Vanessa Van Edwards launched this idea that frankly shocked me a little. She talked about an experiment made to see if sweat smells different based on what triggers it. Apparently, the sweat released after running on a treadmill smells different from the sweat released before jumping from a plane. A significant proportion of the “smellers” could identify which “smellee” have done which activity.
Because I found this to be very interesting, I made some research on this and it seems that idea has been tested before. In 2010, researchers from Rice University presented a study about the fact that people in close romantic relationships can smell emotions like happiness, fear and sexual arousal in each other (Science News). Another study has been done in 2012 by some researchers from Utrecht University. They found that people can smell emotions like fear and disgust through the chemicals our bodies release (Psychological Science).
While growing up, my mother used to tell me that I shouldn’t be afraid of dogs that bark at me because they can smell fear. I always thought this is bullsh*t, but I was wrong. So if we can smell other people’s emotions, it’s obvious for animals to be able to smell our emotions because their smell is much more evolved than ours. The condition would be for our emotions to release the same chemicals.
No, we shouldn’t start smelling each other from now on like dogs do, but it’s an interesting discovery. It’s a result of our mindset, which can influence our daily lives. It’s another proof of how important our thoughts are and how real it can get.
What do you think about these results? How impactful do you think this idea can be in our lives?