Scent!

May 31st, 2025| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

Your scent. (And mine, too). Combined with the perfumes and deodorants we employ, our scent has a great deal of influence in our lives, particularly with those we associate with. Or so affirmeth scientists from Middle Tennessee State University, Sabanci University (Turkey), and Cornell U., in “The Interactive Role of Odor Associations in Friendship Preferences,” published in Scientific Reports.

Of course, friendship decisions stem from a number of personal preferences and a variety of sensory cues, but our noses play an important role.

Author Prof. Vivian Zayas:

People take a lot in when they’re meeting face to face. But scent—which people are registering at some level, though probably not consciously—forecasts whether you end up liking this person.”

In fact, that instant bond you feel with some people might be your nose making decisions your brain hasn’t caught up with yet. Our sense of smell silently guides who we befriend, with someone’s natural scent mixed with their perfume or deodorant predicting friendship chemistry. And that is determinative, even more than their appearance or character.

For the study, forty female participants between 18–30 years old (average age 21) took part in a clever “speed-friending” experiment. Each participant had their photograph taken and received a plain cotton t-shirt to wear for about 12 hours during normal daily activities. They were instructed not to modify their typical hygiene routines—continuing to use their regular deodorant, perfume or other products—essentially capturing their natural “diplomatic odor.”

Participants viewed 100-millisecond flashes of other participants’ photographs and rated their “friendship potential” on several criteria. On the day of the speed-friending event, participants first smelled and rated the T-shirts worn for 12 hours by people would later meet. Then came the main event: a series of four-minute face-to-face conversations with approximately ten different partners, followed by friendship ratings after each interaction. After which, participants smelled and rated the same T-shirts again.

Breaking down the statistics, researchers found that both visual cues (from photographs) and olfactory cues (from T-shirts) independently predicted how much participants would like each other after meeting in person. However, the olfactory cues appeared to have an even stronger influence than the visual ones.

Reported the authors:

Findings highlight the dynamic role of ecologically relevant social olfactory cues in informing friendship judgments, as well as the involvement of odor-based associative learning during the early stages of friendship formation.”

All of this challenges conventional wisdom about first impressions, which typically emphasizes visual cues like facial features and expressions. While we do consciously focus on what we see, our noses appear to be quietly influencing who we befriend. Our brains actually start linking certain scents to how we feel about someone, even in the early stages of a friendship.

And, as relationships develop, this odor-association process likely continues, potentially reinforcing emotional connections. Anyone who has found comfort in smelling a loved one’s clothing during separation is experiencing this phenomenon firsthand.

But … did you know that God can smell, too?

Yahweh smelled the soothing aroma.
Genesis 8:21

Unlike false gods who cannot!

Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
They have a mouth, but they cannot speak;
they have eyes, but they cannot see;
they have ears, but they cannot hear;
they have a nose, but they cannot smell.
Psalm 115:4–6

Yes, God can smell. And the best smell to his nose?

Walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us,
an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
Ephesians 5:2

Go, smell for Jesus!

SOURCE: Scientific Reports; Study Finds