Let's talk about the effects scents have on us

Introduction

All our life seems to have an audiovisual format, both our leisure time, the people with whom we engage and the situations in which we are involved are defined by what we can see and hear, those 2 can be considered as the most important senses that we possess.

Our smell however, also has a kind of primal influence in ourselves, it is of crucial importance in our lives, even though sometimes it might not be obvious to realize it now that we are living in modern societies. Scents can provoke different sensations that are able to shape the actions we are going to take next, as well as make us remember memories that we thought we had forgotten, which is something only possible because the smell is a strong trigger of memories associated with each of the correspondent fragrances, and this happens regardless of our willingness to remember said memory.

As a personal example about our sense of smell, I remember when I was little and the new academic year was closely approaching, sometimes I felt the smell of a pencil even if there was no pencil close to me. Even back then I knew my mind was playing tricks with me, and I sensed that scent as is it was actually real, even if I knew it wasn’t.

The sense of smell is closely linked with memory, probably more so than any of our other senses. Those with full olfactory function may be able to think of smells that evoke particular memories. | Source

In addition, the experiences that the scents can make us remember can sometimes be much more emotional than the memories caused by images or by words, a simple example of this is when smelling a perfume of an ex partner and automatically starting to remember all what we went through with that person.

Scents and its influence

The influence from our sense of smell can be so powerful, that there is a type of therapy revolving around smell called “aromatherapy”, it is defined as:

Aromatherapy is the practice of using the natural oils extracted from flowers, bark, stems, leaves, roots or other parts of a plant to enhance psychological and physical well-being. | Source

On the other hand, it is important to notice that since the information we can get by perceiving the scent of things like a fruit, grass or cooked food is less important than the one provided by the scent of other people, it is understandable that the most interesting range of reactions we have that is caused by smell is when said smell comes from another human being. Now, if we want to find out how communication between human beings works based on smell, we have to be clear about 2 concepts, which are pheromones and olfactory cues.

What is a pheromone?

A pheromone is a chemical that an animal produces which changes the behavior of another animal of the same species. Some describe pheromones as behavior-altering agents. Many people do not know that pheromones trigger other behaviors in the animal of the same species, apart from sexual behavior. | Source

They are chemical cues specified by each species in particular and cause instinctive reactions.

What is an olfactory cue?

Olfactory cues are one set of stimuli used by primates to discriminate between individuals. | Source

Their goal is to help identify each specific member of the species, and are based on the recognition of previously experienced scents.

Both are very common in many forms of life, and the case of human beings is obviously not an exception.

Although the human species is not as sensitive to scents as other animals (our nose is certainly smaller, having as a result fewer olfactory receptors), thanks to our nose and sense of smell we are able to identify aspects of other people such as their identity, gender, among others, because of our own unique personal scent that each of us releases.

It is possible that the most important use of these scent traces is their capacity to impact our reproductive conduct. Both men and women are much more receptive to scents from the other gender when reaching puberty, and in the case of women this capacity to perceive and respond to scents fluctuates with their menstrual cycle, so the link between sexual behavior and scents is very clear. It seems that men and women judge the attractiveness of people in part because of their smell, because it provides relevant information about the internal state of our bodies, an area over which sight and hearing can not contribute much.

Human females are easily influenced by human male pheromones; a woman’s menstrual cycle can be regulated by a man’s pheromones from his perspiration. Source

Beyond the search for a partner, mothers for example can differentiate the smell of their babies only days after giving birth, and something similar happens with the babies because already from the first months of life they are able to recognize their mother by her scent.

How can scents be of such great influence on us?

The answer lies in how our brain was developed. We need to keep in mind that the parts of the brain responsible for handling information about the chemical signals that surround us are very old regarding our evolutionary past, and therefore the developed much earlier than other structures. Smell (along with taste) is directly connected to the the limbic system, which is explained below:

The limbic system comprises a set of structures within the brain that are regarded by scientists as playing a major role in controlling mood, memory, behaviour and emotion. It is often regarded as being the old, or primitive, part of the brain, because these same structures were present within the brains of the very first mammals. Knowing this helps us to understand why smell plays such an important role in memory, mood and emotion. | Source

For this reason the chemical signals that we receive through the nose can act over our emotional state, although we do not realize it, and that is why the smells are a unique way to affect people’s mood even though they are not aware of it when this happens.

No one can deny the good feeling we all feel when we get inside a new car and it smells like new, it make us feel good even if the car is not ours.

Conclusion

We are susceptible to smells whether we like it or not, they can have repercussions in how and what we feel, as well as how we act, we are hardwired to be like that because being able to identify certain things just by sniffing around was a great tool of survival back then in primitive times. Today, being able to perceive smells is still important, but its hardly a vital necessity anymore (with a few exceptions with certain jobs).

Even if today we might tend to consider our sense of smell as less important than sight or hearing, it will always be of huge help when identifying things that cannot be seen or heard, therefore it is fair to say its usefulness is indisputable, and it can even be a good example of the wisdom nature has when it comes to living beings evolving, because we are instinctively attracted to things that smell good for us (and most of the time, they are good things), and the same happens with things that smell bad for us (most of the time they are bad for us, like rotten things, or wastes), in this way, our sense of smell is like a guide indicating what things to ignore and what things to interact with.