Olfaction plays an important role in human social communication, including multiple domains in which people often rely on their sense of smell in the social context. The importance of the sense of smell and its role can however vary inter-individually and culturally. Despite the growing body of literature on differences in olfactory performance or hedonic preferences across the globe, the aspects of a given culture as well as culturally universal individual differences affecting odor awareness in human social life remain unknown. Here, we conducted a large-scale analysis of data collected from 10 794 participants from 52 study sites from 44 countries all over the world. The aim of our research was to explore the potential individual and country-level correlates of odor awareness in the social context. The results show that the individual characteristics were more strongly related than country-level factors to self-reported odor awareness in different social contexts. A model including individual-level predictors (gender, age, material situation, education, and preferred social distance) provided a relatively good fit to the data, but adding country-level predictors (Human Development Index, population density, and average temperature) did not improve model parameters. Although there were some cross-cultural differences in social odor awareness, the main differentiating role was played by the individual differences. This suggests that people living in different cultures and different climate conditions may still share some similar patterns of odor awareness if they share other individual-level characteristics.

Behavioral Sciences Research Center Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences Tehran Iran

Belgrade University Belgrade Serbia

Center of Social and Psychological Sciences SAS Institute of Experimental Psychology Bratislava Slovakia

Centre for Child and Youth Studies University West Trollhättan Sweden

Centre for Social Studies University of Coimbra Coimbra Portugal

Centre for Social Studies University of Madeira Funchal Madeira

Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience Unit D'Or Institute for Research and Education Rio de Janeiro Brazil

College of Science Health and the Liberal Arts Thomas Jefferson University Philadelphia PA USA

Departament of Psychology Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de Mexico Mexico

Departament of Social Psychology University of Amsterdam Amsterdam The Netherlands

Department of Agricultural Extension and Education Razi University Kermanshah Iran

Department of Child and Family Studies Kyung Hee University Seoul South Korea

Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy Babes Bolyai University Cluj Napoca Cluj Napoca Romania

Department of Clinical Services Federal Neuro Psychiatric Hospital Benin City Nigeria

Department of Humanities and Social Sciences Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati Guwahati India

Department of Medicine and Health Sciences Norwegian University of Science and Technology Trondheim Norway

Department of Organization and Human Resources Management Central University of Finance and Economics Beijing China

Department of Psychiatry Chiang Mai University Chiang Mai Thailand

Department of Psychology Akdeniz University Antalya Turkey

Department of Psychology Ankara University Ankara Turkey

Department of Psychology Catholic University of Milan Milan Italy

Department of Psychology College of Education King Saud University Riyadh Saudi Arabia

Department of Psychology Fudan University Shanghai China

Department of Psychology Ivan Franko National University of Lviv Lviv Ukraine

Department of Psychology Monash University Bandar Sunway Malaysia

Department of Psychology Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro Brazil

Department of Psychology Pontificia Universidad Católica Del Perú Lima Peru

Department of Psychology Saint Mary's University Halifax Canada

Department of Psychology South West University Neofit Rilski Blagoevgrad Bulgaria

Department of Psychology University of Macau Macau China

Department of Psychology University of Nairobi Nairobi Kenya

Department of Psychology University of Nigeria Nsukka Nigeria

Department of Psychology University of Warwick Coventry UK

Department of Pure and Applied Psychology Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba Akoko Nigeria

Department of Social Psychology University of Granada Granada Spain

Department of Zoology Faculty of Science Charles University Prague Czech Republic

Educational Research Centre Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica Banská Bystrica Slovakia

Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación National University of Entre Rios Buenos Aires Argentina

Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación National University of Entre Rios Concepción del Uruguay Argentina

Faculty in Sopot SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities Sopot Poland

Faculty of Arts and Sciences Izmir University of Economics Izmir Turkey

Faculty of Computing and Management Science Makerere University Business School Kampala Uganda

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences University of Zagreb Zagreb Croatia

Faculty of Life Sciences University of Vienna Vienna Austria

Faculty of Literature Department of Anthropology Cumhuriyet University Sivas Turkey

Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences University of Coimbra Coimbra Portugal

Faculty of Psychology Lviv State University of Internal Affairs Lviv Ukraine

Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro Brazil

Independent scholar Bangalore India

INRA Centre des Sciences du Gout et de l'Alimentation CSGA Dijon France

Institute of Clinical Psychology University of Karachi Karachi Pakistan

Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology Russian Academy of Sciences Moscow Russia

Institute of Psychology University of Pécs Pécs Hungary

Institute of Psychology University of Science and Culture Tehran Iran

Institute of Psychology University of Tartu Tartu Estonia

Institute of Psychology University of the State of Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro Brazil

Institute of Psychology University of Wroclaw Wroclaw Poland

International Institute for the Advanced Studies of Psychotherapy and Applied Mental Health Babes Bolyai University Cluj Napoca Cluj Napoca Romania

Ivan Franko National University of Lviv Lviv Ukraine

Jurusan Pendidikan Kepelatihan Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia Bandung Indonesia

Laboratory of Evolution of Human Behavior Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte Natal City Brazil

Mõttemaru OÜ Tartu Estonia

National Research University Higher School of Economics Moscow Russia

Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Bangalore India

Philadelphia University Philadelphia USA

Sanford School of Public Policy Duke University Durham NC USA

School of Educational Studies and Modern Languages Universiti Utara Malaysia Sintok Malaysia

School of Psychology University of Surrey Surrey UK

School of Public Health University of Ghana Legon Ghana

SRM Institute of Science and Technology School of Management Chennai India

Universidad del Magdalena Santa Marta Colombia

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