People around the world like the same kinds of smell

Date:
April 4, 2022
Source:
Karolinska Institutet
Summary:
What smells we like or dislike is primarily determined by the
structure of the particular odor molecule. A collaborative study
shows that people share odor preferences regardless of cultural
background.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
What smells we like or dislike is primarily determined by the structure of
the particular odour molecule. A collaborative study involving researchers
from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, and the University of Oxford,
UK, shows that people share odour preferences regardless of cultural background. The study is published in the journal Current Biology.


==========================================================================
"We wanted to examine if people around the world have the same smell
perception and like the same types of odour, or whether this is something
that is culturally learned," says Artin Arshamian, researcher at the
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet. "Traditionally
it has been seen as cultural, but we can show that culture has very
little to do with it." The present study shows that the structure of
the odour molecule determines whether a smell is considered pleasant
or not. The researchers found that certain smells were liked more than
others regardless of the cultural affiliation of participants.

"Cultures around the world rank different odours in a similar way no
matter where they come from, but odour preferences have a personal --
although not cultural -- component," says Dr Arshamian.

Studied indigenous populations The study was made possible through an international network of researchers that collaborated in a unique
combination of experimental methods and field studies. The network
comprised researchers from Karolinska Institutet, Lund University and
Stockholm University (Sweden), University of Oxford and University College London (UK), Arizona State University, Monell Chemical Senses Center and
the University of Pennsylvania (USA), Universidad San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador), University of Melbourne (Australia) and National Autonomous University of Mexico.



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Many of the researchers are field workers working with indigenous
populations.

For this present study, the researchers selected nine communities
representing different lifestyles: four hunter-gatherer groups and five
groups with different forms of farming and fishing. Some of these groups
have very little contact with Western foodstuffs or household articles.

Disparate odiferous environments "Since these groups live in such
disparate odiferous environments, like rainforest, coast, mountain and
city, we capture many different types of 'odour experiences'," says
Dr Arshamian.

The study included a total of 235 individuals, who were asked to rank
smells on a scale of pleasant to unpleasant. The results show variation
between individuals within each group, but global correspondence on
which odours are pleasant and unpleasant. The researchers show that
the variation is largely explained by molecular structure (41 per cent)
and by personal preference (54 per cent).

"Personal preference can be due to learning but could also be a result
of our genetic makeup," says Dr Arshamian.



========================================================================== Vanilla was considered most pleasant The odours the participants were
asked to rank included vanilla, which smelled best then followed by ethyl butyrate, which smells like peaches. The smell that most participants considered the least pleasant was isovaleric acid, which can be found
in many foods, such as cheese, soy milk and apple juice, but also in
foot sweat.

According to Dr Arshamian, a possible reason why people consider some
smells more pleasant than others regardless of culture is that such
odours increased the chances of survival during human evolution.

"Now we know that there's universal odour perception that is driven by molecular structure and that explains why we like or dislike a certain
smell," Dr Arshamian continues. "The next step is to study why this is
so by linking this knowledge to what happens in the brain when we smell
a particular odour." The field work behind the study was financed by
the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), the general
study by the Swedish Research Council and the USA's National Institutes
of Health (NIH). The researchers have reported that there are no conflicts
of interest.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Karolinska_Institutet. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Artin Arshamian, Richard C. Gerkin, Nicole Kruspe, Ewelina Wnuk,
Simeon
Floyd, Carolyn O'Meara, Gabriela Garrido Rodriguez, Johan
N. Lundstro"m, Joel D. Mainland, Asifa Majid. The perception of
odor pleasantness is shared across cultures. Current Biology,
2022; DOI: 10.1016/ j.cub.2022.02.062 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220404120406.htm

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