Experts warn that over-reliance on ASMR for social needs may be unhealthy in the long term.
Videos that trigger what is known as the autonomous sensory meridian response are fast becoming Gen Z’s favourite way to switch off. The Telegraph’s Jack Rear tries to understand the appeal of ASMR.
“We were talking about the anxiety, you know, the intense anxiety of daily life, or life things,” whispers a young American woman as she gently wafts a makeup brush across the screen, taking a second to click long, manicured fingernails against its shaft. Via a powerful microphone, I can hear every squelch of saliva as she speaks, every thrum of her lips rubbing across each other, every pop and click of plosive and velar consonants. “You’re going to be okay,” she continues, though, I’m not sure I feel the same watching this.
Perhaps that’s my age showing. According to a new report from behavioural insights agency Revealing Reality, Gen Z are obsessed with this type of video. Carefully crafted to provoke ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) – a neurological reaction beginning with a tingling across the scalp, which moves downwards through the shoulders and spine – these videos aim to relax and soothe viewers.
ASMR videos take various forms, from hands squishing blobs of slime, to cooking, to the sound of hearts beating, to people playing with hair or conducting to-camera health check-ups, and dozens of permutations thereof. What they tend to have in common is that they’re quiet, using high-quality microphones to pick up even the tiniest sounds.
According to YouTube, “ASMR” was the single most searched term of 2024 with millions of videos on that platform as well as TikTok and Instagram Reels. Revealing Reality’s report found 30% of 18-24-year-olds often watch slime-squeezing videos compared to just 1% of over-65s who said the same.
Revealing Reality suggests the videos could be serving the needs of young adults in ways reality can’t. In a world where people “shun the messy unpredictability of in-person interaction and try to meet all their human needs through a screen”, is ASMR able to provide a solution for our fundamental human needs of intimacy, comfort and sensory stimulation?
I watched a series of ASMR videos to see what effect, if any, they would have on me …
Revealing Reality’s report highlights a few examples of the different “genres” of ASMR. The first is the tactile: people squishing slime between their fingers, chopping blocks of kinetic sand or cooking. They’re bright, colourful and make you want to reach out and get involved.
For me, these videos were the most visually entertaining. Watching hands squeeze colourful putty, stretching it out, rolling it between their fingers. It’s visceral and satisfying. There’s something hypnotic about them, I found myself leaning in to hear the pop as the disembodied digits squeeze an air bubble out of the colourful goo.
“Touch is a critical aspect of ASMR videos,” says Joydeep Bhattacharya, professor of psychology at Goldsmith’s University who studies ASMR. “Skin is our largest organ, humans crave touch. It’s notable ASMR videos became much more popular during lockdown when we were craving physical touch we couldn’t get. These videos tap into a social cue that our brains associate with emotional regulation and relaxation.”
For those who experience ASMR, these videos provoke a specific reaction, says Professor Bhattacharya. “Alpha-waves [an electrical pattern where neurons fire together] in certain brain regions are increased,” he says. “That’s an indicator of a more relaxed and flow-like state. Beta waves are also activated in the visual cortex. Those put the brain in a state of relaxation but also alertness. The videos and sounds also involve the reward circuitry of the brain, giving a hit of pleasure. There is a brain network called default mode network which is used when we think about ourselves. That network is reduced by ASMR so we become less anxious.”
It soon becomes clear I’m not one of the 20% who experience ASMR (possibly a good thing. According to Professor Bhattacharya, those who do are often “individuals with high neuroticism and high sensory processing sensitivity” – Revealing Reality links this to younger generations’ over-reliance on noise-cancelling headphones and feelings of overwhelm associated with in-person interactions) but tactile ASMR is satisfying to watch.
Intense personal attention
Coming in the form of a seemingly endless parade of young American women whispering about how beautiful and special I am, I didn’t vibe with this genre of ASMR. If the goal was Make Americans Great Again, this genre does so with aplomb.
There was something vaguely unsettling about the woman who punctuated all her hushed sentences with hissing pops and repetitions of “c” sounds. I watched a man whispering to me through his Pokémon card collection, then a lady cooing over a new Samsung phone.
Hold your phone up to your face and they could almost be a video-call, albeit one-sided. You feel as though you’re the centre of their world, with all their attention lavished upon you.
Be warned, though, there are a few grisly sub-genres. I discovered the “spit-painting” sub-genre, which sees ASMRtists wiping their saliva over the camera and microphone while smacking their lips. Without wishing to yuck anyone’s yum, I was thoroughly disgusted.
Again, these videos are designed to tap into a specific social cue, says Professor Bhattacharya. “Think about it: who whispers to you?” he asks. “A friend sharing a secret and putting their trust in you. We’re social creatures, so these videos create a prolonged environment of cues, which we value highly. That creates these comfortable, safe environments. In whispered videos, there’s vicariousness; as if you’re close to someone.”
Combining both aforementioned genres, a great deal of ASMR videos involve grooming. That might be listening to the gentle brushstrokes of someone applying makeup, or even watching them roleplaying as a doctor or hairdresser working on you. One invited me to pretend to be a robot while the ASMRtist gave me a tune-up.
According to Revealing Reality, a third of ASMR videos on YouTube and TikTok mention words relating to personal care or beauty, and a quarter involve medical checks.
If any of this sounds a bit like soft-core pornography, by the way, that’s not unintentional. “When ASMR videos started most early videos were adult content,” explains Professor Bhattacharya. “That has changed over time, but the brain response suggests that certain reward circuitry gets activated by ASMR in the same way as they get rewarded when watching adult content. Ultimately, the brain and body’s responses to ASMR is to give feelings of relaxation and comfort. Whether there’s a strong overlap between that and pornography, we don’t have the research to say, but I wouldn’t be surprised.”
However, the hair-care and medical check-up genre of ASMR may also have a more innocuous evolutionary origin. Look no further than our closest primate relatives: they groom each other to socialise and show affection. We know scalp stimulation causes the brain to release endorphins, particularly oxytocin, a hormone related to feelings of affection.
In an increasingly online world, perhaps grooming videos allow us to vicariously feel a sense of closeness to other people we don’t get in reality. Notably, Revealing Reality’s survey found 22% of people said they preferred chatting to people online rather than face-to-face.
However, Professor Bhattacharya warns that indulging in ASMR to fulfil these gaps in our socialising needs may be unhealthy in the long term. “We have to deal with anxiety rather than going for another ASMR video,” he says. “Creating a dependency is not great.”
While sound is a huge part of all ASMR videos, some are specifically focused on pleasant noises. I was particularly enamoured of a YouTube channel called Wood Soup Girl who fills bowls with water and wooden blocks, then gently stirs them. Binaural audio makes you feel like the sounds of the gently clacking blocks and dripping water is flowing through your brain. It’s easy to fall into an ultra-relaxed flow state, to the point that a colleague tapped me on the shoulder to check if I was still conscious.
“It’s a very artificial environment,” Professor Bhattacharya comments. “In the cooking ones, they cook very slowly and never deal with pans bubbling over or whatever. Most ASMR videos are displaying real actions, but in a way that doesn’t happen in reality. They’re often very slow and methodical, which makes them relaxing.”
If that all sounds a bit silly to you, it might be your age, Professor Bhattacharya goes on. “I think younger generations have more affinity towards the online environment, and are more receptive to artificially constructed environments,” he says. “Elder generations might experience something of the uncanny valley here. We know that older people have less preference towards artificial environments. That initial response colours everything.”
While I can’t say that any of the videos managed to give me that elusive ASMR response myself, I am closer to understanding the appeal. In a world where my brain often feels like it’s on fire, diving between different computer tabs, flicking back and forth between apps, and texting three people at once, there’s something quite soothing about being totally immersed in something where sound, visuals and people are all entirely focused on me.
