“Oddly Satisfying”: 40 Times People Were Unexpectedly Pleasantly Surprised By What They Saw
From funny cat memes to honest parenting tweets, some genres of content have taken over our social media feeds and cemented themselves as the cornerstones of the internet.
This article is about one of them. 'Oddly satisfying' is an online term born out of people's attempts to describe the inexplicably pleasing sensation that we experience while seeing some mundane thing. Like a carefully swirled bookstack, or rainbow foam leaking from a broken car wash. You get the idea.
So we at Bored Panda decided to pay our respects to this cult classic, and what better way to do it than to feature a Twitter account that's named directly after it!
More info: Twitter
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Perfect analogy. Looks pretty but probably tastes awful.
Load More Replies...Still quite pretty but thank you for the clarification.
Load More Replies...I make puzzles on an online site that allows me to download my own images to make at my leisure. I immediately thought that this would make a great puzzle, but just as I was about to download it, I thought, who the hell am I kidding? I don't have enough life left in me to finish something this complicated.
I would try to hang on long enough to complete something this beautiful. And I would make it as many pieces as possible to give me motivation to hang on.
Load More Replies...They say many temples around the world were colorful, including that of the Mayas and Aztecs, but in time the colors faded away...
As someone who lives in the same city as the temple, I can say the photo has been edited a lot!
Either this is a MAJOR oil spill, or the Photoshop is strong in this picture.
The "oil" is made naturally by the decay of vegetative matter. Very common. To tell the difference draw a stick through it and if the slick breaks up into chunks and has issues reforming into one mass again its natural. If it flows back together easily, it's a spill.
Load More Replies...Mmmmm, I don't know. It looks as if there's some kind of fuel in the water, which creates the colours. It doesn't look "healthy".
WET is not supposed to be rainbow colored! Our paws might get damp!
Hard answers that explain our fascination with the oddly satisfying may be lacking, but one possibility is that it taps into our subconscious urge toward what psychologists call the "just right" feeling.
It's the sensation that arises when we've put things in order and serves as a useful cut-off point for simple tasks. It's also what often goes wrong in individuals with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)—for reasons not fully understood, some people with OCD don't interpret the sensory cues that indicate the job is done, leaving them searching fruitlessly for a sense of completion. The quest for finality often leads to things like continually rearranging objects and repeatedly checking doors to see if they are locked.
As a parent with young kids, I recognize the beginnings of a colossal mess.
Here's the Slow Mo Guys video of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soMV-AkSOtA
I reckoned it was one of their videos. The editor should really put the sources in these posts.
Load More Replies...Why would it have to stay like that forever in Scotland?
Load More Replies...In fact, OCD was the first thing that came to Sarah Keedy's mind when the director of the Cognition-Emotion Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of Chicago first viewed an oddly satisfying compilation.
"It was nothing I sat around and thought about, it hit me right away," Keedy said. "It was truly an overwhelming sense of this is a series of visual depictions of things that struck me as rewarding experiences that … [people with OCD] tend to be going for to a pathological degree."
Had a friend in High School whose handwriting looked like a typewriter. Didn't believed he had written it until I asked him to write me something.
I was that kid. Now, I'm that adult. I'm a teacher, and when I write on other teachers' boards, everyone knows who did it.
Load More Replies...I hated my handwriting when I was young so I would try to copy whoever had the best handwriting around me. Now when I write for a length of time my handwriting changes. Looks like I have multiple personalities if you just looked at the style.
Same for me. Initially, I tried to copy my dad's amazing handwriting; it looked like an architect's handwriting, clean and beautiful and confident. My mom's handwriting still looks like a kid's, small and curly. XD
Load More Replies...I've learned over time that a decent percentage of right handed women have impeccable penmanship. Letters consistently the same in form and shape. As a left handed male I can tell you my stuff looks like a trainwreck.
I have good handwriting unless I'm noting something in a hurry. But that's just because I get insane satisfaction from tidy, pretty notes. I always selected my pens carefully (from a somewhat wide collection) and color-coded my notes as I went, and decorated my notebooks when I could during class. And by god, I hated typoing something when writing with a non-erasable marker!! Sometimes I literally rewrote a page if it got bad enough.... (if I could tear the offensive page off neatly) LOL. I uh... quite often rewrite even shopping lists, too. BUT only to arrange the items in the same order as I'll get them in the store!! I swear!! so what if i happen to make the list a little less scrawly at the same time...
Load More Replies...I had an employee suspected of timecard fraud. We could never catch him on the camera covering the punch-clock of the fraudulent clocks, so I brought him in and questioned him about his lack of production during certain hours, and why I couldn't find him on the workstation cameras (it's possible another manager gave him an assignment that would technically show up as normal non-productive.) He straight up admitted he was handwriting in his times! I couldn't believe it, and showed three other managers - he was so good none of them could believe it either! I told him he should be an artist or work forgery for the secret service... Because sadly he didn't have a job there anymore... Wasted talent!
These are so beautiful... walking on this surface would be amazing. Well, not so much if it cracked or broke, but still...
Beautiful and dangerous - arguably the best juxtaposition
Load More Replies...Yes! This is at Lake Abraham in Alberta. We live 2 hours away from this gorgeous place. Went and saw the methane bubbles last winter and it was amazing. Very windy and very slippery though.
Load More Replies...I was just thinking that too! I love all things blue.
Load More Replies...Thanks for the attribution! I Googled her, her cakes are amazing!!
Load More Replies...Maybe buy a dozen. Keep one to look at and eat/share the rest!
Load More Replies...They are gorgeous, I got an apple cake (it was made to look like a real apple etc ), made in a similar fashion with the mirror glaze / it doesn’t have much of a taste, if you hate icing/frosting, you will like it, if you love frosting/icing you may not like the dullness of flavour, the texture is like slightly sticky and very soft to cut through. My apple cake was expensive but I wanted to treat myself.
My sister and I tried this once for my mom's birthday. Came out pretty nice, though not as nice as this. I was, however, surprised at how much glaze is wasted in the process.
Actually, climbing ivy holds a lot of moisture to the building. I am sure if you got up close, you could see cracks in the mortar.
Load More Replies...Owning a tudor covered in ivy, I'd give anything if I could get it to peel off this nicely!!!!!!!!
Ohhh. I would love a Tudor covered in ivy. I could put it beside my bungalow covered in morning glories.
Load More Replies...I bet their electric bill went through the roof without that layer of natural insulation.
Can't tell from the pic but the wall is too clean for English Ivy. Maybe Grapeleaf Ivy? It peels off much more cleanly.
And here we see the elusive adolescent building shedding its skin on its way to becoming an adult.
Nuts and bolts that fit snugly together appear to satisfy an existential longing.
In a world of chaos and inelegance, it can be reassuring to see order. If anything, this content reveals that people with OCD aren't anomalous in their desire to bring a pleasing equilibrium to their lives after all.
Got u to 100 upvotes lol For the sake of oddly satisfyingness of course
Load More Replies...Yes! My first thought was a carpark without the line markings.
Load More Replies...The photographer must've been over the moon when the prints came back.
must be the same one.. I wonder what causes this pattern??
Load More Replies...The only beaches I know of in Dorset where this happens are Ringstead and Man O'War. Both of which are pebble beaches rather than sand. Cool though
Actually, to be fair, Man O' War is pebbly sand. So this picture was probably taken there. Right next to Durdle Door, another impressive bit of our coastline.
Load More Replies...Thought for a second it was a trampoline 👀 All the pictures so far is amazing😍
Usually this means there are rip tides, which are the darker areas of water between the foam ripples.
There are a couple of theories explaining this particular phenomenon, however the origin of these beach cusps remains unexplained. https://www.aol.co.uk/2015/09/22/beach-cusps-dorset-beach-strange-patterns/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMKYT0hpSllDIw9vg9DKrdHZmw14toSfUpX3F8iSn44gFlq307RNWw0f7YR2B_QtOLn5JyewPt5pX5ELXKY3TdxZMf0SNXDewVNvwOI99y116F7fsxsr5AdMACGTGks6j83BW_eIiimQ3OOvYKJyl55ZqzaFBUxRxS8-AcrXJGww
I learned to do this with paper napkins when I entertain folks. Use a glass on its side, place it on the top of the napkins, and start twisting. The stack of napkins will swirl; may have to do this in a few passes to get all of them to rotate, but it only takes a minute for a nice effect on your buffet.
Ex-cocktail waitress here. This was my favorite part of the job. It's much easier to pick off one napkin at a time. So Pretty, too.
Load More Replies...Maybe because I’ve always been fond of books (& so used to them being properly organised), but I’m sorry to say I don’t really like this one, LOL. Even my older sis, who first introduced me to the world of books would no doubt be pissed if she saw this in our local book shop. 🤣
The oddly satisfying sweet spot was famously examined by researchers from Spain. They gave people with OCD and a control group a word recall task and cut them off in the middle of completing it.
They theorized that a task involving ordering and checking something (in this case, words) would activate their internal "just right" sensors. Stopping them before finishing would then trigger unease.
Well, you could eat it.....probably just once though
Load More Replies...And someone’s car will shortly have a flat tire from the horn!
Load More Replies...I am ridiculously pleased with myself because I realised what it was before I saw the title.
Incredible how recognizable it was. Saw it as the preview picture, so without caption, but I immediately recognized it.
almost completely close your eyes and you will see the link Capture-64...181869.jpg
If that were more than 10 feet away, that's how I'd see the original.
Ooooh its just like Magic Eye! I didn't see it until I slowly moved the phone away from my face
And since music and math are linked, the world is a symphony...
Load More Replies...Looks like the heat retained in the bricks melted the snow while the cracks in between the bricks did not melt the snow.
I thought those were toy cars on a carpet at first
Load More Replies...I JUST WANT TO STEP ON IT PLEASE THATS ALL IM ASKING FOR, PLEEEEEEAAAAASSSSSEEEEEE 😭
Cobblestones. The stones are warmer than the sand, so it's melted slightly
It's the Great Parterre at Schönbrunn Palace in Wien. It's part of an Italian style Garden planted in mid-XVIII century for Empress Maria Theresa. The trees have been trimmed yearly since then, they are meant to have perfectly square topiary shapes in spring. The trim is made with a traditional method, cut by hand using a wooden scaffold pulled by horses, only recently replaced by an electric tractor. schnbrunn-...ce38b6.jpg
I visited the castle and the gardens last year with my GF. It is gorgeous, and we had a great time playing Franz and Sissi in the hedge maze :-)
Load More Replies...Leave it to the idiocy of the rich to find ways to amuse themselves. . .for centuries!
The hypothesis was right. People in the control group felt uncomfortable when something was left undone, and for the OCD participants, it was even worse (two of them even mailed completed lists to the researchers afterward to satisfy their urge for finality).
i don’t smoke but i’ll take a candy one if you got any
Load More Replies...Heck felt like that was going to happen with the side panel on mine
Load More Replies...background of the background.... it's an optical illusion... sure it's cool but.... Mind-blowing?
It takes a lot of photography skills to get the right perspective twice
Load More Replies...They took a picture of the desk, then made the picture their desktop, or background, on the computer.
Load More Replies...I've just tried doing this for myself. It's not very difficult to do.
No need to level these beauties! Perfect two layer cake!
Load More Replies...Looks like the sun pictures shared by Nasa and other space agencies.
The researchers' findings are hardly groundbreaking; of course, we do not like to leave tasks unfinished.
But extrapolating this idea to the oddly satisfying images, it's quite clear why seeing a plant perfectly peeling away from a building gives us so much satisfaction!
I am surprised that the amount of balls of each color is also equal
Reminds me of a moment on Taskmaster where someone (can't remember who) kept asking, is this a hundred, or a thousand?
I love looking at cloud formations and the colour of the sky. Often it is so amazing that, if someone painted what they saw, people would think they had made the colours up.
Back in the 90s I was driving an Isuzu diesel that got 50mi/gal and diesel was $0.80/gal. Feels like ages ago but for some reason Smashmouth is still on the radio.
Load More Replies...The average price for unleaded in the UK is currently £1.52/litre, which works out at $7.32/US gallon at current exchange rates!
Load More Replies...Not the chairs, the stacking--that's the point.
Load More Replies...OMG stop please mark this as NSFW there are small children on here. Disgusting.
this guy is more than talented : https://www.odeith.com/ (the before/after !!)
Even the typical graffiti you see in cities is amazing to me. This is unfathomable!
Load More Replies...No disrespect to graffiti artists, many who have created admirable works, but referring to this as graffiti is like comparing a child's drawing to a masterpiece.
I actually saw Mt. Rainier in person once! It’s gorgeous
I'm driving thru seattle right now and staring straight at it 😭 I can also see it from where I live
Load More Replies...Me too from the south, and I see the North Cascades from my easterly view. I'm in N Everett.
Load More Replies...From an airplane window, most likely. I've been on flights with a similar view of the wings so it's definitely possible
Load More Replies...I was on a plane to Alaska and it was cloudy cover all the way from Chicago. Just as we passed Mt. Ranier they parted and I saw it's to peeking out of the clouds. It was a good thing I looked out just that second to see it. At airplane speed it disappeared in an instant.
This picture makes me miss home. Lived in Washington the first 20 years of my life then on and off for the last 17. Now i live in the freaking desert. Well, I guess near Tahoe so it isn't to bad. But I miss Washington.
Love Rainier! I'm surprised though, you got lucky that the mountain was out
Why? This for natural gas, not water. Methane boils at −161.5 °C. Even Siberia doesn't get that cold in winter!!!
Load More Replies...There is a special level in Hell for the creators of unpoppable bubble wrap.
The unpopable kind, I find, is the kind with large bubbles.
Load More Replies...Some kinds of bubble wrap are more satisfying than others. I can't explain it, but you know it when you feel it.
years ago at work, i passed the warehouse and heard giggling and some weird popping noises. i went to take a look and it was our "elderly" bookkeeper on her socks, jumping up and down on these large bubble wraps that are used to fill large boxes. The warehouse guy was patiently holding her hand :-D
Friends favourite pastime…and her grandchildren give her several rolls of differing sized bubble wrap for Christmas. Best gift she said. Her daughter even made her a ‘bubble wrap’ birthday cake.
Not interested now, but I would have killed to have something like that in primary school!
It's a common "cool project" for introductory wood spinning courses. It's perfect to learn proper gluing techniques, centering, positioning and repositioning on the mandrel, basic curve shaping, working on uneven materials and surface finishing. Unfortunately this one is quite bad at everything, the gluing is shoddy (hexagons not matching, large holes and glue drops showing), the shape is uneven, there are burn mark from improper workmanship and the finish is lacking.
I mean...this person is probably learning...so of course it's not perfect
Load More Replies...Go for it! It's really easy once you get the basics down. You just need a cheap wood turning lathe, a flat scraper and a roughing gouge, and a few dollars worth of material. I suggest using colored pencils (slightly more difficult because the core is waxy, but better result) and it's way easier if you buy cheap ones that come with unpainted wood body. Use a vinylic adhesive (such as Vinavil), bind the pencils with tape so they stay close and allow proper time to set, up to several days. Won't go into the details of turning here (plenty of videos on YT), but another good tip is to sand it down to 400 grit, apply a thick acrylic glue layer and then sand it down to 2000 grit, finish with car polish. It will be perfectly mirror.
Load More Replies...Imagine if you could roll it across a paper and it puts marks on it... WANTTTT
I've turned pencils. It's messy, dirty and frustrating when the leads snap and go flying.
It's great until you want to get a book out and can't without ruining a large part of it.
Looks like a decorative display, probably using old or outdated books, as at least some of them are textbooks or reference books. Based on the bell on the counter and the wheeled stool in the background, I'd assume library or bookstore. Based on the brick wall, the best kind of bookstore/library.
Load More Replies...Not actually allowed to take books out of course. Would quickly spoil the fun.
I'd say it's beautifully packed... but I'd hate it because you can't get to anything without messing it up.
Emirates Stadium is in London. Arsenal's home ground.
Load More Replies...He is painting the line in the wrong place... he should be heading for the white dot!
this is not the centre dot, the centre circle is the pale line in the upper left corner, his line is spot on
Load More Replies...Being an inert and natural material, with glass there are no chemicals that can leach into the liquid and affect the coke's flavour. That's why drinking out of a bottle may be the best way to get the purest Coca-Cola flavor, But the reason I have heard most {I have been told by the workers at a lil Mexican shop near my house that is the only place in 50 miles that sells it} Some say that Mexican Coke tastes more “natural” than American Coke because American-made Coke switched to using high fructose corn syrup as a sweetening agent in 1980. Mexican Coke continued using cane sugar to sweeten its version
Being that I live near the US/Mexico border, there is quite a difference in taste between Mexican and American Coke. I once did a side by side taste comparison test, and in my opinion, Mexican Coke is superior in taste to American Coke.
Load More Replies...Mexican Coke is the best because they use both smaller glass bottles and sugar cane instead of HFCS. The corn syrup gives it a more pure flavor. The glass bottle keeps the aluminum can lining from being leached by the carbonic acid and the smaller opening guarantees the perfect level of bubbles due to reduced surface area of the cola. The 8oz is also a great size for a soft drink as it doesn't give you too much gas when you drink it.
My dad has one of these on our kitchen counter from one of his friends, I don’t know why he hasn’t drank it yet
Actually pretty well designed. Your balcony is private, as are the windows. No direct sightlines into each unit from its neighbors.
BIG TIME I'm on my way I'm making it BIG TIME I've got to let it show yeah BIG TIME So much larger than life BIG TIME I'm gonna watch it grow!
Did anyone else have this completely ruined by the fact that the line is not straight?
Do they make pattis in Krabi? A little yellow sponge guy wanted to know.
Child part of my brain is picturing a hamburger place there that sells Krabi Patties. Edit: My brain is reading it as "crabbby". I don't know how it is really pronounced.
Something similar to Khraa-bee, but due to the amount of tourists most people will understand the ‘krabby’ pronunciation as well. Chiang Mai is pretty phonetically accurate though.
Load More Replies...I was a kid when these were released and I loved playing them so I instantly saw a N64 & Gameboy & could feel the weight and shape of the Gameboy in my hands. Out of curiosity, were you born after the generation of N64? Maybe no familiarity so you were able to see an abstract shape like a dump truck
Load More Replies...I actually preferred the first one, it’s more natural and it’s prettier
nah...neat is better. then you won't trip over the encroaching grass :)
When your drink is provided by the Umbrella Corporation - that's not a good sign!
Leon S. Kennedy and Chris Redfield would like to have a word with you........
Load More Replies...Nice for the first 30 minutes, then you'll go out of your mind with boredom.
Depends if they have a rule against headphones. Pop them in, pop on a podcast, and just zone out as you work.
Load More Replies...That's an entry level job, so you'll need a PhD and 14 year experience.
As this is the second of these in 45 posts it seems the chances are 2/45 or 44444 in a million.
Now, if they let go of the pump right at that second then yes....but anyone can pump slowly until those numbers hit. That's rookie s**t
Not at all unique. Done over and over again when the price of fuel is 4 dollars/euros/pound/rials/every currency in the world.
It’s interesting how many of these pictures called up the memory other senses in my head — the smell of crayons, the sounds of plastic unwrapping and popping, the crunch of perfectly groomed snow. It’s like my brain is so fond of these orderly experiences that just the picture is enough to revive the deepest sensory parts of my memory.
This article is such a disservice to people who suffer OCD. This is from Mayo Clinic and sheds some light on what OCD actually looks like. Please read more on the disease to realize how severe and debilitating it can be. MAYO CLINIC: OCD obsessions are repeated, persistent and unwanted thoughts, urges or images that are intrusive and cause distress or anxiety. You might try to ignore them or get rid of them by performing a compulsive behavior or ritual. These obsessions typically intrude when you're trying to think of or do other things. Obsessions often have themes to them, such as: Fear of contamination or dirt Doubting and having difficulty tolerating uncertainty Needing things orderly and symmetrical Aggressive or horrific thoughts about losing control and harming yourself or others Unwanted thoughts, including aggression, or sexual or religious subjects
It’s interesting how many of these pictures called up the memory other senses in my head — the smell of crayons, the sounds of plastic unwrapping and popping, the crunch of perfectly groomed snow. It’s like my brain is so fond of these orderly experiences that just the picture is enough to revive the deepest sensory parts of my memory.
This article is such a disservice to people who suffer OCD. This is from Mayo Clinic and sheds some light on what OCD actually looks like. Please read more on the disease to realize how severe and debilitating it can be. MAYO CLINIC: OCD obsessions are repeated, persistent and unwanted thoughts, urges or images that are intrusive and cause distress or anxiety. You might try to ignore them or get rid of them by performing a compulsive behavior or ritual. These obsessions typically intrude when you're trying to think of or do other things. Obsessions often have themes to them, such as: Fear of contamination or dirt Doubting and having difficulty tolerating uncertainty Needing things orderly and symmetrical Aggressive or horrific thoughts about losing control and harming yourself or others Unwanted thoughts, including aggression, or sexual or religious subjects
