Worst Texture to Touch

Reading this list is already unpleasant, and that is the intended effect rather than an unfortunate side effect of the subject.

Texture aversion is stranger than the other senses because it is so specific and so difficult to justify afterwards. Wet paper towel is cold and structurally failing and there is no argument to be made for it. Peach skin bothers a great many people who have no problem with any other fruit. Cotton wool pulled apart produces a squeak that seems to travel up through the teeth rather than the ears. Cornstarch feels like powder until it is pressed, and then it creaks like packed snow. None of these do the slightest harm, which makes the reaction harder to explain rather than easier.

Thirty-two textures qualified, each shown as the thing itself, because a photograph lets your hands flinch before you have finished reading the name.

The rounds go fast and slightly uncomfortably. Most people find one entry they cannot look at directly, and in practice that one usually goes all the way to the final.