I think I've solved the mystery of our curious phobia. The old
thinking about phobias was that they were patholgies
or "malfunctions" in the translation of experience to the "blank
slate" that was alleged to be the mind. The new Darwinian thinking is
that phobias are evolutionary adaptations that served to help people
survive their environment. A phobia of snakes or spiders makes
perfect sense since many of these creatures are poisonous.
I believe with buttons what we have is a case of mistaken identity.
Our real phobia is with leeches. Check out the top picture at this
link--
http://www.leech.de/engl/wirksubstanzen/start.html
You notice that the imaginary charasterics buttonphobes ascribe to
buttons just happen to be the real characteristics of leeches. Slimy,
repulsive texture, the annoying tendency for them to seem to show up
anywhere, etc. I notice that the buttons descibed as being most
offensive are the ones that most closely match the leech picture.
The experiment to try is whenever you're around buttons just remind
yourself over and over again that they're not real leeches, they can
do no harm. I've been doing this myself since I thought this theory
up and I think I'm making good progress. I'll post the picture in the
photo album.

Tom