No, TikTok, you can’t taste soy sauce with your testicles

TextAlex Peters

A new TikTok challenge sees testicles being dipped in soy sauce

The Jackass mentality – AKA willing to do a lot of stupid shit for views – is alive and thriving on TikTok, everyone. From the Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge to the collective eating of tide pods there have been some absurd trends over the years and now TikTok users have started dipping their testicles in soy sauce. Why? Because they can.

It all started when a 2013 study that found male testes have taste receptors (not, let’s note, tastebuds) resurfaced online. The results caused some confusion over at the ever-reliable Daily Mail, however, who incorrectly reported that “testicles have taste buds that detect sweet flavours” as well as the taste of umami, the amino acid in soy sauce.

This story was in turn found by TikTok user Regan who posted a video earlier this month asking people to dip their testicles into something “for science.” The video has since been viewed 4.3 million times and spawned a viral trend of testicle-owning people testing out the theory – to seemingly positive results.

“Oh my God, I can taste the salt!” Alx James is seen shouting in his experiment, while Matthew Lush similarly appears shocked exclaiming “What the fuck” in his post. The power of suggestion?

Despite this, needless to say, the theory has been thoroughly debunked by scientists. “These are not taste buds, they don't activate the gustatory cortex in the brain,? Emma Beckett, a food and nutrition scientist from The University of Newcastle in Australia told ScienceAlert. “Where they are functional, they are detecting the same molecules as in the mouth, but triggering different. You can just think of them like any other receptor in the body that is monitoring the environment.”