The urge to poop while in a bookstore

TikTok users explain this bizarre link named Mariko Aoki phenomenon

The alleged correlation between shopping and having to poop seems like a strange phenomenon. Amazingly, the situation is referred to as the Mariko Aoki phenomenon according to this article, and people impacted have found other people affected in a TikTok community.

A woman who claimed she experienced the urge to use the restroom each time she entered a bookstore is the subject of the Japanese urban legend known as the Mariko Aoki phenomenon. Yet as it turns out, the sensation is more typical than you might imagine; some have even given it the name “book bowels”.

The story goes that sometime in the middle of the 1980s, a Japanese woman by the name of Mariko Aoki confessed in a letter to a magazine that she occasionally felt the urgent need to poop whenever she entered a bookshop. It turned out that Aoki wasn’t alone: in the weeks that followed, numerous other people wrote in to say that they had experienced the same urge in libraries and bookstores.

Adam Conover, a well-known US TikTok user, created a popular video detailing his extensive experience with the phenomenon. He said: “For my entire life. Every time I have stepped into a Barnes & Noble or other large bookstores, I have immediately had to poop”.

Many viewers responded to the Tik-Toker in the comments section, with one admitting: “That’s me with Target”. While another user added: “I have said this for years! Everyone always said I was nuts!”

Another user theorized: “I feel it’s a connection to our childhood routines. Having books read to us around the age that we’re being trained to use the bathroom”.

Although the phenomenon hasn’t been verified medically or scientifically, experts have weighed in on the debate. The condition, according to Dr. Sameer Islam’s article, is “a purely psychological problem”.

“There’s a real connection between the gut and the brain, it’s called the gut-brain axis. What we feel mentally will affect our bowels”, he added.

“The intensity of the information that you encounter in museums and libraries— or the sudden quiet of a garden — can trigger an autonomic response in your gut”.

Personally, I heard some other people, including me, having that sensation but I don’t think it’s related specifically to bookstores. I think it’s more about relaxation, in fact, the urge to poop may come when our mind is not focused on a specific activity and surrenders to thoughts influenced by the environment. That’s why it may happen in a bookstore, in a supermarket, in a relaxing environment, or even while watching old buildings during a walk. They all are moments in which our mind is unfocused, therefore our body is free to express.