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Several videos showing people attempting the Sharpie Shock Challenge circulated on YouTube in April 2016. While these videos were accompanied by varying descriptions, the basics of the challenge was summed up by the 10 Steps YouTube channel: These shocks people are receiving in these videos appear to be exaggerated. We are unaware of any specific scientific principle that could explain how a brief camera flash could heat up a Sharpie marking pen enough to induce a shock, or how Sharpie ink could facilitate conducting electricity. After viewing several Sharpie Shock Challenge videos, it's clear that some people are better actors than others, or else they're just more sensitive: So why would anyone go through with this challenge if they believed it would result in pain? Some people are sensation seekers, a psychological term that describes the likelihood that someone will take risks (calculated or otherwise) in order to satisfy their curiosity. Psychology professor Marvin Zuckerman helped develop a personality assessment (the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Inventory), an alternative to the widely-used Big Five personality tests, which uses sensation seeking as a personality trait, rather than openness to experience: In other words, curiosity can be so strong in some individuals that it effectively overrides the natural human tendency to avoid pain in order to see what could happen. Our own tests of the Sharpie Shock Challenge had mixed results. One researcher experienced nothing that resembled a shock, but another reported that they felt a small pinch of heat when the camera flashed. This may be due to the fact that the color black absorbs heat more quickly than other colors: When a strong flash of light is concentrated on a patch of black, as in the Sharpie Shock Challenge, it's fathomable that some people will experience a quick sensation of heat that may feel like a slight electric shock.
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