Sniffing someone out has taken on a whole new meaning.
Scientists have discovered that others' perceptions of a person's scent can make it or break it for them socially. In a new study, they've discovered that if a person dislikes your scent, even though it registers subconsciously, they're more likely to dislike you, and vice-versa.
"We evaluate people every day and make judgments about who we like or don't like," Wen Li, a postdoctoral fellow in the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine in Illinois, and lead author of the study, said in a release.
"We may think our judgments are based only on various conscious bits of information, but our senses also may provide subliminal perceptual information that affects our behaviour."
Li and his colleagues' findings are published in the December issue of the journal Psychological Science.
Study participants were asked to smell three scents contained in three bottles.
Lemon was the "good" scent, sweat was the "bad" scent and an ethereal scent was considered neutral. The scents were administered in different concentrations.
The study participants were given the scents to sniff and then shown a picture of a face with a neutral expression. They were asked to rank the face on a scale ranging from extremely likable to extremely unlikable.
In participants who were conscious of the odour they were sniffing, scent bias didn't come into play and they could rank the faces independently of smell.
The researchers found many of the study's participants were not aware of many of the odours in very low concentrations. However, an increase in their heart rates showed their bodies were registering the scent regardless.
In those participants unaware of the scent they were registering, negative scents correlated strongly with negative ratings of the pictures shown. That meant that if a person was sniffing a bad odour, they were more likely to accord the face a low likability ranking.
"The study suggests that people conscious of the barely noticeable scents were able to discount that sensory information and just evaluate the faces," Li said. "It only was when smell sneaked in without being noticed that judgments about likability were biased."
Related
More Health Headlines »
- Massive survey examining health, toxic chemical levels of Canadians to begin
- A groundbreaking national health survey to discover what kinds of toxic chemicals are in Canadians' bodies, as well as examining other health issues such as obesity, will begin in B.C. in the coming days.
- Brisk walking regime can alleviate stress in menopausal women
- Menopausal women who suffer from stress, anxiety or depression can benefit from undertaking a regular walking routine, new research suggests.
- Cocaine vaccine in development in U.S.
- Two U.S. researchers in Houston are working on a cocaine vaccine they hope will become the first-ever medication to treat people hooked on the drug.
- Kids' stomach remedies contaminated with microbes: Health Canada
- Health Canada is advising consumers not to use two natural health products to treat digestive upset in children because of contamination.
- Drug makers spend more on marketing than research: study
- U.S. drug companies spend almost twice as much on marketing and promoting medications than on research and development, a new Canadian study says.
Health Features
Blog Watch
Most Blogged about CBC.ca Articles
Note: CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites - link will open in new window
