.g. rocks) and thus less important."

Neuroscientists at the University of Toronto at Scarborough found similar results when looking at people's preferences in architecture. In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they reported that when the test subjects were shown 200 images—of rooms with round columns and oval ottomans and others with boxy couches and coffee tables—they were much more likely to call the former "beautiful" than the latter. Brain scans taken while these participants were evaluating the interior designs revealed that rounded decor prompted significantly more brain activity.

Dr. Creed of r/OddlySatisfying hopes that the typical member of the subreddit is an individual who can have their day briefly uplifted from any moment of happiness that they can find through the concept. "The r/OddlySatisfying community has been known for being one of the kindest subreddits overall, which I hope continues for a long time," the mod added.

"Personally, I still cannot wrap my head around how far-reaching this became, as I never thought it would take off in the manner that it did."

Dr. Creed describes themself as an "incurable optimist", and said that, "having the chance to have made such an, albeit small, impact on the world knowing this sub and community routinely brings a smile to people's faces is well worth" the work that goes into it.

"Our mods and I do not gain anything monetary from this, and I believe that helps keep the decisions we made focused on the community itself, allowing them to make the content and votes that have become so popular."

But there are opportunists who try to profit off of it. "I will say that any YouTube channel or Instagram stating that they use our name are not affiliated with us in any manner, and such individuals routinely lift and steal content from our sub for monetary gain, which I believe really sullies the concept I initially envisioned. I really do not understand how they have the 'blue checkmark.'"

Dr. Creed hopes to someday expand r/OddlySatisfying into something that could raise money for non-profit organizations and pediatric hospitals, but they are still taking things one step at a time.

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