Subliminal smells bias perception about a person’s likeability
“…new research from Northwestern University suggests that humans also pick up infinitesimal scents that affect whether or not we like somebody.”
Whom is this research new to?
James V. Kohl
What a waste of precious grant money.
Actually, it may have some good information.
This suggests that strong cover scents might acutally draw attention to odor and be counterproductive as far as behavioral effects from the pheromones they’re covering.
I’d be curious about the results of the barely noticable smell of sweat. In the article sweat is said to have a bad effect - but that may change in minimal amounts…
thats an awesome artical! Thanks for sharing!
When the smell of sweat becomes consciously detected, it is almost always associated with aversion. In minimal amounts, some naturally occuring chemicals found in sweat appear to elicit positive responses.
James V. Kohl
A surprisingly large amount of females I know like “hot, sweaty” guys and think it is sexy. Personally I find it disgusting, and would ask them to take a shower before touching me if possible, and every woman I have talked about this with who agrees with me also cannot find any possible way in which SWEAT would be sexy (it’s not just pheromones either - these woman are equally attracted or turned on when they see sweaty men on T.V.).
This study would not be a waste of grant money if it was a reliable study - smells are not the same as pheromones. However I see no way in which this study is useful at all, because of the way it was conducted.
First of all lemon is not a smell which is almost universally thought to be a good smell. There are just as many, possibly more, people who find lemon as a negative or neutral smell then as a good one. The smell they used as neutral is not one I have heard of before, but it sounds like something that would not have much of a scent at all… I do realize that’s not exactly logical on my part, though. And sweat is something that does contain pheromones, so the good or bad smell of it is not a reliable thing to use when doing a test on smells. Not to mention I have never known sweat to have any particular scent - certain parts of your body smell when sweaty for other reasons; sweat from someone’s leg does not usually smell.
Then, in order to evaluate the results, they used PICTURES of FACES. Looking at a person’s face does usually give you any indication as to whether they are “likable.” You might be more attracted or more likely to think they are nice if their face looks a certain way, but as soon as they start talking you will disregard the impression you got from their face, especially if their talking gives a strong impression, unless the face was attractable because they look like someone you know rather then being attracatble of it’s own merit. Someone with a scowl on their face might seem more “non-likable” at that moment, but if you see them again later with a different expression in most cases you wont be any less likely to appraoch them at that time. But the faces they showed were “neutral” - another problem.
There is no such thing as a “neutral” expression in regards to others’ perceptions. If you show the same picture of an actual person with a neutral expression to 12 different people and ask how he is feeling, you will probably get 12 different responses, regardless of the respondant’s mood (which may affect their own individual answers if their mood is extremely happy or extremely depressed or extremely upset, but wont’ affect the fact that their answer was different from everyone else’s). A “neutral expression,” both in the way I used it just now and it any way it can legitimately be used at all, only applies to the person with the expression - that’s why sometimes you meet someone and ask them, “Are you okay?,” or “What’s so funny?” all the time, have them always respond that everything is normal, and after knowing them a little longer realize that thats person’s neutral expression has a slight curving of the lips to it.
Seeing a picture of a stranger almost never can make any indication of their “likeability,” and when it can it is because of a scowl or some such on the person’s face, yet again these faces were “neutral.” A picture can also sometimes show you “likeability” if they are dressed as say a Southerner, or if they are obvioulsy a stereotypical geek, in which case anyone who does not like those intrests will be less attracted. In some cases the person’s race may also affect their “likability” if the person is even mildly prejudiced. These factors have nothing to do with the person’s mood or any smells. The fact that the used pictures of expressions at all to determine a person’s mood, by itself, makes the study void.
I agree with permalink. Pretty hard to quantitate values such likeability and neutral expression. And the association between odors and mood is clearly well-established and should need no further university studies to confirm it. But I wonder, are there similar studies describing the effects of imperceptible odor-neutral putative pheromones? I’ll keep looking.