Previous research suggests that artificial fragrances may be chosen to complement or enhance an individual's body odor, rather than simply masking it, and that this may create an odor blend with an emergent quality that is perceptually distinguishable from body odor or fragrance alone. From this, it can be predicted that a new emergent odor might be more easily identified than an individual's body odor in isolation. We used a triangle test paradigm to assess whether fragrance affects people's ability to distinguish between individual odors. Six male and six female donors provided axillary odor samples in three conditions (without fragrance, wearing their own fragrance, and wearing an assigned fragrance). In total, 296 female and 131 male participants selected the odd one from three odor samples (two from one donor, one from another; both of the same sex). We found that participants could discriminate between the odors at above chance levels in all three odor conditions. Olfactory identification ability (measured using Sniffin' Sticks) positively predicted discrimination performance, and sex differences in performance were also observed, with female raters being correct more often than men. Success rates were also higher for odors of male donors. Additionally, while performance was above chance in all conditions, individual odor discrimination varied across the three conditions. Discrimination rate was significantly higher in the "no fragrance" condition than either of the fragranced conditions. Importantly, however, discrimination rate was also significantly higher in the "own fragrance" condition than the "assigned fragrance" condition, suggesting that naturally occurring variance in body odor is more preserved when blended with fragrances that people choose for themselves, compared with other fragrances. Our data are consistent with the idea that fragrance choices are influenced by fragrance interactions with an individual's own body odor.

Department of Zoology Charles University Prague Czech Republic

Division of Psychology School of Natural Sciences University of Stirling Stirling UK

Zobrazit více v PubMed

Brand G., Millot J. L. (2001). Sex differences in human olfaction: between evidence and enigma. Q. J. Exp. Psychol. B 54, 259–270. 10.1080/02724990143000045 PubMed DOI

Cardesín A., Alobid I., Benítez P., Sierra E., Haro J. D., Bernal-Sprekelsen M., et al. (2006). Barcelona Smell Test—24 (BAST-24): validation and smell characteristics in the healthy Spanish population. Rhinology 24, 83–89. PubMed

Cernoch J. M., Porter R. H. (1985). Recognition of maternal axillary odors by infants. Child Dev. 56, 1593–1598. 10.2307/1130478 PubMed DOI

Chen D., Haviland-Jones J. (2000). Human olfactory communication of emotion. Percept. Mot. Skills 91, 771–781. 10.2466/pms.2000.91.3.771 PubMed DOI

Doty R. L. (1981). Olfactory communication in humans. Chem. Senses 6, 351–376. 10.1093/chemse/6.4.351 DOI

Doty R. L., Cameron E. L. (2010). Sex differences and reproductive hormone influences on human odor perception. Physiol. Behav. 97, 213–228. 10.1016/j.physbeh.2009.02.032 PubMed DOI PMC

Doty R. L., Orndorff M. M., Leyden J. J., Kligman A. (1978). Communication of gender from human axillary odors: relationship to perceived intensity and hedonicity. Behav. Biol. 23, 373–380. 10.1016/S0091-6773(78)91393-7 PubMed DOI

Ferdenzi C., Schaal B., Roberts S. C. (2010). Family scents: developmental changes in the perception of kin body odor? J. Chem. Ecol. 36, 847–854. 10.1007/s10886-010-9827-x PubMed DOI

Fialová J., Havlíček J. (2012). Perception of emotion-related body odours in humans. Anthropologie 50, 95–110.

Havlíček J., Dvorakova R., Bartos L., Flegr J. (2006). Non-advertized does not mean concealed: body odour changes across the human menstrual cycle. Ethology 112, 81–90. 10.1111/j.1439-0310.2006.01125.x DOI

Havlíček J., Roberts S. C. (2009). MHC-correlated mate choice in humans: a review. Psychoneuroendocrinology 34, 497–512. 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2008.10.007 PubMed DOI

Havlíček J., Roberts S. C. (2013). “The perfume-body odour complex: an insightful model for culture–gene coevolution?,” in Chemical Signals in Vertebrates, Vol. 12, eds East M. L., Dehnhard M. (New York: Springer; ), 185–195.

Hummel T., Bensafi M., Nikolaus J., Knecht M., Laing D. G., Schaal B. (2007a). Olfactory function in children assessed with psychophysical and electrophysiological techniques. Behav. Brain Res. 180, 133–138. 10.1016/j.bbr.2007.02.040 PubMed DOI

Hummel T., Kobal G., Gudziol H., Mackay-Sim A. (2007b). Normative data for the “Sniffin’ Sticks” including tests of odor identification, odor discrimination, and olfactory thresholds: an upgrade based on a group of more than 3,000 subjects. Eur. Arch. Otorhinolaryngol. 264, 237–243. 10.1007/s00405-006-0173-0 PubMed DOI

Kohoutová D., Rubešová A., Havlíček J. (2011). Shaving of axillary hair has only a transient effect on perceived body odor pleasantness. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 66, 569–581. 10.1007/s00265-011-1305-0 DOI

Kuukasjärvi S., Eriksson C. J. P., Koskela E., Mappers T., Nissinen K., Rantala M. J. (2004). Attractiveness of women’s body odors over the menstrual cycle: the role of oral contraceptives and receiver sex. Behav. Ecol. 15, 579–584. 10.1093/beheco/arh050 DOI

Lenochová P., Roberts S. C., Havlíček J. (2009). Methods of human body odor sampling: the effect of freezing. Chem. Senses 34, 127–138. 10.1093/chemse/bjn067 PubMed DOI

Lenochová P., Vohnoutová P., Roberts S. C., Oberzaucher E., Grammer K., Havlíček J. (2012). Psychology of fragrance use: perception of individual odor and perfume blends reveals a mechanism for idiosyncratic effects on fragrance choice. PLoS ONE 7:e33810. 10.1371/journal.pone.0033810 PubMed DOI PMC

Lord T., Kasprzak M. (1989). Identification of self through olfaction. Percept. Mot. Skills 69, 219–224. 10.2466/pms.1989.69.1.219 PubMed DOI

Milinski M., Wedekind C. (2001). Evidence for MHC-correlated perfume preferences in humans. Behav. Ecol. 12, 140–149. 10.1093/beheco/12.2.140 DOI

Moshkin M., Litvinova N., Litvinova E. A., Bedareva A., Lutsyuk A., Gerlinskaya L. (2012). Scent recognition of infected status in humans. J. Sex. Med. 9, 3211–3218. 10.1111/j.1743-6109.2011.02562.x PubMed DOI

Penn D. J., Oberzaucher E., Grammer K., Fischer G., Soini H. A., Wiesler D., et al. (2007). Individual and gender fingerprints in human body odour. J. R. Soc. Interface 4, 331–340. 10.1098/rsif.2006.0182 PubMed DOI PMC

Platek S. M., Burch R. L., Gallup G. G. (2001). Sex differences in olfactory self-recognition. Physiol. Behav. 73, 635–640. 10.1016/S0031-9384(01)00539-X PubMed DOI

Porter R. H., Balogh R. D., Cernoch J. M., Franchi C. (1986). Recognition of kin through characteristic body odors. Chem. Senses 11, 389–395. 10.1093/chemse/11.3.389 DOI

Porter R. H., Cernoch J. M., McLaughlin F. J. (1983). Maternal recognition of neonates through olfactory cues. Physiol. Behav. 30, 151–154. 10.1016/0031-9384(83)90051-3 PubMed DOI

Raimbault C., Saliba E., Porter R. H. (2007). The effect of the odour of mother’s milk on breastfeeding behaviour of premature neonates. Acta Paediatr. 96, 368–371. 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2007.00114.x PubMed DOI

Rikowski A., Grammer K. (1999). Human body odour, symmetry and attractiveness. Proc. R. Soc. B Biol. Sci. 266, 869–874. 10.1098/rspb.1999.0717 PubMed DOI PMC

Roberts S. C., Gosling L. M., Carter V., Petrie M. (2008). MHC-correlated odour preferences in humans and the use of oral contraceptives. Proc. R. B Biol. Sci. 275, 2715–2722. 10.1098/rspb.2008.0825 PubMed DOI PMC

Roberts S. C., Gosling L. M., Spector T. D., Miller P., Penn D. J., Petrie M. (2005). Body odor similarity in noncohabiting twins. Chem. Senses 30, 651–656. 10.1093/chemse/bji058 PubMed DOI

Roberts S. C., Havlíček J. (2012). “Evolutionary psychology and fragrance design,” in Applied Evolutionary Psychology, ed. Craig Roberts S. (New York: Oxford University Press; ), 330–348.

Rodriguez S., Steer C. D., Farrow A., Golding J., Day I. N. M. (2013). Dependence of deodorant usage on ABCC11 genotype: scope for personalized genetics in personal hygiene. J. Investig. Dermatol. 133, 1760–1767. 10.1038/jid.2012.480 PubMed DOI PMC

Schleidt M. (1980). Personal odor and nonverbal communication. Ethol. Sociobiol. 1, 225–231. 10.1016/0162-3095(80)90009-6 DOI

Schleidt M., Hold B., Attili G. (1981). A cross-cultural study on the attitude towards personal odors. J. Chem. Ecol. 7, 19–31. 10.1007/BF00988632 PubMed DOI

Singh D., Bronstad P. M. (2001). Female body odour is a potential cue to ovulation. Proc. R. Soc. B Biol. Sci. 268, 797–801. 10.1098/rspb.2001.1589 PubMed DOI PMC

Thornhill R., Gangestad S. W. (1999). The scent of symmetry: a human sex pheromone that signals fitness? Evol. Hum. Behav. 20, 175–201. 10.1016/S1090-5138(99)00005-7 DOI

Wedekind C., Seebeck T., Bettens F., Paepke A. J. (1995). MHC—dependent mate preferences in humans. Proc. Biol. Sci. 260, 245–249. 10.1098/rspb.1995.0087 PubMed DOI

Emotional expression in human odour

Human olfactory communication: current challenges and future prospects

Body Odor Based Personality Judgments: The Effect of Fragranced Cosmetics