According to a recent study carried out by researchers
at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, it is possible for people to smell emotions such as fear or disgust through excreted chemical signals. Smelling
those chemosignals (a type of pheromone) provokes the same kind of emotional response: smelling
disgust provokes facial expressions indicative of disgust, for example.
The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, consisted of male participants who had to watch movies that either
induced feelings of fear or disgust. Two days before watching the movie, the
participants were asked to be very careful about smell contamination, which
means that they could not eat smelly foods, smoke, drink alcohol, or use
detergents.
After the male participants watched the
fear-or-disgust-inducing movies, the researchers gathered samples of sweat from
them. Then, researches gathered two groups of female participants to do a visual task while
being exposed to the men’s sweat samples. As they—the female participants—did the
task, their facial expressions and eye movements were monitored.
What were the results? Researchers found that the
women’s facial expressions were indicative of the kind of sweat sample they
smelled. In other words, when one group smelled the sweat gathered from men watching
the fear-inducing movie, they produced facial expressions indicative of fear,
and when the other group smelled the sweat from the men who watched the disgust-inducing
movie, they produced facial expressions indicative of disgust.
Another recent study had already shown that it is
possible to smell the emotions of other people. This study, conducted by researchers
at Rice University and presented in The Association for Psychological Science
in 2010, found that people in close romantic relationships are able to smell
emotions such as fear and happiness in each other.
According to
Denise Chen, a psychologist at Rice University, familiarity with a partner
enhances detection of emotional
cues in that person’s smell.
Many people
claim to have a sensitive nose. Are you one of them? Can you “smell” your close
ones’ emotions?
