Humans use ``smell'' to sense the emotions of others and use it for communication.
While sight and hearing tend to be emphasized among the five human senses, the sense of smell tends to be relatively neglected. However, recent research has shown that humans read emotions by ``smelling other people'' and that the sense of smell plays an important role in communication.
You Can Literally Sniff Out Other People's Inner Feelings | Scientific American
Chrissy Kelly, an archaeologist living in the UK, said she lost her sense of smell after contracting a viral infection in 2012. Mr. Kelly testified that he lost the joy of ``hugging a loved one and smelling their scent'' and felt as if he had been suspended from the world, and that smell is an important way to connect oneself to nature and family. It claims to be something.
Kelly's realization that smell is deeply connected to people's identities is supported by the results of multiple studies published in recent years. For example, a 2023 study showed that humans can smell the body odor of people who are experiencing emotions such as fear or anxiety, which can also influence their own emotions. Research has also shown that people are more than twice as likely to smell their hands after shaking hands with someone of the same sex.
``We're seeing all kinds of behavioral effects from the sense of smell,'' said Shani Agron, a neuroscientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.
People also identify relatives by smelling the scents of people around them, and identify people who are genetically close to them or who could be friends. In fact, good friends have similar body odors, and some research has shown that it is possible to predict whether or not people will hit it off when they first meet based on body odor similarity.
Good friends have similar body odor - GIGAZINE
Furthermore, when you talk to someone who is in a happy mood, you may be able to detect their emotions from the smell that reaches your nose. In an experiment conducted in the Netherlands, participants watched a hilarious video while wearing sweat pads under their armpits, and then had another group smell the pads, which made the participants smile and feel better. It is reported that it did.
However, body odor is not limited to the smell of happiness; it can also convey a variety of other emotions. For example, a 2020 study showed that women's brains responded more strongly to the scent of a man who played a competitive game than to the scent of a man who played a calm construction game. It has also been found that women are especially sensitive to scents that indicate anxiety in men, and that such scents make women more risk-averse and less trusting.
Recent research suggests that people with a more acute sense of smell tend to have a higher quality of social life.
At the time of writing the article, it is not well understood how humans sniff out other people's body odor and how this is linked to changes in behavior. However, research has shown that hexanal , one of the chemical molecules contained in body odor, emits a pleasant smell like freshly cut grass, which increases people's sense of trust.
With the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19), which has been prevalent since 2020, cases of long-term loss of smell have been reported, so it is important to investigate the impact that the sense of smell has on people's lives. People with anosmia may also miss important cues for communication.
'You can laugh when you're sad or aggressive , but you can't intentionally change your body's chemical messages. 'It's information that can be used,' he said, insisting that smell is information that cannot be faked.
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