Next time you’re having an ugly day, it might pay to give yourself a quick spray of your favourite fragrance. New research from the Monell Chemical Senses Center has discovered that women’s faces are rated as more attractive in the presence of pleasant odours, suggesting perfume can change people’s perceptions of one another.
The study asked 18 young adults - 12 women and six men - to rate the attractiveness and age of eight female faces presented in a photograph. As they viewed the image, one of five odours was simultaneously released. The scents were different blends of fish oil and rose oils to represent both bad and good smells. Subjects were then asked to rate the age and attractiveness of the face in the photograph, as well as the pleasantness of the odour.
It was found that the nice odours directly influenced ratings of facial attractiveness, suggesting smells and visual cues independently influence judgements of attractiveness. Odours were not found to majorly affect the perception of age.
"Odour pleasantness and facial attractiveness integrate into one joint emotional evaluation. This may indicate a common site of neural processing in the brain,” says lead author Janina Seubert, PhD.
Unilever lead scientist and study co-author Jean-Marc Dessirier adds, "These findings have fascinating implications in terms of how pleasant smells may help enhance natural appearance within social settings. The next step will be to see if the findings extend to evaluation of male facial attractiveness."
