Can you smell the emotions?

• April 20, 2024

Human beings are able to communicate our emotional states through chemical signals, so the sense of smell is a way of synchrony emotional that influences the rest of the body and our behavior, according to researchers at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands .

In this study, published in the journal Psychological Science, They conducted a series of tests in which they determined that there are chemical signals, such as those contained in the sweat , which can cause a kind of contagion emotional that can influence a large number of people, all through smell.

To reach these conclusions, two experiments were conducted in which women were asked to perform some tasks, while in the environment the researchers released samples of sweat of men who were exposed to both an inducer fear , like a movie that caused disgust.

Women exposed to the "sweat of fear "They adopted typical expressions of fear, opening the eyes and nostrils and increasing their sensory perception, while those that smelled the "sweat of disgust "They showed clear gestures of displeasure on the face, lowering their eyebrows, frowning and wrinkling their noses," he explains. Dr. Gün Semin , one of the authors of the study.

However, none of the participants was aware of these effects or related to the perceived smell, so the synchronization emotional can establish and influence unconsciously.

In this way, the researchers could verify that the human communication can be established beyond just the language and gestures .

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Video Medicine: Why Smell is More Important Than You Think | Holladay Saltz | TEDxRVA (April 2024).