Top male and female dating icks after Isla Fisher opens up on ending new romance

Of all the various dating terms that are thrown around these days 'the ick' is perhaps the most effective.

It speaks to something on an instinctive level, something happens that gives you the ick and suddenly you don't see a person in the same light any longer.

It happened to Isla Fisher when she got back into dating after her separation from Sacha Baron Cohen, when she was dating someone whose dog ran away and he chased it bent over with his arms out like a cartoon character.

"The ick was growing and growing and by the time he caught the dog, he had lost the p***y," Fisher said, and she's nowhere near alone in having a list of things she just couldn't bear to see in a partner.

A team of researchers dug into people posting their icks onto TikTok and published a study cataloguing some of the most prevalent icks men and women experience.

Isla Fisher saw a guy chasing his dog in a weird way and that was it for her, the ick was given (Raymond Hall/GC Images)

Getting the ick

According to the researchers, men and women have a slightly different view of getting the ick as they found that 63 percent of women knew what it was compared to 39 percent of men.

Women were also more likely to say they had it, with 75 percent of those who knew what it was saying they'd had it in a relationship compared to 57 percent of men with knowledge of the ick claiming personal experience.

People experienced an average of six icks during their dating life, though one person surveyed said they'd had it over 300 times.

Not to point fingers but if you've got a problem with everyone then maybe the problem is you.

Getting the ick was enough to end some relationships on the spot, with 26 percent of ick incidents effectively ending things right then and there, while it doomed another 42 percent of relationships to a slow death where things eventually ended.

Only 32 percent of relationships survived the dreaded ick.

They say communication is important in a relationship, but if your partner gets the ick with something you've done then chances are you won't know about it, as only 28 percent of people said they discussed their icks with the partner who'd done them.

On the other hand, almost everyone who gets the ick talks about it with someone who isn't their partner as a whopping 92 percent said they spilled the icky tea with friends and family.

Less than a third of relationships survived the ick, and over a quarter of them ended right away (Getty Stock Photo)

The top icks for women

Studying TikTok trends of women discussing the icks they got from men, the researchers found that the top result with 40 percent of videos complaining about it was about men being too feminine.

Next worst with 28 percent of videos complaining was about a man being embarrassing in public, while 22 percent got the ick with the man in their life saying annoying things.

Tied for fourth place on 14 percent each were guys making grievous fashion errors such as wearing jorts, and misogynistic behaviour.

Down on nine percent were the unique habits specific to a partner that are hard to categorise, like the way their boyfriend's feet sounded slapping on the floor.

Eight percent of videos complained about their man being too hooked on social media, six percent of women said they got the ick from some aspect of their man's physical appearance and the last entry on the list with five percent of videos complaining about it was a man giving them the ick from trying to be too trendy.

However, while complaining about men being too feminine was the ick that made it into most videos, when the researchers directly surveyed women they said their worst two icks were misogyny and saying annoying things.

If you're wondering why the percentages don't add up to 100, it's because some of the videos studied complained about more than one ick.

Men and women had some differences when it came to 'the ick', but both could agree their partner being embarrassing in public or saying annoying things was near the top of the list (Getty Stock Photo)

The top icks for men

When the researchers looked at the TikToks men made talking about the icks several of the same reasons cropped up in their content.

The top ick men made videos about was the special someone in their life being into 'trendy' subjects like astrology, with 29 percent of men's videos complaining about this sort of thing.

Their partner being embarrassing in public once again clinched second spot, this time with 21 percent of videos, but it had to share the silver medal with their partner saying annoying things.

Men appeared to get the ick from physical appearance more often that women, according to the study, as 15 percent of their videos complained about that.

Meanwhile, 13 percent of TikToks, or perhaps 'ickToks', made by men mentioned a woman being 'too masculine', while 10 percent apiece were focused on being addicted to social media or those unique habits that heavily depend on what each person is like.

A further eight percent of videos complained about vanity in a partner.

When men were surveyed directly about what they thought gave them the ick the top two results were physical appearance and a partner being overly vain, while they claimed they weren't as bothered about being embarrassed in public.