Entangled chemosensory emotion and identity: Familiarity enhances detection of chemosensorily encoded emotion
Abstract
Biologically significant, natural human body odors covey emotion and identity--two qualities shown to build on dissociated modules in face and voice perceptions. To what extent such segregation applies to chemosensory processing of body odors has hardly been studied. The current study probes this issue by recruiting heterosexual couples, who are genetically independent yet sexually and emotionally engaged to one another, as both odor donors and odor judges, and comparing their sensitivities to the chemosensory emotional cues from their partner vs. those from opposite-sex strangers. We demonstrate that familiarity subconsciously sharpens one's sensitivity to chemosensory emotional cues, which increases as a function of the time couples have spent together. Nevertheless, the specific chemosensory identity and emotional content remain undelineated and inaccessible to verbal awareness. Our findings reveal a different pattern from those of face and voice perceptions and provide insights into the mechanisms and interplays of chemosensory emotion and identity processings.
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A study on the ability to react to body odors from partners demonstrated that intimacy enhances the detection of emotional cues, although not consciously.
“Moreover, a study on the ability to react to body odors from partners demonstrated that intimacy enhances the detection of emotional cues, although not consciously (Zhou & Chen, 2011).”
From The scent of emotions: A systematic review of human intra‐ and interspecific chemical communication of emotions (2020) · cites this paper as Zhou & Chen, 2011
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- Authors
- Zhou, W., & Chen, D.
- Affiliations
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Rice University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Chen, Denise
- ORCID
- Zhou, Wen
- Venue
- Social Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2011-06
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 270-276
- ISSN
- 1747-0919 (ISSN-L)
- 1747-0927
- OpenAlex
- W2007508893
- Cited by
- 24
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1 · 2017: 2 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 1 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 0.18
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Social Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (R03 DC4956, R03DC004956)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Sensory Systems › Olfactory and Sensory Function Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Keywords
- body odor, familiarity, emotional cues, heterosexual couples, olfaction, unconscious processes, multisensory integration
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Affect, Cues, Discrimination, Psychological, Emotions, Female, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Male, Odorants, Random Allocation, Social Identification, Sweat, Heterosexuality, Olfactory Perception
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