Hanger Reflex

Submission 11,093

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About

The Hanger Reflex is a colloquial name given to an involuntary head rotation reaction experienced by some people when they put a hanger on their head. First described in a scientific study in 1991, the Hanger Reflex went viral as a participatory trend in August 2020 and in May 2022. The trend was referred to as Hanger Challenge.

Origin

On August 31st, 1991, the scientific article "New treatment of spasmodic toticollis" by J. E. Christensen was published in medical journal The Lancet.^[1] The article described involuntarily experienced when individuals had a coat hanger put onto their heads, with the subjects rotating their heads away from the hanger's hook. The phenonemon was further studied by Japanese researchers at Kajimoto Laboratory, who reported their findings in a 2008 paper "Hanger Reflex: A reflex motion of a head by temporal pressure for wearable interface."^[11]

On March 27th, 2014, YouTube^[4] channel KajimotoLab uploaded a video demonstration of the Hanger Reflex (shown below).

A 2015 study "Rate of Hanger Reflex Occurrence" confirmed the finding,^[2] reporting that involuntary head rotation was observed in 95.8 percent of subjects and was consistent in males and females between the ages of 19 and 65.^[3]

Spread

While the phenomenon was reportedly^[4] highlighted on TV shows as an "unexplained mystery," it didn't achieve widespread attention until September 2020, when it got popularized on TIkTok as "hanger challenge." For example, on August 23rd, TikToker^[5] @goat.whisperer posted a video of herself putting a hanger on her head that gained over 167,000 likes in two years (shown below, left). On September 22nd, 2020, TikTok^[6] user @alexpoulx posted a video that gained over 13.6 million views and 1.2 million likes in two years (shown below, left). On September 24th, TikToker^[7] @sisteryell posted a video of herself partaking in the challenge which accumulated over 20.5 million views and 1.3 million likes (shown below, right).

On August 28th, 2020, Distractify^[8] reported on the trend.

On September 3rd, 2020, YouTube^[9] channel TikTokVizion posted a 20-minute collection of TikTok users participating in the challenge that gained over 46,100 views (shown below).

On September 24th, 2020, Twitter^[10] user @b_ideo reuploaded @sisteryells' TikTok which gained over 846,000 views on the platform in two years.

The trend again regained popularity on social media after on May 17th, 2022, Twitter^[12] user @schoppik created a Today I Learned thread about the phenomenon that gained over 800 retweets and 4,800 likes in three days (fist tweet shown below).

On May 19th, Input^[13] reported on the phenomenon and its social media presence.