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Psychology behind odour sensations

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The genetic variation from person to person determines that some people have slightly more smell receptors in their nose than others. People who work in scent-related jobs like inventing perfume, have stronger sense of smell. This is due to frequent exposure to different smells. It is generally believed that women have a better sense of smell than men.

Our perception of smells, and to lesser degree the smells we emit, are very functional, evolved to guide our ancestors to survival of their line.Evolutionary, men are more competitive, women are more cooperative. We therefore, evolved for male’s smell to be more confronting. For a man, another man is a competitor for reproduction. For a woman, another woman is a likely part of safety network. As far as the other gender is concerned, it is evolutionary more important for a woman to find a healthy man, so women evolved to be more sensitive to male smell.

Women have a better sense of smell than men, probably because they have more brain cells as per science. Human can remember a scent with 65 per cent accuracy after a whole year. Women’s finer senses of smell partially explain observations like women keeping cleaner homes than men, and their being pickier about food. Women choose to wear fragrance more than men, and it seems to be more for themselves than for the benefit of their male partners. It is more difficult to mask a man’s natural odour from a woman than it is to mask a woman’s natural odour from a man, which is why you can get away with that third-day sweat shirt around him, but his appalls you. That is why women need a better sense of smell.

On standard tests of smelling ability, including odour detection, discrimination and identification, the women consistently score significantly higher than men. One researcher has claimed that the superior olfactory ability of females is evident even in newborn babies. It is also possible, however, that many studies have not taken account of the changes in female sensitivity hormones as the reason for stronger sense of smell than men.

While, it was known that males and females greatly differed in their perceptual evaluation of odours, with women outperforming men on many kinds of smell tests, there was no evidence for biological differences that would account for this. Since smells are linked to experiences and emotions, the superior capability in women suggests a increased cognitive or emotional feature than just a perceptual one, the scientists have suggested. The fact that few cells are added to our brains throughout life suggests that women are already born with these extra cells.

Women are bombarded with advertisements about odours. Feminine odours, body odour, seductive perfume odours, bad breath odours, even pet odours. I don’t think men care as much and their awareness is not as high.

Jayanthy Subramaniam 

(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)

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