Posted January 29, 2015 by Tristan Colasito

Wherever you are now, start sniffing. Go ahead sniff. Smell something? Yes, that’s the smell of a submissive fool following the commands of some random person on the internet. But really, if you smell anything special, different or extraordinary right now, that scent could be affecting you in a way you aren’t conscious about.

Past studies have found that some odors have their own way of tapping our brains. But before that, did you know that our nose can detect a wide range of odors? The latest study on smell suggests that the human nose can smell up to one trillion odors, but not at the same time. Past studies have found that some scents can affect sexual behaviour and increase the gambling frequency in casinos, the probability to visit a store again, and other behaviours.

This particular study suggests that the scent of an air freshener (“citrus scent of all-purpose cleaner”) can unconsciously make us think of cleaning more often than normal. In general, the methods would include diffusing the scent into a room, while another room would have no scent. The participants were then grouped into two and were each assigned to the room with a scent and the room without a scent. Here, they were tasked to perform some tasks. One of the procedures done was when the participants were asked to eat a round biscuit that produced crumbs once bitten. The extent by which the participants would keep their table clean was then measured. It was found that the participants inside the scented room cleaned their table more often than those who were in the other room.

One possible explanation for this could be, as stated in the study, the fact that we associate some odors unconsciously with other information. Because of these associations, we are unconsciously inclined to behave according to our cognition. For example, when we smell something delicious, we could probably think of a restaurant, dish, or person. When we smell a familiar perfume, we could probably think of a store or a person. Lastly, when we smell a citrus scent, it’s possible that we could think of cleaning.

Now that I think about it, the smell of breakfast food really cheers me up. How about you? What odors do you think affect your behaviour?

Photo taken from: g2goutside.org

The study can be accessed here: http://tinyurl.com/smellslikecleanspirit