Table 1 Chronological summary of research investigating the crossmodal influence of olfactory stimuli on people's ratings of other people's faces (typically unknown others shown in photos)
From: The scent of attraction and the smell of success: crossmodal influences on person perception
Study | Participants | Olfactory stimuli | Presentation of odorants | Face rating | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rotton (1983) | 24 males and 24 females | Ethyl mercoptan (very −ve) or NO | Between- sessions | Energy and well-being of 2 male and 2 female faces | Ambient malodour only reduced ratings of well-being significantly |
Cann and Ross (1989) | 63 males | Island Gardenia by Jovan (+ve)/Ammonium sulfide (−ve)/NO | Between- participants | Attractiveness of 50 female faces | No effect of pleasantness of ambient odour on ratings |
Kirk-Smith and Booth (1990) | ? | Shalimar perfume(+ve)/Banana essence (+ve)/NO | Between- participants? | Sexiness of 1/2 naked torsos and softness | Shalimar perfume led to sig. change in sexiness ratings. Banana odour = no effect |
Bensafi et al. (2002) | 14 females | Floral fragrance (+ve)/NO | Blocked? | 32 female faces rated pleasant or not | Discrete either/or choice and absence of unpleasant odour may help to explain null results |
Hirsch (2006) | 37 (males and females) | Pink grapefruit/Grape/Cucumber/NO (Pink grapefruit + vanilla + baby powder) | Between- participants | Age of 20 male and female faces | Only pink grapefruit lowered age, especially for men rating women |
Demattè et al. (2007) | 16 females | Geranium and Lynx fragrance (+ve)/Body odour and Rubber (−ve)/NO | Trial-by-trial | Attractiveness of 40 male faces | Unpleasant odours lowered attractiveness ratings. No effect of body relevance |
Li et al. (2007) | 30 (males and females) | Lemon (+ve)/ ethereal (neutral)/sweat (−ve) | Trial-by-trial | Likability of 80 faces (sex not specified) | Assimilation in non-conscious group, no effect of odour in conscious group |
Capparuccini et al. (2010) | 50 males and 50 females | Pi neo (M) (+ve)/Angel or Demon (F) (+ve) | Between- sessions | 10 characteristic of 5Â M and 5 F faces (neutral emotion): | Beauty ratings enhanced most by gender congruent (with respect to participant) compared to gender-incongruent scents. No effect for gender neutral ratings (familiarity and confidence) |
McGlone et al. (2013) | 16 females | Lynx fragrance (+ve)/Synthetic body odour (−ve)/NO | Trial-by-trial | Attractiveness of 20 male faces | Unpleasant odours sig. lowered ratings relative to NO and +ve fragrance condition |
Marinova and Moss (2014) | 36 females | In Motion perfume by Hugo Boss (M) (+ve)/Ghost perfume by Ghost (F) (+ve)/NO | Between- participants | Attractive, reliable, outgoing, intelligent, wealthy, and socially competent of 15 male faces | Gender-incongruent female perfume lowered attractiveness ratings only for medium attractive men compared to congruent scent |
Seubert et al. (2014) | 6 males and 12 females | 5 odours from 100% fish (−ve) to 100% rose (+ve) | Trial-by-trial | Attractiveness and age of 8 female neutral faces morphed to show more versus less wrinkles and blemishes than comparison | Odour valence affected attractiveness but −ve odour may have distracted in age task |
Cook et al. (2015) | 20 (males and females) | Methylmercaptan (−ve)/Jasmine (+ve)/NO | Trial-by-trial | Pleasantness of 18 male and 18 female neutral faces | Pleasant aroma led to higher pleasantness ratings than NO, which, in turn, was higher than for unpleasant rotton cabbage odour |
Novak et al. (2015) | 8 males and 8 females | NO/Lilac (+ve) /Sweat (−ve) | Blocked | Emotion of 4 female and 4 male dynamic face stimuli | Null results in this pre-registered study |
Cook et al. (2017) | 20–23 (males and females) | Methylmercaptan (−ve)/Jasmine (+ve)/NO | Trial-by-trial | Pleasantness of 30 happy and 30 disgusted male and female faces | The −ve odour significantly lowered pleasantness ratings relative to +ve odour for happy and disgusted faces |
Cook et al. (2018) | 26–28 (males and females) | Methylmercaptan (−ve)/Jasmine (+ve)/NO | Trial-by-trial | Pleasantness of 45 male and 45 female neutral faces | Simultaneous presentation of face and −ve odour led to near sig. > reduction in pleasantness of faces than sequential presentation |
Risso et al. (2021) | 6 males and 6 females | NO/Liquorice (M) (+ve)/Caramel (F) (+ve) | Trial-by-trial | Attractiveness of 30 male and 30 female faces | Gender-incongruent food odour lowered ratings more than gender-congruent food odour |