The Scent of Disease: Human Body Odor Contains an Early Chemosensory Cue of Sickness
Open accessAbstract
Observational studies have suggested that with time, some diseases result in a characteristic odor emanating from different sources on the body of a sick individual. Evolutionarily, however, it would be more advantageous if the innate immune response were detectable by healthy individuals as a first line of defense against infection by various pathogens, to optimize avoidance of contagion. We activated the innate immune system in healthy individuals by injecting them with endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide). Within just a few hours, endotoxin-exposed individuals had a more aversive body odor relative to when they were exposed to a placebo. Moreover, this effect was statistically mediated by the individuals’ level of immune activation. This chemosensory detection of the early innate immune response in humans represents the first experimental evidence that disease smells and supports the notion of a “behavioral immune response” that protects healthy individuals from sick ones by altering patterns of interpersonal contact.
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Healthy subjects have an unconscious ability to recognize and find repulsive body odor obtained from sick subjects.
“Some experimental studies demonstrated an unconscious ability of healthy subjects to recognize and find repulsive body odor obtained from “sick” subjects”
From The scent of emotions: A systematic review of human intra‐ and interspecific chemical communication of emotions (2020) · cites this paper as Olsson et al., 2014
Cites
Dose-dependent effects of endotoxin on neurobehavioral functions in humans
Grigoleit, J.-S., Kullmann, J. S., Wolf, O. T., Hammes, F., Wegner, A., Jablonowski, S., Engler, H., Gizewski, E., Oberbeck, R., & Schedlowski, M. (2011) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0028330 · Cited by 241 · see citing works
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Preferred interpersonal distances: A global comparison
Sorokowska, A., Sorokowski, P., Hilpert, P., Cantarero, K., Frackowiak, T., Ahmadi, K., Alghraibeh, A. M., Aryeetey, R., Bertoni, A., Bettache, K., et al. (2017) · Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology · doi:10.1177/0022022117698039 · Cited by 468 · see citing works
Murray, D. R., & Schaller, M. (2016) · Advances in Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/bs.aesp.2015.09.002 · Cited by 282 · see citing works
Lasselin, J., Lekander, M., Axelsson, J., & Karshikoff, B. (2018) · Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.yfrne.2018.06.005 · Cited by 106 · see citing works
Self-citationCalvi, E., Quassolo, U., Massaia, M., Scandurra, A., D'Aniello, B., & D'Amelio, P. (2020) · Brain and Behavior · doi:10.1002/brb3.1585 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
“Some experimental studies demonstrated an unconscious ability of healthy subjects to recognize and find repulsive body odor obtained from “sick” subjects (Olsson et al., 2014); smelling these body odors activate the odor networks as shown by fMRI (Regenbogen et al., 2017).”
BackgroundChemical Fingerprints of Emotional Body Odor
Smeets, M. A. M., Rosing, E. A. E., Jacobs, D. M., van Velzen, E., Koek, J. H., Blonk, C., Gortemaker, I., Eidhof, M. B., Markovitch, B., de Groot, J., et al. (2020) · Metabolites · doi:10.3390/metabo10030084 · Cited by 59 · see citing works
Rapid Stress System Drives Chemical Transfer of Fear from Sender to Receiver
de Groot, J. H. B., Smeets, M. A. M., & Semin, G. R. (2015) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0118211 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
Beyond the west: Chemosignaling of emotions transcends ethno-cultural boundaries
de Groot, J. H. B., van Houtum, L. A. E. M., Gortemaker, I., Ye, Y., Chen, W., Zhou, W., & Smeets, M. A. M. (2018) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.08.005 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Hedman, E., Lekander, M., Karshikoff, B., Ljótsson, B., Axelsson, E., & Axelsson, J. (2016) · Journal of Abnormal Psychology · doi:10.1037/abn0000195 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Olsson, M. J., Lundström, J. N., Kimball, B. A., Gordon, A. R., Karshikoff, B., Hosseini, N., Sorjonen, K., Olgart Höglund, C., Solares, C., Soop, A., Axelsson, J., & Lekander, M.
- Affiliations
- Karolinska Institutet (SE)
- Monell Chemical Senses Center (US)
- Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (US)
- Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet
- Stockholm University (SE)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2014-01-22
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 817-823
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- OpenAlex
- W2096227780
- Cited by
- 277
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 32 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 29 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 7
- FWCI
- 11.84
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Lincoln (University of Nebraska) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Association for Psychological Science
- Osher Center for Integrative Medicine
- Forskningsrådet för Arbetsliv och Socialvetenskap
- Hjärt-Lungfonden
- Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse (2012.0141, KAW 2012.0141)
- Vetenskapsrådet (KAW 2012.0141)
- Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (P12–1017)
- Stockholm Stress Center
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Sensory Systems › Olfactory and Sensory Function Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Biological Psychiatry › Tryptophan and brain disorders
- Keywords
- body odor, innate immune response, endotoxin, lipopolysaccharide, immune activation, chemosensory detection, disease avoidance, interpersonal contact
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Cues, Female, Humans, Immunity, Innate, Lipopolysaccharides, Male, Odorants, Social Behavior, Olfactory Perception, Young Adult
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