Science

You Really Can Smell Fear…Plus Other Things Your Nose Knows

Your sense of smell is more valuable than you thought. It not only links to memories, but it can influence decisions you make, experiences you have and your perception of others.

First, watch as this New Scientist reporter, Catherine de Lange, gets down on all fours to see if she can emulate one of the best known sniffers — a dog:

As you can see, she gets well of course at first — there were so many other distracting smells. But when she really focused the second time, she was able to follow the 10-meter cinnamon oil trail laid in a public park in London.

She notes in her article about this ‘unsung sense’ that it is well-accepted humans don’t have great sniffers compared to dogs. But developing science she writes is finding humans may be better at smelling than we thought:

According to a spate of recent studies, our noses are in fact exquisitely sensitive instruments that guide our everyday life to a surprising extent. Subtle smells can change your mood, behaviour and the choices you make, often without you even realising it. Our own scents, meanwhile, flag up emotional states such as fear or sadness to those around us. The big mystery is why we aren’t aware of our nasal activity for more of the time.

Noses have certainly never been at the forefront of sensory research, and were pushed aside until recently in favour of the seemingly more vital senses of vision and hearing. “There has been a lot of prejudice that people are not that influenced by olfactory stimuli, especially compared to other mammals,” says Lilianne Mujica-Parodi, who studies the neurobiology of human stress at Stony Brook University in New York.

Early scientists felt that humans had an inferior sense of smell compared to other animals because a smaller portion of the brain was devoted to this sense. But, newer brain scans, have shown that more of our brain is used from smell than previously thought:

Although we may have fewer types of receptor than other mammals, Charles Greer at Yale University has shown that the human nose and brain are unusually well connected, with each group of receptors linking to many more neural regions than is the case in other animals. That should give us a good ability to process incoming scents.

Once researchers began looking, they found the nose to be far more sensitive than its reputation suggested. One study, for example, found that we can detect certain chemicals diluted in water to less than one part per billion. That means that a person can detect just a few drops of a strong odorant like ethyl mercaptan in an Olympic-sized pool.

Unsung Sense Can Smell Fear, Emotion and Links to Memory

A comparison of smell receptors by animal. (Image: New Scientist)

According to New Scientist, research is also making the link between smell and memory more clear:

The power of smell will be no news to estate agents, who often advocate the smell of baking bread or brewing coffee to promote the sale of a house. But there are more subtle and surprising effects too. For instance, when Hendrick Schifferstein from Delft University of Technology and colleagues pumped the smell of orange, seawater or peppermint into a nightclub, the revellers partied harder – they danced more, rated their night as more enjoyable, and even thought the music was better – than when there was no added scent (Chemosensory Perception, vol 4, p 55). Rob Holland and colleagues at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, meanwhile, have found that the hint of aroma wafting out of a hidden bucket of citrus-scented cleaner was enough to persuade students to clean up after themselves – even though the vast majority of them hadn’t actually registered the smell (Psychological Science, vol 16, p 689).

In addition to research showing how smell affects decision making and even finding a mate (think pheromones), the thought that someone can smell fear is also supported by science. To help show this, scientists took sweat samples for subjects who were about to go skydiving for the first time, and a second sample from the same subjects when they were just running on a treadmill. Scientists found that a portion of the brain lit up when the test subjects who were asked to smell the samples took a whiff the skydiving sample, as opposed to the treadmill sample.

So, before you discount your schnoz for the more “favored” senses of sight and taste, consider the impact of smell that you may not even realize.

Comments (42)

1 2
  • RayOne
    Posted on September 21, 2011 at 4:22pm

    That scent from the WH is not bacon.

    Report Post » RayOne  
  • staxmarshall
    Posted on September 21, 2011 at 3:25pm

    I wonder how that “evolved”?

    Report Post »  
  • microace
    Posted on September 21, 2011 at 2:29pm

    Nothing like the smell of Napalm in the morning!

    Report Post »  
  • Secessionista
    Posted on September 21, 2011 at 1:54pm

    Well that explains why I can smell a crook in the whitehouse.

    Report Post » Secessionista  
  • Kriegsbringer
    Posted on September 21, 2011 at 1:03pm

    Spider pig, spider pig
    Does whatever a spider pig does . . .

    Report Post » Kriegsbringer  
  • Ryntintin
    Posted on September 21, 2011 at 11:45am

    I smell money, and you stink…. interpretation is up to the key holder. The angst of our senses can be seen when normal occurrences become intense myriad’s of interpersonal interactions. Believe mind control??? ears, eyes, nose, tongue, brain, and skin. Let the revolution begin beware of the masses and the power of freedom to ignore all senses. God Bless America

    Report Post » Ryntintin  
  • jessieH
    Posted on September 21, 2011 at 10:56am

    I either smell bacon or Nancy Pelosi is wearing lipstick, again.

    Report Post »  
  • BloodyArtist22
    Posted on September 21, 2011 at 10:52am

    People underestimate humans a lot, even myself…until I became a mother. During pregnancy, my senses skyrocketed, like survival bio-triggers. Then even post-pardum I still have elite sensing capabilities. And when I feel a threat somehow my body reacts before my brain tells me what’s going on. Unfortunately, one of those mishaps was when my boss accidentally dropped something over my sleeping child when I brought him in for a doctor’s appointment. My initial thought was “destroy the threat”. …and my boss knew it. Saw it in my eyes. Luckily, the object (a stapler) missed my kid and just dropped next to him. She’s a mother too…so she knew that look. And for smells…I work in the barracks so I have to ensure the safety of over two hundred residents, including fire safety. Some had lit incense in their room and left it burning unattended. Needless to say I honed in on the room after going through three floor levels to find it. Being a mother is awesome…and no other smell makes me happier and more calm than my baby’s scent. Same for him with me. I’m glad my senses are crazy in-tune with my environment. Makes me a better protector of my family…and warrior for my military family.

    Report Post » BloodyArtist22  
  • drago
    Posted on September 21, 2011 at 9:05am

    I can smell a rat/s from miles away, even as far away as the white house……..

    Report Post »  
  • gwssacredcause
    Posted on September 21, 2011 at 8:57am

    Edward Bernay would be real proud, I wonder how long it will be before airport security will be sniffing us before we can pass through security.

    Report Post »  
    • DreadPirate
      Posted on September 21, 2011 at 11:53am

      LMAO!!! I wonder if they’d get paid extra for crotch and butt sniffing duty. If that were ever to happen, I’d go a week without showering before getting to the airport; once through TSA, I’d hit a bathroom and clean up so as not to punish my fellow passengers with my stench. LOL

      Report Post » DreadPirate  
  • TomFerrari
    Posted on September 21, 2011 at 8:54am

    LOL

    I must be part dog.

    I smell things long before anyone else does.
    It even helped avoid a wreck this week when I smelled burning rubber.
    Soon thereafter (10-15 seconds) others began smelling it too.
    We all started looking for its source.
    We found it just as a young lady swerved across 4 lanes of 85mph interstate traffic.
    We narrowly avoided her, primarily because we had already spotted her.
    She did, in fact, hit a semi truck in the last lane, scraping the front of it as she was diving for the shoulder. The complete tread had separated from the sidewalls of her tire, and the whole thing was flopping around at 70mph while she was ignoring other drivers and cutting them off.
    Close call, but, thanks to the sniffer, we’re all well and fine!

    God’s creations are AMAZING !

    Be thankful for them. I know I am!!
    .
    .
    .

    Report Post » TomFerrari  
    • Bonesaw
      Posted on September 21, 2011 at 11:00am

      I spend a LOT of time in the woods.
      If I am down-wind from a grove of trees I can tell you what kinds of trees you’ll find in there.
      I have tracked deer by smell.
      I kicked a trespasser out of my back 40 after I caught a wiff of his deodorant wafting through the woods.

      Report Post » Bonesaw  
    • grandma7
      Posted on September 21, 2011 at 2:59pm

      A man from our area cracks open grapes and tells owners when to pick the vineyards. He’s making millions. I was told, recently, to get a job in the Wine industry, after my husband teased that he’s going to rent me out to TSA as a drug/bomb sniffer.

      Report Post »  
  • Sheepdog911
    Posted on September 21, 2011 at 6:03am

    We can smell fear … So that’s what we smell when liberals go off and tell us that the conservative leaders we love are unelectable.

    Report Post » Sheepdog911  
    • loriann12
      Posted on September 21, 2011 at 6:44am

      Yea, I’m in Texas and I can smell their fear all th way from DC.

      Report Post »  
    • BeerSnob
      Posted on September 21, 2011 at 7:37am

      I have the amazing ability to detect when somenone hasn’t showered for a few weeks.

      Report Post » BeerSnob  
  • Ashira Ben Yochanan
    Posted on September 21, 2011 at 4:55am

    THE POWER OF FRAGRANCE

    2 Cor 2:14-17 RSTNE
    “14 Now thanks be to YHWH, who always causes us to
    triumph in the Moshiach/ Messiah, and makes manifest the
    fragrance of His chochmah/ wisdom through us in every place.
    15 For we are to YHWH a sweet fragrance of Moshiach, in
    them that are being saved, and in them that are perishing:
    16 To the one we are the fragrance of death to death; and
    to the other the fragrance of chayim/ LIFE to chayim. And who
    is worthy for these things?
    17 For we are not as many, who corrupt the word of YHWH:
    but as men of sincerity, according to the emet/ Truth ~ Torah, in the sight
    of YHWH, we speak through Moshiach.”

    Report Post » Ashira Ben Yochanan  
  • billwhit1357
    Posted on September 21, 2011 at 3:04am

    Oooo, that Smell! Can you Smell that Smell! Yes I can and I am certain it is coming from the Oval Office, or the Obama’s living quarters!

    2012 we fumigate the White House! Amen!

    Report Post » billwhit1357  
    • Airb0rne4325
      Posted on September 21, 2011 at 7:41am

      Not fear I smell, more like Bovine Excrement coming from the White House.

      Report Post » Airb0rne4325  
  • WeeeDontNeeedNoSteeenkinBadges
    Posted on September 21, 2011 at 2:06am

    There is a smell in America and that smell is … marxist Obama, White House commies, Congressional Progressives (communists), judiciary Liberals (socialists).
    Be afraid. Be very afraid … for your Liberty undefended.

    Report Post » WeeeDontNeeedNoSteeenkinBadges  
  • Flotilla Hunter
    Posted on September 21, 2011 at 1:38am

    @VOTEBUSHIN12. Your upper lip

    Report Post »  
  • RationalMan
    Posted on September 21, 2011 at 1:01am

    My wife picked up a smell of “GAS” we were checking into this one house that we were interested in buying and she told the Realtor that she smells “gas”! Even the Realtor was surprised, we didn’t buy it ,but, even the salesman was shocked! I follow up on it a week later and he said, yes, there was a small gas leak behind the stove!!!!

    So people who don’t smoke nor take drugs thru there nose, yes they can detect danger!!

    People who snort drugs or smoke, will not detect the danger!!!

    Good article………

    Report Post »  
    • RationalMan
      Posted on September 21, 2011 at 1:21am

      Today we have a dog who is trained to detected , gas, carbon dioxide and fire.

      Smell is very important to animals…..

      Report Post »  
  • jaylew
    Posted on September 21, 2011 at 12:40am

    Seriously one time I was walking in the woods with my two kids and a small branch fell and smacked me on top of the head…..instantly i could smell like an electrical sort of smell and a funny electrical taste was in my mouth. I know…there are a million jokes here…but I am serious…the branch hitting the top of my head created an instant smell and taste. Not to mention I was knocked to my knees. I don’t know about smelling fear…but I can guarantee I know what a small branch falling from the top of a tree smells like. It was the smell of…..“having the literal crap knocked out of you”

    Report Post » jaylew  
  • UlyssesP
    Posted on September 21, 2011 at 12:26am

    I know the sense of smell is a powerful source of information about my surroundings. I smell a rat every time Obama makes a speech.

    Report Post » UlyssesP  
    • UlyssesP
      Posted on September 21, 2011 at 12:27am

      Arrrgghh!!
      you beat me to it!!

      Report Post » UlyssesP  
    • VoteBushIn12
      Posted on September 21, 2011 at 12:35am

      Well Obama can probably smell you too. Not because rats have 3 times as many sent receptors as humans, but because you smell like **** and everyone within 50 miles can smell your odor laden ass coming.

      Report Post » VoteBushIn12  
    • Flotilla Hunter
      Posted on September 21, 2011 at 1:35am

      Or when cadaver Francis Fox Piven opens her casket.

      Report Post »  
  • AMERICA4EVER
    Posted on September 21, 2011 at 12:23am

    I smell a rat in the White House.

    Report Post »  
  • stumblemouth
    Posted on September 21, 2011 at 12:00am

    Glenn said “the bees know.” Come on, Blaze, is it the stinger or the nose that knows?

    Report Post » stumblemouth  
  • MeteoricLimbo
    Posted on September 20, 2011 at 11:58pm

    the rat takes the cheese

    Report Post » MeteoricLimbo  
  • donottreadonme
    Posted on September 20, 2011 at 11:52pm

    It has been long noticed that blind people often have a heightened sense of smell. Which may be in part, that they are more focused on what senses they do have, to compensate for the lack of vision.

    Report Post »  
    • 1casawizard
      Posted on September 21, 2011 at 12:17am

      I‘ve noticed when a humans’ sense is destroyed or never there, another is heightened. I’ve also noticed that the longer a dogs nose is the keener the smell. That‘s pretty easy to figure out if you’re not blind. If you are blind from birth, I have seen extreme sense of smell and hearing and very good skills.

      Report Post » 1casawizard  
  • TJexcite
    Posted on September 20, 2011 at 11:50pm

    That fear you can smell is coming from the left.

    Report Post » TJexcite  
    • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
      Posted on September 21, 2011 at 12:00am

      Oh, and here I thought it was from the Progressive Pizza Palace down the street where the KGB and the Mafia Godfathers were gathering, asking the left “Why is this still a problem…”

      Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
  • randy
    Posted on September 20, 2011 at 11:48pm

    It’s obvious she was using the sense of touch the second time,
    Feeling the string with her nose.

    How stupid

    Report Post » randy  
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