Can a Scent change our Opinion? – “Science News”

If you want to be liked make sure you’re surrounded by lovely sweet smelling roses! That’s what this piece of research seems to reveal! Also the opposite is true, if you are trying to help put your friend off buying that very expensive jumper that you know she can’t afford, maybe waft some sour odour past her so it puts her off!

Syrjanen and colleagues link responses to faces and odours smelled while evaluating them. The researchers determined via a literature review that “Generally, the results indicate that facial expressions are classified more rapidly in the context of odors. Apart from a few studies that show face-odor valence congruency effects, the most consistent finding is that valenced odors affect perceived face valence overall (e.g., faces are perceived as more unpleasant in an unpleasant odor condition).”

Elmeri Syrjanen, Hakan Fischer, Marco Liuzza, Torun Lindhom, and Jonas Olofsson. 2021.  “A Review of the Effects of Valenced Odors on Face Perception and Evaluation.”  I-Perception, vol. 12, no. 2, https://doi.org/10.1177/20416695211009552