Human Olfactory Communication of Emotion
Abstract
Nonhuman animals communicate their emotional states through changes in body odor. The study reported here suggests that this may be the same for humans. We collected underarm odors on gauze pads from 25 young women and men on two different occasions. On one occasion the donors were induced to feel happy by viewing an excerpt from a funny movie whereas on the other, separated by a day, they were induced to feel afraid by watching an excerpt from a frightening movie. One week later, 40 women and 37 men were asked to smell several different bottles, some of which contained underarm odor pads collected during the happy movie, some contained underarm odor pads collected during the frightening movie, whereas others contained unused pads (control odor). Each odor was identified on two separate tasks that involved identifying the odor from among three odors and identifying it again from among six odors. Data were the number of women and men who identified an odor correctly on both tasks. When asked to select which bottles contained "the odor of people when they are happy," women chose the correct bottles for both tasks significantly more often than chance. Men chose the bottle which contained the body odors collected when women (but not men) viewed the happy movie more often than would be expected by chance. When asked to select which bottles contained "the odor of people when they are afraid," women and men both chose the bottle that contained the body odors collected when men (but…
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Human subjects can recognize the emotion of another human subject by sniffing odors collected by axillary pads.
“In 2000, Chen and Haviland‐Jones were able to demonstrate for the first time that human subjects can recognize the emotion of another human subject by sniffing odors collected by axillary pads”
From The scent of emotions: A systematic review of human intra‐ and interspecific chemical communication of emotions (2020) · cites this paper as Chen & Haviland‐Jones, 2000
Women performed better at olfactory identification of emotions than men.
“The authors demonstrated that women performed better at olfactory identification of emotions than men, confirming previous data showing a better ability of women to recognize visual and auditory emotional signals (Brody & Hall, 2008).”
From The scent of emotions: A systematic review of human intra‐ and interspecific chemical communication of emotions (2020) · cites this paper as Chen and Haviland‐Jones (2000)
The first peer-reviewed article on this topic was published in 2000 by Chen and Haviland-Jones (2000).
“The first peer‐reviewed article on this topic was published in 2000 by Chen and Haviland‐Jones (2000):”
From The scent of emotions: A systematic review of human intra‐ and interspecific chemical communication of emotions (2020) · cites this paper as Chen and Haviland‐Jones (2000)
Some evidences for the ability of humans to recognize and be influenced by the odor of happiness have been published.
“Even though negative emotions and sexual arousal have a more definite role in the human evolution, some evidences for the ability of humans to recognize and be influenced by the odor of happiness have been published (Chen & Haviland‐Jones, 2000; Groot, Smeets, Rowson, et al., 2015).”
From The scent of emotions: A systematic review of human intra‐ and interspecific chemical communication of emotions (2020) · cites this paper as Chen & Haviland‐Jones, 2000
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Facts, fallacies, fears, and frustrations with human pheromones
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Chemosignals communicate human emotions
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“The first peer-reviewed article on this topic was published in 2000 by Chen and Haviland-Jones (2000): The authors demonstrated that women performed better at olfactory identification of emotions than men, confirming previous data showing a better ability of women to recognize visual and auditory…”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialNo fear no risk! Human risk behavior is affected by chemosensory anxiety signals
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Chemical Fingerprints of Emotional Body Odor
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Chemical communication of fear: A case of male-female asymmetry
de Groot, J. H. B., Semin, G. R., & Smeets, M. A. M. (2014) · Journal of Experimental Psychology: General · doi:10.1037/a0035950 · Cited by 51 · 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
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Self-citationSmelling Anxiety Chemosignals Impairs Clinical Performance of Dental Students
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- Authors
- Chen, D., & Haviland-Jones, J.
- Affiliations
- Monell Chemical Senses Center (US)
- Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (US)
- Corresponding author
- Chen, Denise
- Venue
- Perceptual and Motor Skills
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2000-12
- Volume
- 91
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 771-781
- ISSN
- 0031-5125 (ISSN-L)
- 1558-688X
- OpenAlex
- W2018597864
- Cited by
- 201
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 0.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Perceptual and Motor Skills (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (C2T32DC00014)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Sensory Systems › Olfactory and Sensory Function Studies
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Advanced Chemical Sensor Technologies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Keywords
- olfactory communication, emotional expression, body odor, emotion recognition, happiness, fear, sex differences, odor identification, nonverbal communication
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Emotions, Fear, Female, Happiness, Humans, Male, Nonverbal Communication, Odorants, Smell
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