The Bizarre Psychology of Medical ASMR Videos
Medical role-play is one of the most popular forms of ASMR videos. Why?
--
A woman’s serene face fills the screen. A pink stethoscope hangs from her neck, and her big, blue eyes offer a calming, sympathetic smile.
“Hey hun,” she says softly, looking straight into a camera that’s positioned in a way to give the impression that you, the viewer, are gently reclining. Off-camera, the shuffling and snapping sound of latex gloves can be heard beneath her reassuring whisper. “How are you feeling?”
This is Ashley Hornbaker, the creator and face of Yvette ASMR, a YouTube channel with 61,300 followers that’s dedicated to triggering an elusive sensation for her viewers: autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR), otherwise known as “brain tingles.”
ASMR is a little-understood phenomenon experienced by an untold number of people for whom certain sounds (often whispering), movements, and circumstances generate a tingly feeling at the crown of their head, sometimes accompanied by a sense of euphoria. ASMR videos — where creators talk quietly and make noises thought to trigger sensations — have exploded across YouTube, some with millions of views. Many of these videos involve role-playing, with the content creator — or ASMRtists, as they’ve been deemed — playing the part of a character. Videos that put the viewer in the role of patient, and the ASMRtist as a nurse or doctor, are the most common type of ASMR role-play.
“I think it’s a primal thing,” she says. “We all want to be cared for.”
Hornbaker’s 30-minute simulation of a nerve test is her most-viewed video with 1.5 million streams. Despite a diverse ASMR repertoire — including a tailored suit fitting role-play and a holiday makeup application role-play — her top five videos are all clinical role-plays where she pretends she is a medical professional providing a suite of tests, including a head-to-toe physical exam, a dermatological exam and extraction, and a neurological test. All of them feature the same close-up shot of her face and her gentle whisper.
Why do people find her ASMR doctor role-play so fascinating? It’s complicated. But Hornbaker sums it up simply…
