Crusty, fungus, splatter, pus, moist - what do these words have in common? It's likely that they'll all make you wince, unless you're a bit of a weirdo who gets a kick out of moist crusty pus-filled fungus splattering all over the place. In fact the only time moist is a positive adjective is when describing cake. A dry cake is as unappealing as a moist handshake. But why does this word in particular irk us so much?

Well, according to a new study from the brains at Oberlin College, Ohio (that's where Lena Dunham went to college), there's a few definitive reasons why we are 'categorically averse' to such words. In fact the researchers went so far as to conduct five separate experiments - over the course of four freakin' years, involving 2,500 participants - to measure our collective dislike for certain words be they gross onomatopoeic ones like 'vomit', profanities like the delightful F word, racial slurs and politically incorrect or violent terms.

According to their psych report, lead researcher Dr Paul Thibodeau explains that “there is something interesting going on with this word. Several people have documented the weirdness of ‘moist,’ speculated on why it is aversive or used the phenomenon for comedic affect."

Across their series of experiments, the researchers arrived at several conclusions as to why we feel this way:

1. The fact that these words sound "inherently unpleasant" causes us to react.
2. Some of us, upon hearing these words, have a "facial feedback hypothesis" meaning we engage our facial muscles in the same way we would if we smelled something atrocious or endured the cacophony of sounds that unmistakably relates to the aftermath of a dodgy take-away.
3. They acknowledged that moist cake is good, but pondered how it might confuse our internal logic. Thibodeau noted that “maybe when someone encounters the word they are hit with images of cake and sweaty armpits - not an ideal combination."Arriving home from a 10 k race to a fresh-out-of-the-oven chocolate cake? Sounds pretty damn ideal to us.
4. Lastly, its social transmission. "As the word gains attention, more and more people seem to find the word aversive. Alternatively, moist-aversion may just be a fad," Thibodeau explains.

"Disgust is adaptive. If we didn’t have an instinct to run away from vomit and diarrhea, disease could spread more easily. But is this instinct biological or do we learn it? Does our culture shape what we find disgusting? This is a complex and nuanced question," Thibodeau concluded.

Share your least favourite words below.

Read the study's full findings here.