As usual, Mike has found web content that rings my bells. My take
(speculative) on this issue, in a nutshell:
Sure, the sweat is basically salt water, period -- but the emotional
state of the sweater may influence the growth of the various micro-organisms
that give sweat odor (as do other states of the sweater) -- and maybe vice
versa (could we be happier if we were inoculated with happy micro-organisms?)
In nonhumans, there is good evidence that scents convey information
about emotional status, including fear.
The distinction between pheromones and chemosignals (aka
semiochemicals) involves the restriction that pheromones be species-specific.
Scents may convey information to both conspecifics and members of other
species, thus "semiochemicals," signal chemicals. For example, your pets may
be able to detect your emotional state by your scent.
In nonhumans, semiochemicals may influence behavior via sensory systems
other than the primary olfactory system (smell), such as the vomeronasal sense,
which is not believed to be functional in humans.
Bottom line, having in the last two months having four manuscripts
accepted for publication, you can be pretty sure that my perspiration exudes
happiness.
Cheers,
Karl L. Wuensch
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Palij [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, June 07, 2015 11:00 AM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
Cc: Michael Palij
Subject: [tips] Do You Smell Happy?
And, no, I don't mean are you happy when you smell things.
Okay, this is a little convoluted but I'll try to be clear. I get an email
newsletter from WebMD and the lead article this week is "Does Your Sweat
Stink?". The link from it goes to a quiz on "body fluids" with the true/false
question "sweat has no smell" and the correct answer is "True", it is the
bacteria and probably funky stuff on your skin that makes sweat stinky
(incidentally, I got 10 out of 11 questions about various bodily fluids which
would seem to imply that I know my bodily fluids except when it comes to
drinking pee). If you want to test your knowledge of bodily fluids (why am I
reminded of the movie "Dr. Strangelove"?) see:
http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/rm-quiz-body-fluids
But, as I scanned down the email, there was a sentence link that said "Is it
Possible to 'Smell' Happiness?"
My first reactions was "What the, what the?" I mean, sweat doesn't smell (I
know because WebMD tells me so), so how could a person exude "happiness" or any
other emotional state outside of their breath and/or the other end. I clicked
on the link and was brought to:
http://www.webmd.com/balance/news/20150526/do-people-transmit-happiness-by-smell
It was here that I read:
|"Human sweat produced when a person is happy induces a state similar to
|happiness in somebody who inhales this odor," said study co-author Gun
|Semin, a research professor in the department of psychology at Koc
|University in Istanbul, Turkey, and the Instituto Superior de
|Psicologia Aplicada in Lisbon, Portugal.
A state of cognitive dissonance ensues: WebMD tells me that sweat has no smell
but now WebMD runs a story that says that one can smell "happy" in sweat! I am
confused.
I also have a disturbing vision of a TV commercial involving Marty Seligman
pitching a new perfume called "Happiness"
(shot in a Calvin Klein fashion, such as
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de1vyikBnsg
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnqO_4SD8YQ
The latter is basically eye candy for people who like that kind of candy).
But I digress.
So, being the intellectually curious person that I am known to be, I search out
the original research article that served as the basis for this media article
and, Lo and Behold! it is an article in the journal "Psychological Science".
For the article, see:
http://pss.sagepub.com/content/26/6/684
And, since the APS thought this was research of immense importance and
significance to not only the scientific community but to the world, here's the
pop psych version that APS put out:
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/a-sniff-of-happiness-chemicals-in-sweat-may-convey-positive-emotion.html
NOTE #1: The chemicals are not pheromones but "chemosignals".
NOTE #2: Only women were used as subjects because of their greater olfactory
power.
NOTE #3: One reason why this research was done is apparently there is evidence
that there are chemosignals for negative emotions and no one has studied
positive emotions (boy, Seligman missed that one).
NOTE #4: If there are chemosignals in sweat (detected as odors via our
olfactory system -- unless there's a licking manipulation I'm missing), then
why does WebMD say that sweat doesn't smell?
THEY LIES TO ME! Maybe. This raises questions about whether I actually that
pee question wrong.
So, what is the truth? Can we smell the emotional state of another?
Sniff a colleague and see if you can correctly guess his/her emotional state.
But don't be too obvious about it because you might come off as being somewhat
creepy (or cannibalistic).
-Mike Palij
New York University
[email protected]
P.S. I am absolutely sure that this has nothing to do with how the research
turned out but the APS pop version of the research states at the end:
"The research was supported by Unilever Research & Development (AGR
01049/OIV120260)."
Unilever is multinational corporation and among its products are Axe body spray
and Lifebuoy soap; see:
http://www.unilever.com/brands/
They apparently also make Hellmann's mayonnaise but I'm not sure that that is
relevant. ;-)
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