The Psychology Of Scent
The Psychology Of Scent – The sense of smell, or sense of smell, is one of the first sensory organisms to evolve. It helped us figure out what was dangerous or safe, delicious or poisonous—it even helped us sniff out potential mating partners. So it only makes sense that today our sense of smell is still intrinsically linked to the parts of our brain that store and process memory and emotion.
During the lockdown, the conversation around mental health opened up even more than it has in recent years. For the first time (and simultaneously), millions of people around the world experienced acute symptoms of depression and anxiety. Interestingly, as the ‘new normal’ of Covid-19 set in, and as industries around the world continued to struggle, fragrance sales actually saw a marked increase.
The Psychology Of Scent
After speaking with our customers throughout the pandemic, we noticed that many people gained a renewed appreciation for scent and its power to affect mood and trigger memories. Whether it was fragrance’s ability to soothe and comfort, to make the same room feel different from day to day, or to transport you across the world without leaving your home, it seems that fragrance played a major role in getting a lot of people through lockdown and the hard times that came with it.
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Of course, the experience of fragrance differs from person to person – everyone has their own personal associations with fragrance, and no one will experience a fragrance in exactly the same way. So, to help you find the perfect fragrance for YOUR needs, we thought we’d go through each fragrance category and explain what benefits they can have for your well-being.
Fresh/citrus scents contain more fresh, refreshing notes and thus do an excellent job of uplifting and uplifting. Perfect when you need a little sunshine in your life or a pep in your step.
Musk scents have a comforting quality – they are usually quite skin-like and human, therefore feeling familiar, safe and grounded. A musky scent is great for easing feelings of anxiety, and is the fragrant equivalent of wrapping yourself in a blanket.
Floral scents give us the distinct feeling of being in nature – they can help you feel like you’re stopping to smell the roses, even when you don’t have time. They can offer a sense of escape and transport you to a place of beauty and tranquility.
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Spicy scents can help add some excitement to your day, they can help keep your mind alert and help with focus. By “spicing up” your fragrance game, you can break up feelings of boredom and monotony.
Woody scents are the earthy scents that can help you feel safe and at peace in a room. Widely believed to aid sleep and relaxation, woody scents have been used for centuries in religious and spiritual practices.
They’re really just the basics when it comes to scents and their various associations, but we hope we’ve helped you think about it!
At Lore, we pride ourselves on providing service with a sense of genuine love and care. If you want a fragrance that really feels like you, pop into store for a personal consultation with one of our lovely team members, or you can contact us online with any questions or queries you may have.
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Please note that none of the above information is intended as medical information and should not replace medical advice. If you need support, here are some good resources – The sense of smell or smell is perhaps the most crucial human sense that can influence our cognition, emotions, attitude and behaviour.
Our sense of smell is often considered to be one of the most mysterious of our five senses. Smell has played an important role in ensuring our survival throughout our evolution. It is only through our ability to distinguish thousands of unique scents and smells that we are able to identify a threat and realize when we are safe.
Unfortunately, most of us tend to underestimate the importance of smell. Smell is a physical sensation that can regulate our mental experiences. It can induce psychological states of mind, both negative and positive, and trigger instant reflexes. It can subtly influence our thoughts and feelings even when we are unaware of the scents in our current environment.
According to Fifth Sense, a charity for individuals affected by smell disorders, our olfactory neurons generate an impulse when they detect an odor. The olfactory nerve sends the impulse to a part of the brain known as the olfactory bulb. Here the signal is processed and sent on to related areas in the brain. This is collectively called the limbic system.
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The Fifth Sense explains that “The limbic system consists of a set of structures in the brain that are considered by scientists to play an important role in controlling mood, memory, behavior and emotions.” Khan Academy adds that “
.” This helps us realize why smell is so important when it comes to managing our mood, memories and emotions.
Our sense of smell is an evolutionary tool and all creatures from single-celled bacteria to bloodhounds can identify chemicals around them. The American Psychological Association (APA) explains “
But can smell affect our mood and behaviour? Rachel S. Herz, assistant professor of psychology at Brown University and author of The Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell, believes the answer is yes. She explains “
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Smells affect people’s mood, work performance and behavior in a number of ways, but it is not because smells act on us like a drug, instead we work with them through our experiences with them
.” An odor can only create a response once we have associated a previous event with that odor. This process is called associative learning, where one event is linked to another due to previous experiences. Once the association is established, the linked event can generate a conditioned response in response to the original event.
We know that the neurological substrates of smell are specifically targeted for associative learning and emotional processing. The olfactory bulbs are part of the limbic system and connect directly with limbic structures that process emotions (amygdala) and associative learning (hippocampus)
A study from 2016 showed a significant role for olfactory stimulation in changing cognition, mood and social behaviour. It found that fragrances such as perfumes and room fresheners can affect our psychophysiological activities. The study says “
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The sense of smell plays an important role in the physiological effects of mood, stress and work ability
Our memories are stored in the part of the brain that processes scents and smells. Therefore, scents can not only trigger our memories, but also affect our emotions, cognitive abilities and productivity as well. “Odor molecules flow to the limbic system in the brain, where feelings, moods, emotions, sexual behavior and memory are processed,” says Karen Gilbert, perfume expert and author of The Art and Craft of Fragrance.
Our sense of smell, or smell, is closely tied to our memory, perhaps more so than any other human sense because of the unique anatomy of our brain, says Harvard’s Venkatesh Murthy, a Raymond Leo Erikson Professor of Life Sciences in Molecular and Cell Biology. Certain scents can even bring back memories from childhood. “
This can often happen spontaneously, with a smell acting as a trigger to remember a long-forgotten event or experience,
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” explains the fifth sense. The French writer Marcel Proust talks in his book Remembrance of Things Past about how scents are often associated with early life experiences that are stored in our memory. This is known as the Proustian memory effect. “
Scents are very important and special because “they can bring back memories that would otherwise never be remembered,” says Herz. She adds “
If there is a smell that is associated with something that happened in your past and you never come into that smell again, you may never remember what that thing was. And this is unlike any of our other sensory experiences.
Fragrances can be highly emotional and can stimulate strong emotional responses. According to the Social Issues Research Center (SIRC) “
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The perception of smell consists not only of the sensation of the odors themselves, but of the experiences and feelings associated with these feelings
.” Research shows that most of our preference for and aversion to scents is primarily based on emotional associations. As mentioned earlier, our olfactory receptors are linked to the limbic system which regulates our emotions. So when a scent stimulates our brain and activates our limbic system, deeply rooted emotional reactions are triggered.
Smell also plays a crucial role in romantic attraction, as body odor can make us like or dislike someone. In fact, research at the University of Chicago found that we prefer smells from individuals with better genetic material related to immunity. According to the fifth sense, “
Research has shown that our body odor, produced by the genes that make up our immune system, can help us subconsciously choose our partners.
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Furthermore, a study from 2013 found that there is a strong connection between the sense of smell and emotions.