The perception of odor pleasantness is shared across cultures

Arshamian, Artin; Gerkin, Richard C.; Kruspe, Nicole; Wnuk, Ewelina; Floyd, Simeón; O’Meara, Carolyn; Rodriguez, Gabriela Garrido; Lundström, Johan N.; Mainland, Joel D.; Majid, Asifa

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2022.02.062

Cited by 56 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Odor hedonic perception also appeared to depend on repeated exposures 28 , 29 , verbal influence 30 , 31 , or stimulus presentation pathway (orthonasal vs. retronasal) 32 . Contrary to individual differences, it seems that the perception of odor pleasantness is similar across cultures in adults 33 as well as in children 34 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 75%

A study on the relationship between odor hedonic ratings and individual odor detection threshold

Bontempi

Jacquot

Brand

2022

Sci Rep

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Odor hedonic perception (pleasant/unpleasant character) is considered as the first and one of the most prominent dimensions in olfaction and is known to depend on several parameters. Among them, the relation between the odorant concentration and the hedonic estimation has been widely studied. However, few studies have considered odor hedonic ratings (OHR) in relation to individual detection thresholds (IDT). Thus, the aim of this study was to determine olfactory detection thresholds and to describe hedonic rating variations from individual thresholds to higher concentrations. IDT were performed for two pleasant (apple and jasmine) and two unpleasant (durian and trimethylamine) odorant stimuli. The experimenter presented one by one in a randomized order, the different odorant concentrations above IDT. Participants rated odor hedonic valence of these stimuli on a visual analog scale. Results showed, except for trimethylamine, the same relationship between hedonic ratings and stimulus concentration, i.e., an increase of pleasantness (apple and jasmine)/unpleasantness (durian) ratings at low and middle concentrations followed by a plateau at high concentrations. Correlations between OHR and concentrations as well as between OHR and threshold steps were always significant. Moreover, comparisons between both conditions showed that the correlation coefficient was significantly higher for trimethylamine (and a trend for apple) when IDTs were considered, while no difference was found for jasmine and durian. Overall, results suggested that the relationship between OHR and IDT is odor specific. These findings contribute to explain the large variability of the hedonic tone (i.e., weakly vs. very pleasant, weakly vs. very unpleasant) at specific concentration in the general population and could serve future research in this field (e.g., olfactory preferences in nutrition studies, anhedonia in psychiatric disorders…).

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 75%

A study on the relationship between odor hedonic ratings and individual odor detection threshold

Bontempi

Jacquot

Brand

2022

Sci Rep

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“…For them, results are similar to those observed in previous research, that unpleasant odors are less affected by aging ( Konstantinidis et al 2006 ). There is increasing evidence that unpleasant odors have a privileged access to the olfactory cortex ( Iravani et al 2021 ) and that there is cross-cultural agreement on which odors are unpleasant ( Arshamian et al 2022 ; Oleszkiewicz et al 2022 ). We speculate that for older participants that have a sufficient olfactory capacity (high-performers), unpleasant odor representations are preserved.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptual odor qualities predict successful odor identification in old age

et al. 2022

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Odor identification is a common assessment of olfaction, and it is affected in a large number of diseases. Identification abilities decline with age, but little is known about whether there are perceptual odor features that can be used to predict identification. Here, we analyzed data from a large, population-based sample of 2,479 adults, aged 60 years or above, from the Swedish National study on Aging and Care in Kungsholmen. Participants performed both free and cued odor identification tests. In a separate experiment, we assessed perceived pleasantness, familiarity, intensity, and edibility of all odors in the first sample, and examined how odor identification performance is associated with these variables. The analysis showed that high-intensity odors are easier to identify than low-intensity odors overall, but also that they are more susceptible to the negative repercussions of old age. This result indicates that sensory decline is a major aspect of age-dependent odor identification impairment, and suggests a framework where identification likelihood is proportional to the perceived intensity of the odor. Additional analyses further showed that high-performing individuals can discriminate target odors from distractors along the pleasantness and edibility dimensions and that unpleasant and inedible odors show smaller age-related differences in identification. Altogether, these results may guide further development and optimization of brief and efficient odor identification tests as well as influence the design of odorous products targeted toward older consumers.

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“…After all, yesteryear’s contemporary hit music may be today’s nostalgia music (Barrett et al , 2010) and the same goes for scent too (Hwanga and Hyun, 2013; Reid et al , 2015). Relevant here, those scent marketers worried about how to deal with cross-cultural differences ought to be heartened by the latest research findings to have been published suggesting that vanilla is a universally-liked scent (Arshamian et al , 2022). At the same time, however, it should also be noted how the “meaning” (or at least the consumer’s/public’s interpretation) of a number of popular ambient scents such as, for example, pine have changed as the decades have gone by Hickman (2022), Spence (2022a).…”

Section: Questioning the “Meaning” Of Marketing Studies Involving Atm...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental atmospherics: a multi-sensory perspective

Spence

2022

QMR

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Purpose Atmospherics is undoubtedly a multi-sensory concept, despite mostly being studied on a sense-by-sense basis by architects, sensory marketers and urban designers alike. That is, our experience is nearly always the result of cross-modal/multi-sensory interactions between what we see, hear, smell and feel in a given space. As such, it is critical that researchers study the senses in concert. That said, the few empirical studies that have attempted to assess the impact of deliberately combining the senses in a retail/health-care environment have typically failed to deliver the multi-sensory boost to experience (or sales) that the multi-sensory science predicts ought to be observed. Invoking notions of processing fluency, sensory overload and sensory (in-) congruency in the field of multi-sensory atmospherics may help to explain what happened (or went wrong) in such cases. Design/methodology/approach Critical review of literature on atmospherics and sensory marketing, highlighting various difficulties of interpretation and challenges to accepted conclusions. Findings Atmospherics is a fundamentally multi-sensory concept, and cross-modal interactions are the rule, not the exception. As such, researchers need to study atmospherics in a multi-sensory context. Originality/value This critical commentary highlights the need for researchers to consider atmospherics from a multi-sensory, rather than sense-by-sense perspective.

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The perception of odor pleasantness is shared across cultures

Cited by 56 publications

References 46 publications

A study on the relationship between odor hedonic ratings and individual odor detection threshold

A study on the relationship between odor hedonic ratings and individual odor detection threshold

Perceptual odor qualities predict successful odor identification in old age

Experimental atmospherics: a multi-sensory perspective

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