When I wake up to the smell of bacon and pancakes being cooked in my house on a Sunday it automatically makes me a happy camper. So I wonder, does the smell of different things affect how I feel? Is there a certain smell that would make me mad?
There are many studies that have stated that “odor learning begins before birth, when flavor compounds from the maternal diet get incorporated into amniotic fluid and are ingested by the developing fetus.” My mom always told me when she was pregnant with me she would love to use lavender lotion and so now, I love the smell of lavender. In some studies, researchers found that the infants of pregnant women who consumed “smelling substances such as garlic, alcohol or cigarette smoke preferred these smells compared to infants who had not been exposed to these scents.”
Dr. Susan Knasko, who has been studying the effects of odors on mood and performance at Monnell Chemical Senses Institute in Philadelphia, talks about one study in specific. Knasko speaks about a study where half the subjects were placed in a room and told that pleasant smell was being introduced and the other half of subjects were told that in their room there was no smell. “People who thought they were exposed to a pleasant smell reported greater feelings of health, positiveness, and well-being than the other group.”
Another experiment done by Nicole Hovis and Theresa White of Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y., that smells can affect the way you decide to perceive a person. ” They asked 65 volunteer undergraduates (who were mostly female) to sniff a vial holding either a lemon or onion scent, or no scent, while standing near a gender-neutral silhouette.” After they were told to make an impression of the silhouette. Subjects who smelt the lemon said that the silhouette was more feminine, clean and pleasant. On the other hand, those that smelt the onion said it was man like. That being said smell affects what mood you have but there could have been other things as well going on in the person’s mind so we can not jump to any conclusions.
More studies need to be conducted in order to make a correlation between smell and mood. However, I know if I smell something that I like I become very happy!
I stand on the same position as you do. Smell something good can really delight my temper, and it can bring a happy day. That’s why people like to use perfume, and some of the people would find the smell that fits their personalities and stick to it. The smell can really vary one’s mood, especially in the morning. For me, starting with the good smell can start my good day.
I think that smell definitely has an effect on mood. Although the study you used might not have connected on mood, but more so our perceptions of different scents in society. We perceive women to have more floral scents, because of the delicate stereotype placed upon them. Whereas men are more likely to have a smell that not as good, because they generally are doing more dirty work. Although I do think smell has an effect on mood, but I think I would need to see more specific studies based just on mood to know for sure.